HAPPY MONDAYS All round when a dozen Goodgymers ran 5k, to Kilburn Grange Park for a dose of gardening and an even bigger dose of upper body strength work.

(and yes this is a musical, Happy Mondays band themed run report, in case you get confused LOL)

Despite feeling a little under the weather myself, there were no PILL SPILLS AND BELLY ACHES that could keep me away from my beautiful GG Brent. To kick off the night, I was delighted to see, as well as the familiars, lots of new faces at base camp too! Tanya, Jarshee, Dharmistha and Shanta four lovely ladies ready to push down pavements and give back some goodness to their local community.

Back with our new friends - Kilburn Grange Park, to finish the gardening we started last week, after a warm and fun fuelled housekeeping we set off into the night. With Dan at the helm and me leading from the back, we set off on the first leg of the journey down to the high road, minding not to STEP ON the many cracked pavements and tree roots springing up attempting to hinder our fast pace.

In no time at all we had arrived and BOBS YOUR UNCLE were greeted by the gorgeous AJ with all the tools needed to get cracking straight away YAY

With the last of the SUNSHINE and plenty of LOVE we got to work digging, pulling weeds and raking up the dead leaves to reveal beautiful new soil ready for new planting.

About half way through, there was a HALLELUJA Moment, when AJ brought out 2 trays of deliciously prepared watermelon for the team!!! Amazing!! Stepping away from our Manchester themed music night for one moment of madness it was WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAM When I accompanied the moment with a dose of Club Tropicana on the spotify mix.... (Clairey-Bells request!!)

So joyful our volunteering must have seemed from the outside, that we were suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of local kids questioning and quizzing what we were up to and then.... oh wait - No they were just here for the melon!!!! Of course.

With tummys full and the final countdown upon us we rushed to fill the last of the refuse sacks before said our goodbyes and hot footing it over to the playground for some more fitness fun!! No monkeying around as I guided the team into a series of hanging body holds and pull-ups on the bars and a team challenge of perfect technique press-ups on the grass.

Can we accept the Elle Energy challenge for this week I proclaimed.... 7 press ups every single day until next Monday??? YES WE CAN!!

After the upper-body annihilation, the lower body was back in business, as our legs did the work carrying us back the last 1.5miles back to base camp - The Queensbury. Hills were the last challenge of the night and with hips high and knees driving upwards, the team demo'd perfect skills to battle the last tree roots home and make it back in time for stretches bang on 8.30pm!! WOOP WOOP.

A night of fun fuelled, fruity goodness and fitness fury in the second week of the summer, that's another week rocked in Brent.

Until next time 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

A movie-themed run report by Andrea

Set free from our Office Space(s), eight My Fair Ladies and one Ironman came out for a night of running and gardening here in Brent.

Tonight we were graced by the leadership of Lisa, who’s set to lead the Ealing group come next week! The crew set off, undeterred by the wet weather (it was quite Cool Running). Two miles later we had made it to Kingsgate’s Secret Garden at Kilburn Grange Park.

We were led to the Temple (…aka Toolshed) of Doom featuring the best array of gardening equipment this team has seen to date. Though tempting, we avoided a Chainsaw Massacre by keeping to the equipment we (mostly) knew how to use – the highlight was definitely the giant eyelash -curler-esque weed scoopers.

In a quick break from gardening, we dashed through La Vie en Rose (…aka rose garden) in partner squat and sprint races. Soon it was time for the 2 mile run home, where we again incorporated some Speed work. Running like The Fast and the Furious, we found ourselves back at home-base with five minutes to spare… just enough time for the 100 squat challenge Bring It On. The A-Team pulled together in some of our best form yet to Power Ranger through this final piece of the workout.

Now.....That’s all folks!!!!!

Until next time

Two tasks on this lovely summer evening in Islington.

One group popped up to Whittington Park. Aidan describes:

We arrived at Whittington Park after our longer run down Holloway Road. Our fortnightly task awaited us with Martin ready with bin bags and gloves.

The majority of us tackled the 1 o'clock club's garden as we need to keep up our good work of maintaining a weed and nettle free garden for the kids who use the club.

There was also the task of de-weeding the entrance of the main building, keeping it looking great for everyone!

After working hard for twenty minutes what better way to treat ourselves than with some circuits. Everyone got a chance to pick an exercise for everyone else to do whilst they went on a short lap of the field. Although some of the ladies did get a bit lost along the way! We had all the classics; press ups, sit-ups, planking and two types of squatting for good measure. All before rejoining Holloway Road for our run back.

Aidan

The other group travelled to Barnsbury Community Centre. We've spent a lot of time over the last year helping create a wonderful garden in the disused space behind the centre and we're now just putting the finishing touches to the project for their grand launch on 25th August.

