12 tenacious & triumphant runners ran 5km to help make Sheaf Valley shine in preparations for Amphifest 2017 this weekend.

Photobombed!

After a brief brief and a group photo with an extra honorary member in the background we took stock of numbers and had DASHING DAVE as our back marker for the night before heading off into the drizzle to meet LOVELY LINDA at the sparkling STEEL CITY STEPS who greeted us with grabbers and bags and told us all about Amphifest this coming weekend.

We split into two teams and for 45mins picked every bit of litter we could find totaling 12 bags! Great job everyone!

After dumping our bags we used the surrounding area of the park for some great fitness including:

• Box Jumps up the Amphitheater

• Stair Sprints up the Steel City Steps

• Hill reps up the parks pathways

Everyone did a great job on the exercises putting in some great hard efforts which will pay dividends!

We took an alternative route back crossing GRAFFITI BRIDGE and finished with some stretching in front of our home of the SHOWROOM CINEMA

Extending our vocabulary...

Sticking around for a drink we extended our vocabulary, learning the definition of SNURGLING and reminiscing of the wonderful times of when THE ROCK was cooking and wanting all to smell his culinary delights.

Thanks so much to all who came out on the drizzly eve to help the local community prepare for this weekends festival!

Happy Running!

Tom :)

Bank holiday Monday, was no rest for the badass, when seven Royal subjects; Tasked and in glory basked, at Queen's Park! POW POW

On the last day of the Eater bank hols, this stupendous crew of seven Brent Beauties, hit-up Willesden with passion and purpose! Tasking for some awesome community groups in the area and leaflet dropping for all of the above including our lovely selves. The golden ticket event being to make a member of the community smile whilst conversing with them and passing the paper!! I of course opted for sharing a moment with a furry kind of passer by in the form of the cutest Pomeranian Pup known to doggy-kind, who paid me all the gorgeous attention i wanted back with yelps and cries of gleeYAY

So, after the 1.5mile dash to our evening's destination - Queen Park, my regal roamers got to grips with the fitness focus of the night - The 1 Mile challenge...!!!!! And with their Easter Egg hangovers to shake off, my speedsters got in line at the starting blocks and......... 3,2,1 THEIR OFF!!

No I'm not even Egg-aggerating * when I say my crew smashed out some *Egg-cellent work (sorry I had to do at least some egg related puns!!) They all absolutely annihilated their PBs and I mean all of them by at least one full minute!!!!!!! Amazing!!!! However, special shouts have to go out to the first three back - Debs with an absolutely epic time of 6minutes and 20seconds!!!! Closely followed by Sam coming in at 6minutes 35seconds!!! And the second half of Sister Sledge; Tabitha, not only rolling in at 6minutes 40, but taking a clean 2mins of her PB from last time!!!!! Absolutely astonishing!!!!!

So with Personal Bests torn apart and energy running high, the team opted for more fitness fun, in the form of a short bodyweight and plyometrics circuit in the park followed by some bandstand planking in support of the amazing Sadhana, who is 40 days into her plank-a-day challenge. And can I just say WOWWWW Sadhana schooled us all with her core strength and ability, which just proves, consistency everyday, gets results!!!

With perfect 1 minute held planks achieved, we had just enough time for some playtime antics of cartwheels on the grass, handstands and photo-ops, because lets face it, GG Brent never miss a chance to get shutterbug happy when the sun and blossoms are out :)

After playtime in the park, there was just enough fuel in our tanks, to chase pavements all the way back to base for our cool down jaunt of 1.5miles. With chatting and laughter in the air (as always) this fitness familia arrived back at base rosy cheeked and full of pride as the achievements of the eve had finally sunk in!!! WOW I mean, this team may be little but we be fierce and tonight we proved that with gusto!!!

Always a pleasure with people that I treasure. Badass and bold, GG Brent - what a team to behold!

See you next time!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Could you hear us last night? Around 7pm, a big cheer from south-west London? Thought so. That was the moment we realised we had set a Wandsworth record! With no less than 41 wonderful runners, it was our biggest run yet. GO GOODGYM. You are all running legends, every single one of you.

There has been some seriously good running recently, a lot of saintly do-gooding, and a bucket-load of lovely news. So here goes.

