Early Sunday morning and it was another big turn up from both the children but also the volunteers. Kash, Gabriela and Steph Ducat arrived after a small fitness session in the park to join both Sevan and Jacquie. As there was a lot of volunteers some roles were doubled up so we had double marshalling to keep the children out of trouble around the course. Gabriela and Kash were at marshal point 8 and were giving high 5's. Steph Ducat was also doubling up as tail walker : yes 2 tails walkers today! Sevan had the task of giving out the tokens, but realised that token number 67 was not in the batch. Will token 67 make it's way back to the next park run?In the meantime it was high security and no messing around at the funnel with Jacquie and 3 other volunteers. Another successful junior park run with 105 children getting over the finish line.

On a Sunday morning, when many people would rather choose a lie-in, Gaby, Simon and Steph showed up in front of The Berry Cafe in Pitshanger Park to join Kash for a whole body fitness session. The workout lasted only 15 minutes, but filled the GoodGymers with energy better than a coffee ahead of the junior parkrun volunteering session - and that's exactly what marshals cheering kids on their runs need!

Seven exercises, including high knees, press-ups, jump squats (or just squats), tricep dips, back lunges, plank shoulder taps and plank leg raises hit different muscle groups and made hearts beat a bit faster. The best part? Every exercise had a basic and a more challenging version, so everyone could choose a progression that worked for their experience and current fitness level!

When the workout finished, the GoodGymers were rewarded with a ray of sunshine on their faces - probably the only one that got through the clouds this weekend! If you missed the sun and the workout, nothing is lost. There will be more fitness sessions ahead of tasks coming soon in November!

It's been a whole four months since Ealing Repair Cafe teamed up with GoodGym Ealing in June. After the summer break, Mary and Lone had a busy September, running events during Ealing Green Week. They were proud to share that they had been giving out the famous T-shirt drawstring bags with mini sewing kits attached, encouraging people to mend their clothes. Now, it was time to head to the hall of St Mary's Church in Acton to make new drawstring bags!

Tonight's session in numbers:

1st session for our newest addition to the team, Yulia, who was the bravest one and volunteered to tame the beast, the electric sewing machine, to sew new drawstring bags.
2 GoodGymers - Gaby and Maria - worked on a banner for ReActon, a new reuse and repair site in Acton, arranging letters made of ties on a massive piece of fabric, and then hand-sewing them to it.
3 other GoodGymers - Harvey, Steph and Kash - worked on a production line, cutting the fabric for bags, and threading yarn through them, basically everything to give everyone else their chance to sew.
5 runners coming from Ealing Broadway to Acton: Harvey, Maria, Sevan, Steph and Kash.
5 running t-shirts donated by Steph towards the drawstring bag effort - will his race t-shirt supply ever end? We don't think so!
10th collab session by Ealing Repair Cafe and GoodGym Ealing, marked by consumption of cakes and doughnuts brought by Mary and Lone.
17 letters traced and cut out by Sevan to create a banner advertising "Free school uniforms" - all made from... donated school uniforms beyond repair.
23 colourful drawstring bags, including one with Cher pattern, were the result of today's efforts, most likely going to be donated to the Northfields Community Library.

And, finally, a whole...
750 good deeds by Steph! Time flew by - we saw it coming, but Steph doesn't cease to surprise us with how much GoodGymming he's doing each month. Congratulations Steph!

Next week, we are running to St Mary's Church - this time in South Ealing - for an Autumn garden tidy-up. There will be a walking session from Ealing Broadway too - so sign up now!

As Storm Amy approached Ealing, a whirlwind of West London GoodGymers landed at Horsenden Farm. A strong team of seventeen hasn't been seen in Ealing for a long time. It took the joint forces of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond to build a do-good brigade so large that it surprised even the task owner, Elsa, who scrambled to find more tasks for them.

We welcomed two new joiners, Bernadette and Tom, who chose to kick off their GoodGym adventure dangerously close to the Gruffalo Trail at Horsenden Hill. With such an impressive team, the chances of being eaten by a Gruffalo were close to zero. At the same time, the odds of having fun with good company while getting active in nature before eating carb-heavy, cheesy goodness from a local bakery were very high!

Our regulars from the Hounslow group runs had a chance to welcome back the unstoppable Lucy after the break she had to take in the last couple of weeks. Great to see you again, Lucy!

Two of the tasks given by Elsa had a lot to do with the mysterious disappearance of Horsenden pigs. The first assignment, taken by Steph Ducat, Iram, Kymm and Gus, was to transfer hay from the broken-down hay bales to the former pig quarters and spread it on the ground. I chose to believe it was to secure the traces of a pignapping crime until the arrival of the forensics team. Steph described the effort as hay-way to hell as the gusts of wind kept blowing the hay out of the wheelbarrows. Kymm reported there were as many techniques to spread the hay as GoodGymers: from gleeful tossing, through grumpy kicking to methodical arranging.

Sevan and Bernadette had a task of clearing weeds, mostly nettles, near the Horsenden Loaf pizza oven. Sevan shared that they were setting the stage for the hog roast the following day. That shed some light on the disappearance of the pigs - they must have escaped when they heard about the whole hog roast enterprise!

The largest squad undertook a mammoth job of clearing brambles to expand a meadow where the farm cows could graze to help establish a grassland with plenty of wildlife on the slope of Horsenden Hill. Gaby, Ariane, Tom, Mairaj, Maxime, Afshin, Thaiza, Lucy and Kash were chopping, lopping or slashing the blackberry invaders while Anita and Ash raked away the cuttings.

The cherry on a cake was that all the activity was observed through the lens of photographer Laura, who did a great job of not interrupting our tasks while capturing the spirit of GoodGym and the beauty of Horsenden Hill. We are hoping our part-time modelling gig today will help spread the word about GoodGym in the coming months. It will probably also disclose our soft spot for Horsenden pizza!

Inspired by today's task? Join the Horsenden session next month! Sign up now!