First job was to get gloves out the storage cabinet. Simple, right? Nope. A combination of stupid rain and then stupid heat meant the combination lock for the cabinet had seized up completely. Despite the best efforts of Caroline, Patrick and a pair of pliers it remained stuck. Not to worry: we'd just have to be extra careful.

We spent 25 minutes carrying old pallets and broken bits of wood round to the estate's waste disposal site, having a thoroughly good weed and watering plants. Nice work.

Following the task we played "Dice of Doom" with Simon's new giant foam dice: everybody had a chance to throw the dice and determine the activity that had to be performed for 15 seconds. There were alternate squat thrusts, running high knees, start jumps (LOTS of start jumps), sprints, dreaded burpees (boo) and the elusive jogging on the spot. We then played a game that Caroline made up. Nobody was quite sure what it was.

Back at the pool we had a free stretch, a biscuit and voted on the proper way to eat scones: jam then cream, cream then jam, or Claire's suggestion, butter, jam then cream (which is apparently the traditional Cornish way of doing things)? Jam then cream won by quite a large margin. Some people were disgusted at this - especially Steve - but the people have spoken.

If anybody wants to make scones for next week maybe we could put it to the test.

xxx,
Simon

On a scorching summer evening in Islington thirty-six wonderful runners (including 10 brand-new!) said NO to the temptation of an evening pub session or BBQ and said YES to an evening of firsts, meeting at Highbury Pool to get fit, spruce up local gardens, catch some rays and play games! And then went to the pub

While Simon was away on a well-deserved break Patrick had a chance to lead his first group run.

Mel arrived nice and early and then followed a flurry of new faces coming for their first run, returners and some travellers from down the road, John and Jackie from Camden. Patrick delivered his welcome speech and was delighted to see TEN new runners. There was a special mention (and a reminder to regular runners) about:

• Coach runs
• Missions
• Races: 4 x 1 mile relay and Regent's Park 10k - both on Sunday 7th August and it's possible to do both! There's even a 5k ParkRun on Saturday 6th.

In keeping with Islington tradition there was a debate (favourite childhood party game which would also set the scene for the fitness session) and the first Vietnamese biscuit: peanut, malt and sesame biscuit (bánh đậu phộng) brought home from Vietnam.

We then divided into three roughly equal groups:

• Patrick led a mercifully short 1km run down to Barnsbury Square Gardens,
• Graham and Steve took a group on a slightly longer 2km run starting with a lap of Highbury Fields
• Aidan and Kike took a group for a 1.5km run to the brand-new task down at Wilton Square Gardens

Here's a report from Aidan:

11 Goodgymers arrived at our new task at Wilton Square. Ready and waiting was the lovely Merje with her son Oskar.

All 13 of us got stuck in with some weeding, raking, chopping and brushing of the garden, we had plenty to being doing!

With Oskar helping with the weeding the stone paths were looking pristine quickly. Soon piles and piles of grass and leaves were appearing from the rakers hard work. On the other side of the fence the bushes were taking a beating thanks to some tough work with some secateurs.

Piles of chopped bushes, grass and leaves meant only one thing...lots of clean up work to do, but after that the job was done!

A beautiful garden nestled between the houses and plenty to do, one we'll be back to again! Until next time :)

Here's a report from Barnsbury Square Gardens:

We arrived in two waves at the very tranquil Barnsbury Square Gardens and were warmly greeted by Lucy and Carmela. As usual, our wonderful hosts were super-organised and had plenty of tasks and tools for us and refreshments for those in need of a break.

As we had only run a short distance we had lots of time to get loads done to include Rich and Vanessa tackling the rose beds, Nigel confidently separating the weeds from the flowers and Nicole on broom patrol. The rest of the group swept up and raked leaves (John did ask if the trees thought it was autumn!), loosened soil and did some edging.

After forty minutes we had really cleared up the gardens and bagged up the green waste. We packed up, received thanks from Lucy and headed back to Highbury Fields for our fitness session.

The new game

The groups from two tasks met back at Highbury Fields with great precision and managed to find space in the busy field to play adult Musical Chairs (Cones) for the first time. Does it need an explanation?! Patrick and Kike traced out the running perimeter and scattered the cones in the middle. Then Patrick put his DJ skills to good use and whittled down the group over successive rounds until there were two: traveller, Jackie and newcomer, Nicole.

After a long final round, Patrick stopped the music and Jackie heroically found the final cone and crowned herself champion! Well done Jackie.

After the stretch and cool down there was no clear winner of childhood party game though some mentions were: eating chocolate wearing gloves, scarf and hat; British bulldog; I have never and the cereal box game. Noone said musical chairs!

The last thing to do on a warm evening was to quench our thirst so we went to the pub!

That's me done for now. Simon will be back next week: sign up here