Update: Photos are now ready: Please click this link for the wonderful pictures of the day taken by Tom Hunter and Sarah Rajabalee Photos

Well what a day, on Saturday 3rd August I checked the weather forecast and was relieved to see the chances of rain was limited, however what they failed to say was just over Hampstead heath, there was going to be from 12 o’clock onwards flashes of red thunder would be seen. The local residents should have been warned a sea of red was heading to Hampstead heath armed with cakes, carved vegetables, frying pans and bags full of energy, witnesses said that it was very infectious.

So after lots of emails and badge/medal making the third GoodGym Olympics took place. Over 160 folks from all over the GoodGym community came to London to compete in the annual sports day. Events on offer were classic running events such as the 400m and elimination mile to more novel but just as serious ones such as the egg and spoon and a first time entry the Bucket stilt relay. The day was amazing and brought together some fantastic competition and lovely fun sprint. We saw photo finishes on so many races including a tense 100m to a mass final lap on the 5,000m, the energy and sprite was amazing and just sums up GoodGym.

This years event had a marching band created from a competition I set up to create an Olympic anthem, James and Laura from Lambeth created two entries and Mark, Lambeth leader, joined them together to make an amazing effort and brought together a number of musicians to create a marching band for the day, it was beyond words. Alongside the events we had a loads of lovely baked goods taking part in the bake off and some amazing carved vegetables in the veg competition. I have included a few pictures as they say it better than my typed words. Loads of new things were introduced this year from medals hand made from clay, amazing village games, area badges and temporary tattoos which all look great.

I have organised this for the last three years and every year folks contributions and enthusiasm amazes me and makes it all worth it, although this is a lot of work to put it together there are a number of people whose effort and ensure the days goes on without any hitches, from the first aiders to the commentators, timing team, village games organisers, start of the day setting uppers, marshals, bake off helpers and bakers, loads and loads of people. Also mega shout out to the areas that travel far and wide to come, you made such an effort and it was lovely you made the effort, shout out to Colchester, Bristol, Brighton, Oxford, Portsmouth and York

When I can compile the results I can find I will make them public as with when more photos come available. Anyhow, thank you so much for coming and getting involved it was truly a great day and everyone contributed to it. Next year as we have had three years in London, I am looking for an area outside to host it, stay tunes for announcements coming up in the next few months.

Nice one, Tom

30 super charged Westminster GoodGymers smashed 7k of running to One Big Family Homeless charity to prepare the food for the evenings food run and lift shift and stack a tonne of clothing donations!

Amazing weather and an amazing turnout this evening!! Thanks to everyone coming along, great to meet all the GoodGym newbies.

After the briefing we set about the evenings fun dancing through the Mayfair back streets navigating the big group away from as many busy roads as possible!

3.5k Steady running in the early evening sun through glorious central London taking in many of the biggest landmarks took us to Ebury Estate and the One Big Family Homeless charity.

After a bit of slow start we hit our stride getting a formidable sandwich production line going, an efficient bag packing area, Cake Ninjas slicing and dicing and the grafters lifting and shifting a huge amount of clothing donations to make space for a huge Tesco delivery for the new food bank.

30 minutes of frantic action and we had made up 120 food bags with a good selection of food and drink for Westminsters homeless community to fuel on. All the clothing donations had been shifted from the shed to the youth club, over humps, down lifts and Tetris like precision used in the stacking!!

We left as quick as we arrived but this time is 3 waves! All aiming to be the first back to the top of Green Park. David led the first group setting a great target for the next to groups to attack!! Isaac And the speedy crew chased hard to bridge the gap and all three groups arrived together at the top of Green Park after really pushing their own pace! Top work!!

A short trot back, a stretch out and a huge round of applause finished off a great Wednesday evening!!

