Absolutely beautiful morning for it! Lovely to meet fellow GoodGym runners & make this beautiful part of Norwich along the river wensum litter free for all to enjoy!

Whilst househunting in Norwich this weekend I checked out the local missions list and saw Mr R needed some shopping doing nearby.

I managed to get everything on his list, and it was also a great chance to get to know a new area before moving there.

During the heart of the 2021 lockdown, a team of Goodgymmers created a fitness goal for themselves- they signed up to "Make-It-Happen March", and wrote down a specific objective that they wanted to complete, on a certain day in March. We, as runners, can really benefit from goal orientated training- whether this is to achieve a time, to complete a distance or to try something new- but this can be really challenging when socialising and events are limited.

Here is a run-down of some achievements by our "Make-It-Happen March" crew:

We had a lot of half marathon runners taking on a personal challenge throughout the month of March. Redbridge Area ActivatorJulia completed not one, but two half marathons- her first since 2014! John also successfully completed a half marathon on 21st March. Katie had not run a half marathon distance within or outside of running event conditions, but was able to run a lovely loop across London bridges, following the Thames.

Sally was training for a trail half marathon on the Sussex Downs, but unfortunately was informed that it had been cancelled or rescheduled. She made use of her current training fitness, and ran a half marathon on London streets instead, passing Hampstead Heath, Primrose Hill, Regent’s Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Green Park, St James’s Park, Battersea Park, finishing with a callipo on Clapham Common. Area Activator Simon ran his own half marathon effort over at the Victoria Docks near the Excel Centre, attempting a time trial for the first time in over a year. He also scheduled a morning plogging session in his local park (Finsbury Park, London) before heading to work on 1st March!

Marianne completed a new distance goal early in March, covering 33km in one run for the first time, on a bright sunny Bournemouth day! Ultra runner Matt had a hard session scheduled for his long run training (6-7 hours on feet), so he decided to run the course of the Green Man Ultra in Bristol, a smashing race that was due to be run in March.

He also made a smart choice to dedicate a 100% rest day later in the month:

"Rest day! In some ways rest days are the trickiest days, but they are important to let your body recover, so I thought I would commit to this as part of the challenge and prevent all the challenges just being about going further, faster and higher. So I rested, watched some TV and read a book, and did a little bit of stretching."

"Then the next day I put what I learnt above and had a better adventure style long run which even had a stop for a picnic, with a falafeloummi wrap a former favourite meal after a Saturday GG group run in Bristol."

Louise took on a really cool challenge through the whole month of March- she had a cancelled "vertical mile" race on the calender last year, so she decided to run a vertical mile in elevation instead! This is 1610 m throughout the full month of March- which is a super achievement!

It has been wonderful to hear feedback from all of our participants, and how positively this challenge has been received:

"Thanks for listing this challenge, it spurred me on"

"I had been meaning to get back to it for a long time but setting the date on the calendar really helped hold me accountable and to commit to it!"

Well done everyone! Congratulations for a successful month of achievements!

Patrick, Jo and Eva met on a warm Friday evening to water the plants at Hackney Downs station.

The Energy Garden charity has planted over 20 flower beds around the station to brighten the platforms for London commuters.

The trio kitted themselves out - Eva and Jo took 10l watering cans and Patrick armed himself with a 16l spray hose watering backpack. It didn't take long before we found a problem - it needed Jo to pump it up while Patrick sprayed the plants down. So while Eva watered with the cans, Jo and Patrick travelled in convoy to use the spray pack.

After about half an hour, all the plants were watered and we returned to base to drop the kit off. At which point, we saw the picture on the box again and realised Patrick had been wearing the backpack backwards and it was supposed to be self-pumping! Oh well!

Hackney GoodGymers Ryan and Eva met on a sunny September evening to water plants at Hackney Downs station.

The Energy Garden charity has planted over 20 flower beds around the station to brighten the platforms for London commuters. The beds had a mixture of colourful flowers and edible plants like herbs, tomatoes and sweetcorn.

After about 30 mins of watering, the duo had the station covered, giving the plants a much needed watering down in this warm September weather.