• A huge well done to you amazing Larmer Tree runners who smashed a tough old trail course. Check out the race team page to find out when the next race is happening. https://www.goodgym.org/race-team • As an extra Monday night bonus we welcomed the lovey new Cardiff trainer Ben to the group last night. GG Cardiff will be kicking off in May, and with ultra-runner and trainer extraordinaire Ben running the show it’s sure to be a huge success. If you fancy a bit of GG tourism, I hear Cardiff has no less than 1518 hours of sunshine during an average year. So there you go. • The marvellous Luke, David and Ben all sped round the Reading half marathon course which was a tough and hilly old job. Well done to those speedsters – give them a cheer, why don’t you? • We had a fantastic lot of lovely new runners to join the group this week. One of the best parts of the weekly run is getting to welcome new faces, we love it! So please all raise your glasses for Sara, Julia, Mat, Ed, Lauren, Ella, Alyx and Holly. Wandsworth, throw a cheer their way, they’ve earned it! And while you’re at it, say a big GG hello to Shanice, Alice and Kike from Lambeth and Islington, who were visiting us for the day! Lovely to have you. • Finally, our HEROES. Whoop whoop, Luke, you ran the furthest. Hurrah David, you are topping the good deed tables and getting the most cheers! Toot toot, Matthew, you are making everyone feel good by giving the most cheers! If YOU want to see where you rank on the heroes board, have a shufti here: https://www.goodgym.org/heroes?area=wandsworth

Phew. With all this do-gooding, fast-running, cheer-giving, high-fiving fun out the way, we were off on our run. With a last minute cancellation (boooo) we had a quick swerve, and headed not for church deep cleaning, but for compost bed filling instead at our lovely local primary school. Luckily (said Ella and Sam) it was still a short run, so off we trotted down the hill, a blaze of red tshirts and happiness.

We were met by Barry, the most cheerful and characterful caretaker you could hope to meet, and set about forming a bucket chain to fill up the empty raised beds. bucket chain bucket chain bucket chain came the chant, which I’m sure the neighbours really loved.

With the beds filled and the buckets chained, we sprinted round the corner for a fun fitness session, kicking off with ‘fish and chips’. It’s fair, I think, to say this worked with varying levels of success but there were still a few burpees being knocked out across the field. We then made a huge circle, with individual runners deciding on what exercise the group had to do while they sprinted to a nearby tree and back. Then came British Bulldog. Always contentious, always competitive, always a huge amount of fun. And this week there was, despite a big effort and a minimal low-level violence, one clear and outright winner. Step forward Dan, and receive your crown. Nice running! Finally we finished off with a squat-off, to see the mighty Jack outlast us all.

Session done, we set off in two groups back to the BAC for some stretches, but not without a good old hill sprint to end the night. And everybody knows that Wandsworth hearts hill sprints. Thinking about technique – positive backwards arm drive, high chest, straight back, light toes and relaxed shoulders – everybody bossed that hill. Way to go.

While we were stretching it out, there was only time left for the CoRUNdrum, courtesy of the lovely Vicki, who we missed this week. St Paul’s was the tallest structure in London until 1962 when which building broke its record? Give Matt a cheer, for the clever lad knew it was the BT Tower in record time!

Brilliant running everyone. Next week we’re off to Balham to form a human chain to clear junk out of a community hall basement. Last time we found a 6ft crucifix and Jen’s new friend Manfred the mannequin. Sign up here to find out what treasures we unearth next….

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/run-to-clear-junk-37fd428c-f5bc-4f3c-a7dd-daf6598de797

Learning from the best I stepped into the role of 'I wannabe a (Ana) model trainer' in wonderful welcoming Wandsworth tonight . After a personal debut welcome chat from me to 26 GG Wandsworth participants that included newcomers Christian ,Nikki, Daniel, Gemma and Caroline ( BIG cheer for all please !) we headed off on a shortish run to Christchurch Primary School where we were met by Head teacher Colette and 'shine the light ' Barry who tasked us with filling 8 beautifully handcrafted oak raised beds with a carefully measured layer of gravel , top soil and compost ready for the children to plant, grow ,pick, sell produce . 30 minutes of solid soil shifting together with grinding gravel and compost carrying to, and in, a variety of vestibules resulted in an astounding feat (peat)of just how much 26 people can achieve in a minimum amount of time with maximum amount of effort. Please do give a huge cheer to Vicki who celebrated her 100th and last task with GG today before she moves to Australia to work. I'm sure all of GG UK will give another massive cheer to Vicki for all the hours and effort she has been as a shining example of a GG member ( Ana - how can I possibly follow that cake ?!! ) As we waved Goodbye to our task/ friendly task masters, we ran to Battersea park (with a dead end included - Whoops sorry guys ) for our fitness session which was ' welcomed' and 'enjoyed ' by all! Finally we ran, in a mingling mashed up fashion back, with a final push up the hill to Battersea Arts Centre followed by stretches and a drink in the bar and Vicki cutting her cake ! Thank you for having me GG Wandsworth! I had a great time . See you soon in Worthing or Wandsworth I hope ! Julia xx