I lied (by accident) and said we are going St Andrews Youth club next week that is the week after (28th). Next week we are off to the Oasis community garden to help hydrate and care for this community food garden in a unique setting!! Be great to have you along [sign up here] (

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

18 GoodGymers ran 3k to Rhythams of Life Homeless Charity to sort, order, lift and shift 3 tonnes of donations

Starting with a flurry of DBS checks to get stuck into Missions and Coach runs we set off on our bob and weave run from Oxford Street to Rhythams of Life in Leicester Square.

1.5k of forward running with a couple of cheeky back street weaves and a whole lot of lateral dodging we arrived at the amazing building that houses Rhythams of Life to meet Farris.

After a couple of minutes of heart stopping wait for me we went in to tackle the monster pile of donations that we needed to sort, order, lift and shift.

The task was a monster and almost hard to see how to start but we did and smashed a GoodGym size dent in it!! Sorting everything from toiletries to Suits we had our work cut out and we labelled our way to success using every second of the 50 minutes we spent there!!

The final flurry to move all the ordered and labelled clothing down into the basement so we can dominate the second half of the Clothing Mountain next week!!

A big thank you from Farris, a dose of hand sanitizer and a team picture and we were off on the 1.5k dodgems run back to base!

Arriving back dead on 8pm a quick static stretch out and we were done!!

Be great to see you al again next week!! So please sign up and come along to tackle the clothing mountain!!

Smooth Running

Joel

19 GoodGym superstars ran 7k to One Big Family homeless charity in Victoria.

Great to welcome GoodGym first timers Shane, Tallula, Sylvia, Monica and Joanna as well as some top GoodGym tourists and our amazing Westminster hardcore regulars!!

Dancing, bobbing, weaving our way through the foot traffic on the busiest road in the world we soon found ourselves taking in the stunning postcard like views around Buckingham Palace. Seems like Queeny was a bit busy herself this evening with a whole load of extra security measures and traffic diversions making our job of running a bit more tricky!

Soon we had bounced past Victoria and in no time 3.5k had ticked by and we had arrived on Ebury Estate at the Lodge to meet Mike.

Dividing into 2 teams we had the food preparation specialists and the Outdoor pugilists.

The foodies got to work slicing and dicing forming a tip top production line. Tomatoes, Cheese and chutney all expertly implanted onto the the speedy spreaders rolls and bread. Obviously a night in Victoria would not be complete without normally all around Good guy Graham partaking (well kind of) in some almost criminal behaviour, by stealing food!!

Outside we had a game of oversized Tetris going on, loading the used food crates into the store for next week. Lots of alternative angles and strategies were employed to negotiate a tricky spatial awareness task.

We had some super bulb planting going on being carefully watched over by our dog cheer squad. 150 bulbs imbedded in in no time so we went on the hunt for more to do. Removing tables, clothing, concrete slabs and rubbish we got both gardens in peak condition!

With the Outdoor Pugilists all finished off Isaac lead the crew back towards home knowing the rest of us will be close behind. The Food preparation specialists flipped into overdrive and went spreading crazing! Finishing off 50 sandwiches, 60 rolls and 80 hot cross buns in record time!! With the chase on we said our goodbyes and began the run back hunting down the rest of the crew.

With a little creative road crossing and some perfect pacing we caught everyone up at Victoria station. Now with the license to feed the legs some speed the group stretched out with everyone working hard all the way up to Buckingham Palace. We had a team talk at the bottom of Green Park and decided to dominate the 800 metre drag through the park! We had a range of methods with some maintaining a consistent pace all the way while other alternated hard effort and easy running between lampposts and a few brace souls progressively turned up the pace all the way to the top!! Top endurance and effort on show top running!!

All that was left to round off a top 7k evening was a gentle run and a nice stretch out with a big and bright round of applause!!

Great to see you all!! Hope to see you all again next week when we go to Rhythams of Life to help with a building move sign up here.

If you fancy a bit more fitness fun tomorrow I am taking a Fitness 4 All session starting at 6:15 from Somerset House sign up here if you are not free tomorrow sessions will be there for the rest of the month.

Best of luck to everyone running and racing this weekend!!

Run Smooth

Joel