24 wonderful runners ran 5K to revitalise the railings at the Ballast Quay Garden!

It was a beautiful evening over in Greenwich (although still a bit cold for my liking). We welcomed the lovely Nina to the gang and saw a comeback from the speedy Simon who ran with us last summer! Good to have you back Si! Finally we saw the return of everyone's favourite threesome (or trio should I say), Steve who has just finished his exams, Christian who has finally recovered from that nasty cleaning injury and Alex who managed to roll out of work on time despite being in an ice cream coma. And Laura was back for more after her first run last week. GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK GUYS :)

The favourite part of your day!

Favourite thing this week required a little more thought than normal but it was nice to hear snippets of everyone's day!! We had people playing with new cafetieres, eating pecan slices, drinking champagne at work, walking in the park, sleeping in the park (although not whilst walking Linda), leaving work on time, eating Lindt bunnies and copious amounts of ice cream. LOVELY!

Cone flipz!

We did a little warm up in the form of the cone flip game. We split into two teams - one team flipped the cones the right way up and the other half flipped them the wrong way up then we counted to see how many of each there were at the end! This one really gets your heart going as you're constantly going up and down and running around! Mike and Katie were on opposite teams but Mike was hot on her tails flipping over everything she did, undoing all her hard work! No boyfriend points for you Mike! After a few minutes we were good to go.

Since the garden was only a few minutes away, we decided to run the time trial loop that we would be doing in the fitness session so everyone knew roughly where they would be going! Ben P led the way in his little GG race vest (you can join the GG race team here!) and 1km later we were back where we started. A little group photo (the first of many of the evening, sorry it was just too nice not to) and then we set off for Ballast Quay to meet the amazing and super lovely Diane!

We came here last summer to shift some bricks on the shore and this time it was some railings that needed a bit of love. We split into two groups so Ben C took group 1 away for a little jog along the river whilst the others got sanding! Fence dust was flying everywhere and people's faces began to look like the chimney sweepers in Mary Poppins so at least we knew the sandpaper was working! A few wipes with the white spirit and it was ready for the paint!

By this point, group one returned and we switched over. Alex took the other group for a little run whilst the others got stuck in with the painting! Steve was using all of his manipulative skills to try and coax a swap with Clare for her larger brush. "This small brush is really good, you can get all the corners" but Clare was having none of it. George and Christian got more paint on each other than they did the fence but their input was still appreciated. 15 minutes later and the fence was looking BEAUTIFUL. Plus the sunset in the background made it even better. Another group photo and we said our goodbyes to Diane. Hopefully we will be back in the next few weeks to do the other side! STAND BY!

GoodGym Greenwich TT Strava Segment!

We ran back for the fitness session which was a fast version of the run we did earlier that evening. So the idea is we will do it once a month to see how everyone is improving! I think people were a little nervous but I hope everyone understood it was not a race against each other but more a race against your future self :) So stopwatch at the ready, Ben P gave a brief briefing (a short briefing not a briefing about briefs) just to clarify the route and BOOM, away they went!!!!!! Just a few short minutes later and the leaders were coming into the finishing straight. Some really speedy running from EVERYONE! I was blown away, especially with all the corners you had to go around! I hope you all remembered your times. Write it down so you don't forget for next time. We have the official Strava segment leaderboard here which Simon and Amy are currently top of! Congrats! Also massive well done to Linda who pushed super hard and got an amazing time! So chuffed for you!

A little stretch and some Percy piglets and we were done :)

Finally here are a few handy links: Here is a link to the Victoria Park 10K that a few of us were talking about last night if anyone fancies it! It should be relatively flat and fast! Here is a link to our GG Greenwich Facebook group, please join and get involved! Here is a link to the big monthly social which is tonight!

Massive well done last night everyone! Thanks for putting all your effort into the task and the TT. It was awesome and hope you had a great time! Oh and huge good luck to Ben and Brin running Brighton marathon this weekend!

Run report by Ben Cooper!

22 green-fingered runners ran 4km to bring back some nature at St Joseph's Primary School!

Tonight’s task saw us make a return to St Joseph’s Primary School – Neil’s place of work. Give Neil a cheer for setting it up.

Matt and Deb were making their debuts, and thankfully the rain held off for them as well. And Imogen also made a comeback.

The group was further enhanced with the presence of new trainer Ben A, from soon-to-be GoodGym Cardiff. Ben had been to Wandsworth, on Monday, and Barnet, on Tuesday, before finally landing the royal gig – Greenwich. You know you’ve made it, when the starting point is in a World Heritage Site!

Proceedings started on fishy note, and no I am not referring to the smell of Ben P’s hairspray. Sarah, GoodGym Greenwich Trainer, asked the group what their favourite sea animal was. It seemed to stump our resident medical student, Amy. Obviously, she is more at land with working with humans (we hope).

Before Sarah closed the intro, Ben P stepped forward and said he had something to say. Sarah admitted an audible gasp - ‘What was this usurper doing!?’

HAPPY 50th GOOD DEED!

Alas, it was our esteemed trainer’s 50th good deed, and unknown to Sarah, a small clandestine group had been planning some festivities as we couldn’t let the occasion pass without acknowledging it aka ritually embarrassing her.

