Brand new task for GoodGym Haringey and what a lovely task it was. Part art installation, part Haringey babies' no.1 ally, the Pram Depot was amazing.

Do you come here often?

GG Haringey was at its best behaviour as we had Olivia and Gaynor joining us for their first ever run, as well as Emily (of GG Slough fame) running with us for her first GG Haringey visit ever. They were absolute rock stars and we can't wait to see them again - send some love their way, please!

Getting buggy wit it*

A nice short run down the road at a very easy pace this was NOT! Last night was one of the longest runs we've done in a while but our intrepid GoodGymmers threw themselves at it with aplomb and the kilometres just rolled by. Once at the Pram Depot, we were welcomed with plenty of cups of tea and biscuits (Yes!) and a multitude of just-donated prams that needed cleaning. Our GoodGymmers steam cleaned, hoovered, washed, and scrubbed until those prams were left looking as good as new. Alas, we couldn't tackle a mountain of baby clothes that needed sorting but the Pram Depot had run out of boxes, although that just gives an excuse to come back. Yep, that's why we want to come back, not the Jaffa Cakes ;) Back at base camp, both Sarah and myself led two small but much-needed stretching sessions. You could say we were pushed to the limit* but it was an enjoyable evening overall.

Olympics!

Don't forget the GoodGym Olympics are taking place this Saturday at the Parliament Hill Athletics Track from 12:30 onwards. Even if you haven't signedup for any events, there are manyother ways to join in the fun, not least by cheering your fellow GoodGymmers on. Details here.

Next few weeks

I'm signing off for a couple of weeks but that doesn't mean that GoodGym Haringey gets a break.

Our action-packed Taskforce is trying to arrange a community mission with the Friends of PrioryPark early next week as they need help sorting out their sandpit. That's right, you might be able to play in a sandpit. Watch this space.

Also next week we're visiting Lorenco House in Tottenham and our wonderful Sarah will be leading the run. Join her! The week after our also wonderful Dave will be leading the Westbury Bank Nature Reserve run - you can sign up here too. I'll then be back for a visit to the Lordship Rec. JOIN! JOIN! JOIN!

Until I see you all again, don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Peace

So much love for GoodGym Haringey!

Tonight I had the privilege of covering in Tottenham while we’re waiting for new trainer Euclides to take the reigns from next week. I just know he’s going to be great and what a wonderful bunch of people he gets to run with every week! We had an amazing 15 of us out despite the ominous looking weather, these guys are hardened GoodGymers!

Tonight’s run was in partnership with The Great Get Together as are all of this week's GoodGym sessions across the country. It is an initiative founded by the family and friends of Jo Cox who was killed on 16 June 2016 and was created to reject divisive politics and bring our communities together and celebrate all that unites us.

We used our run to celebrate kindness, respect and all we have in common! #moreincommon

We kicked things off with some warm up drills while going round the group and sharing one good thing that’s happened to us in the past week. Lovely to spread some positivity and kindness on what could otherwise be a dreary Wednesday evening!

After that we were set to go! With the rain just about holding off at that point, Dave kindly led the way for us as we meandered our way to help the lovely Layla at Cafe Connect. And boy did she have a job for us!

7 huge bags of green waste needed to be split into smaller more manageable bags to be taken away, in their current state the removal company wanted £600 to cover the cost but it would be free if we could split it up. GoodGym to the rescue!

Bagging a good deed!

The whole group worked tirelessly for over half an hour shovelling, scooping and scrapping all the waste into bite sized portioned sacks ready to be collected later this week. Not even the biblical downpour could deter us and we fought to the bitter end to get as much cleared as possible ahead of this weekends event which is why we were needed so urgently this evening.

A Tottenham Celebration of Windrush Heritage is a community festival of fun, friendship and family happening this weekend and Layla was so grateful to have our last minute help to enable them to have the outdoor space ready in time.

The aforementioned heavy rain put paid to the fitness session in the park we had planned so instead we settled for an indoor chair squats blast and were also treated to some amazingly delicious home grown tomatoes, freshly cut oranges and tasty pistachios. I can tell you now, I’m definitely coming back to Haringey!

With the rain clearing we took off our soggy coats and headed back to the start for a quick stretch and high fives all round!

Haringey, it’s been a pleasure!

12 fantastic runners joined me in Haringey to run over 5km to help out Lorenco House with some serious garden work

I would like to say that I welcomed everyone, ran through the wonderful ways that you can do with GG, talked about the task and went through the health and safety run down and even covered the news…however, with a huge 10 minutes spent at traffic lights on the cycle up to Haringey I arrived at a bout 18:59. Huge thanks to Nurjehan who signed everyone in and did all of the above for me. TaskForce to the rescue! Incidentally, big big GG welcome to Kemmi and Mike who were here for the first time! Hurrah!

Stationery time

Once I did finally arrive we got everyone moving, did a quick intro and Sarah took the party pace group off! The rave pace group (we might need to work on these names) did a few more warm-up exercises and then I let Dave lead the way – how nice I am!

Rave pace arrived just a minute or so before the party pace team and we were all welcomed by Gerald at Lorenco house. He explained that this was an assisted living residence for older people with learning difficulties. After a quick tour (hello £10,000 fish tank!) we were shown the task at hand! We had a massive planter to line and fill with soil, as well as some planting and solar lamp placement.

Blooming L

We split into three teams – the Lining team, the Lifting team and the Lights team! Everyone took to their jobs with aplomb and before we knew it we showed Gerald and his team what GG are all about. Kemmi, it turns out, was an expert leader and carefully guided, Mike, Ella, Nurjehan to a superb job lining the planter. Dave, Latoya, Veronika and Alex wasted no time shifting 50 heavy bags of soil with great speed – impressive! Rhiannon, Sarah, Julie and Freya expertly placed out the lights whilst working with the resident cat and showed some impressive agility jumping a not so small fence!

With five minutes to go and the final tacks in place to line the planter we told Gerald we were going to go all hands on deck to fill the planter full with soil. He had his doubts but GG Haringey are not ones to mess about and with incredulous speed and co-ordinated teamwork the planter was full to the brim! Wonderful work everyone!

Super Haringey

With a group photo done we split into our respective groups, waved our goodbyes and promised to come back for more jobs and before we knew it we were back at the pool, doing our stretched and going home tired but satisfied at another smashing session!

Pennie is back next week – get signed up for her penultimate session as GG Haringey leader!

Thanks as ever for having me and hope to see you all soon!

Cheers
Pritesh