7 Steptastic GoodGymers ran 7k to deliver 350 leaflets for the charity Open Age.

We had absolutely the most conducive conditions to sweat!! And with a chunky 7k of running then a combined 100 flights of stairs that is exactly what we did!!

Nimbly tip toeing round the Oxford Street Foot traffic we made our way West towards Paddington via the festivalised Hyde Park.

With sweat beads rolling the Run was certainly tougher than normal, who knew we could get a serious Warm weather training camp in England!

Reaching our destination fully loaded with 350 leaflets for Open Age who are a charity that combat isolation and inactivity in Westminsters senior citizens. They do this by putting on a wide range of exercise and craft classes. Our help is massive as we get to residents who would not easily access digital marketing and don’t have readily available funds to pay for private activities.

Splitting up into pairs we scaled the heights of 9 tower blocks in 35 efficient minutes! Many stairs and a variety of delivery strategies were on show!

With all leaflets delivered we got back on the road with a powerful but conversational 20 minute run back to base!

Thank you all for coming along! Look forward to seeing you next week!

Smooth Running

Joel

Brand new task this evening at Freightliners Farm!

We welcomed first timers Ben, Pippa and Christina, read the news and then did a backwards head count. Steve's idea. What's more amazing than Steve having a good idea is it actually worked, counting all the way down from 37 to 1.

With all that stuff done we scurried off to the farm as one gigantic group on possibly our shortest run to a task ever.

The enthusiastic Liz of Freightliners met us there and since there were a whopping 37 of us divided us into various smaller groups.

We set about various jobs for 20 minutes or so. One group shovelled ____ *, another did some weeding and sweeping, others carried and shifted packs and stacks of hay and a small group painted a wall. As usual we got loads done in a short amount of time. As we put the call out for people to start wrapping up there were come confused looks and questions. "Isn't it a bit early?" Yes, it was early, but that's cos the best bit was about to begin: putting the animals away :-D

There were sheep, goats and a couple of cows to move from fields to pens. The problem with animals is they can be a bit cheeky and try to go where they're not supposed to. For this reason you need a HUMAN WALL! Most of us blocked off various gates, exits and openings while a few other fearless folk got hands on and helped direct the animals from A to B. Tip o' the GoodGym bravery cap to Rebecca who doesn't let goats get the better of her.

The cows were very well behaved. The goats were cheeky little buggers, running this way and that, trying to chew on the cherry tree and climbing up things. The sheep were a bit confused at first, but when Caroline started bleating they all followed like sheep.

Animals all put away, hands washed and group photo taken, we zoomed off to Emirates Stadium for the first "monthly" time trial for 5 months. There were so many of us we did it in two waves. Fastest lady over the line was first timer Pippa in a joint women's record of 2:40. Can she beat it next month? Fastest geezer was Hugh with 2:15.

Nice work everybody. We'll be back next month, or maybe in five.

Just enough time for a animal-shaped biscuit before jogging (apart from that hard run up the hill) back to the pool.

Something must have been in the air because on our cool down back down the other side of the hill Steve and Meredith started racing each other, then John and Jackie joined in, then loads more. Maybe this sprint down the hill should be a thing. It seems more fun than running up them.

So, the debate. Last week we all voted and decided on this week's debate. The big question: should headphones be allowed in races? Answers:

• It's dangerous and distracts
• I always train with music and it'd make races boring if I couldn't
• During a race you don't want to be distracted by music. Better to focus on the race

We put it to the vote and it looked like "no headphones" won, but then we shouted louder and loads of people that were distracted for some reason joined in with the vote and the winner was a yes for headphones.

We have three tasks next week. See you there,
Simon

• Sorry, had to censor this out, cos you're not allowed to say "shit" in a run report.