When I say, clandestine group don’t think ‘meeting under the cover of darkness, in the Old Royal Naval College Undercroft, wearing red robes and chanting’ but rather Alex setting up a separate messenger group.

Unfortunately, most shops have not yet seen the potential growth market of stocking 50th good deeds products, so we plastered Sarah with a 50th badge and helium balloon. Hope we haven’t given you a complex about how old you look. ;-)

The temperature was dropping so Ben A took us a few warm-up dialling up the exertion knob from 1-5. Ben A’s use of the word shimmy also piqued people’s interest with style points going to Brin for his interpretation of a shimmy. Watching him reminded me of the famous French-American fencer Maitre Michel Alaux.

Setting off we resembled some sort of weird hen/stag/birthday/running group mash-up with Sarah in her full regalia. A short run along the river; we do like to show off our * cough * royal borough when other GoodGym tourists come to visit, and we were there.

Headteacher Mouquet informed the group that 1 in 5 school children don’t have a house garden. Hence, the importance of connecting children back to nature. Putting the green back into Greenwich as we always like to do, we got straight to it.

Gareth had kindly brought some spare pair of gloves, although Charlotte and Mridula looked dubiously at them - Black and latex. More fitting for handling corpses than carnations.

Isabella, Linda and Marta picked up the paintbrushes and started painting the fence green. Marta did some touching up of a few plants as well for good measure.

Working on their hands and knees (Sarah is a hard task master), the rest of the group split up into lines do some planting – lavender, carnations and pansies. Alex was assigned the chief compost bag ‘shakey’ ‘shakey’ distributor.

Overhearing a few conversations did expose a perhaps worrying lack of gardening knowledge in the group. For example, ‘we need something to dig a hole’. The top answer you were looking for was a spade, and another conversation debating the difference between a trowel and a trident. From my little knowledge of Greek mythology, I am sure Poseidon, God of the Sea is not pictured with a trowel.

No sooner from fence we had came we were compotted. Great work everyone! It’d be great to see the look on all those children faces when they come into school and see plants painted green. Ha ha.

Then we offshooted back for our fitness session. But not before the obligatory group photo. Ben A even cajoled Sarah to get in the photo. No hiding this week boss.

Ben A led the fitness session. We did some speed interval training around the quadrant (we have quadrants in Greenwich) running at 50% halfway, and then cranking it up to 100%.

Everyone pushed hard and there was still time to play a game like British Bulldog but more in keeping with the fish theme, called Fishy Fishy.

Ben A: "Fishy, fishy swimming in the sea" All: "Sharky, sharky you can't catch me"

Ben A was a shark swimming around trying to catch the fishes. There was also a curious seaweed dance that Ben A briefly showed us. Expect and hope that comes out at future GoodGym Cardiff socials!

With sharks circling, some fishes were swimming too fast and Jo got caught in some cross streams. Jo hope your knee is ok.

Appetites found and how – thanks Ben A, we embarked to the Cutty Sark pub for our monthly social. Alex had secured the Crow’s Nest room, at the top of the Cutty Sark, with great views looking out on the river. Pure Bliss. And Sarah got up the stairs spritely for someone of her rapidly increasing years.

And with most people picking the fish n chips option, the fish theme just wouldn’t go away. The injured Christian also joined the group for the meal bringing some much missing decorum to the evening.

Ignoring Sarah’s 50th get-up, perhaps the oddest sight of the evening was seeing Brin drink out of something other than his now legendary water bottle. However, the change in receptacle clearly seem to knock him off course as he couldn’t seem to find his words at points.

Festivities included Ben C delivering a short quiz titled ‘Know your Place’, testing Sarah’s GoodGym knowledge. Evidently, Sarah does write all her own puns as she demonstrated nearly perfect recall when called on to complete the pun phrases.

Ben P, who had been covertly collecting signatures for Sarah’s card throughout the whole session, presented Sarah with her card which had some great group photos from previous tasks splashed on the front.

And Vickie, designer and socks/trainers combo trendsetter had made Sarah a little artwork.

Following the food, the kind staff, at the Cutty Sark brought, out a cake as made by Mridula. This cake had criss-crossed it way across London from home to work and to its final resting place, the pub’s fridge. Co-worker Helen confessed she had opened the fridge, at their workplace, to admire said cake but she wouldn’t be drawn if she had licked the icing or not.

Whoever, buys the movie rights to Mridula’s anecdote about getting the cake to the pub has got a sure-fire blockbuster on their hands. (PG12 owing to lots of mild peril scenes and rude innuendo about buns.)

Thanks for visiting Ben A! Car-you-diff Ben A some love here. On tonight’s evidence, GoodGym Cardiff is going to go swimmingly!

Mridula have a nice holiday. You can find a link to the cake recipe here.

Lastly, like the Murder on the Orient Express, a lot of people had been complicit in arranging Sarah’s 50th celebrations in the full knowledge that Sarah might beast us extra hard the next week, but we wanted to do something to show our appreciation for all our trainer does.

Next up for the big five-o is our Social Sec, Alex. Don’t worry Alex, we’ve already got your red mankini on order! It will hang nicely next to your blue and purple ones!