I often wonder if we ever take stock of the amount of good we have actually done.

Due to some Last minute rescheduling 11 wonderful awesome amazing individuals took to the streets for a GoodGym tour of Hackney.

It's not every week we get an opportunity to check in on how projects are doing nor is it every week we get an opportunity to run a 9k loop letting our legs loose on the roads.

We had 4 newbies on this muggy wet evening, all of which were amazed at what had been done.

Visits to sites where trees had been planted, planters had been built, fences had been painted, manure shifted, sheds built, benches constructed, weeds dragged out, flowers watered, grass cut, estates reclaimed and more importantly communities reunited.

When you come for a run with GoodGym just remember that it's more than just a run, you're making the world a better place for those that reside in it.

Join us next week for more awesomeness.

A few first timers this evening. Welcome to Alan and Anna. Alan's a keen distance runner and has "persuaded" Anna to train for a half marathon. Let's hope GoodGym can help them get a few miles in the legs. We also welcomed Helen and Caitlin who did a great job on their first outing. And lovely to see Hackney-ite Flynn doing a bit of tourism.

There were two tasks tonight. Not only did we have to deliver a ton of promotional material for Caxton House's Hillrise Summer Festival, we also had to go and tidy up an adventure playground

Since the Caxton House job involved quite a bit of distance, hardcore runners Patrick, Aidan, Ryan and Caitlin were recruited for the 7k round trip. Rucksacks on, they stormed off into the sunset and set about dodging dogs, climbing steep steps and practising their delivery action.

The rest of us headed over to Lumpy Hill, one of 12 adventure playgrounds in Islington providing a wonderful service for kids in the area. We also delivered a few spare leaflets to houses a bit further south en route.

There was a mild panic when we arrived at the adventure playground and it seemed to be locked up. We shouted, rang the bell and rattled the gates all to no response, until Steve did a bit of surveying and discovered there were two playgrounds on the same stretch of road.

Once on the proper site, we were shown in by Kerry and Jenna. There were quite a few jobs to do: Alan and Anna set about some "brooming" (that's Irish for "sweeping") to remove any nasty stones from the front of the garden while others donned gloves and spread out around the garden to rid it of nasty stinging nettles (ask Flynn about how stingy they were) and litter. Most of us made friends with ants. Some of us were still feeling ants later on in the evening. Some of you can probably feel ants crawling up your legs now? Can you? Are you itchy? Do you need to scratch? What about yawning? Anybody feel like a nice big yawn? YAAWWWNN! Sarah pointed out it wasn't just ants we had to worry about - we also had a few antipodeans in our midst (they also crawl up your legs sometimes). Ozzie vs. Kiwi debate coming up in a few weeks, we reckon.

With a nice big area swept clear we spread out a large sheet of tarpaulin and a group of us placed a gigantic inflatable pool on top. It was swiftly filled with air (via pump, Steve was relieved he didn't have to blow) and we started filling it with water while giving it the odd yank to remove creases. It was quite a large pool so it should be full in about seven weeks.

With the site looking much clearer it was time to head off and do some relays on the fields. But wait a minute, why would you go and do relays when you've got an adventure playground to mess about in? OK, sod the relays. We swang and climbed and slid down slides, threw frisbees and kicked footballs, and some of us screamed.

We finished the evening with a tennis ball game. We paired up: one member was responsible for dropping the ball and the other for running and catching it before it bounced twice. A great way of improving reaction time and speed and a great workout.

Biscuits were HOMEMADE this week. And were supplied by Anna. So tasty! Who's making next week's?

The debate for the evening was supplied by Bridget: "Should people boycott air shows?" (there's been suggestions that they should because they're dangerous). For the first time in Islington Debate history we all agreed and said that no, people should not boycott them.

Big round of applause to Patrick for 17 good deeds last month

Well done Sarah for 50th good deed. Looks like Ros's 50th is imminent.

And remember drinks on Thursday

Planter painting next week

Simon

21 runners ran 5km focus on hip position to shift a tonne of Compost for Dalston Curve garden.

This session focused on hips. Good hips means good running.
We had to shift a mound of earth for Dalston Curve Garden. Home of Becky Greenwood's Pizza oven.

We jogged over to Dalston at a nice steady pace lead by Mark. Mark has great hips, and a nice light running style.

When we arrived they were not quite ready for us so we strengethed our cores and hips on the sand, in front of a band who played us some delightful music.

purple tunnel of "buddleja"

By this point we had a lovely load of spades and shovels ready for us to start shifting the mound of earth hidden behind the purple tunnel of buddleja.

Those not digging did more work on their hips, strengething with some flutter kicks, planks and mountain climbers on the sand.

"Space for a van"

By the time the reps were over the mound of earth was moved leaving ample space for a van.

"hip partners"

We headed to Hackney Downs for some more hip interrogation . We got ourselves some hip partners who kept their eyes on our hips to give us some feedback.

HIP INFO

If you're interested in little bit more hip stuff, here's a short video of Americans talking about good hip position, and here's a longer article about why it's important.

MISSION REPORT

While the rest of GoodGym Hackney headed to the Curve Garden, Ros and I did our best Charlie Dimmock / Alan Titchmarsh impersonations at a Groundforce-style mission in Stokey.

"rolls of astroturf"

We ran 4km to visit the friendly Rachel, who was ready to meet us in the front garden with rolls of astroturf and a selection of paving slabs. It soon became apparent Ros had been a Landscape Architect in a previous life, as she talked Rachel through her “vision for the space”.

"climbing into the brown bin"

We set to work clearing the space of garden waste, with Ros climbing into the brown bin to maximise capacity. With light rain falling, we laid the astroturf, pinning it in place with carefully arranged slabs.

"a very generous round of applause"

We all agreed the finished article was a lovely sight – and if Groundforce were rebooted, Ros would be top pick. We said our goodbyes and made a speedy run back to meet the others for a very generous round of applause and some much needed stretching.

GoodGym Tower Hamlets convened at the plush Town Hall Hotel (that we’ve now become quite acquainted with) on a balmy midsummer Monday.

Eighteen runners squeezed into the suite, with a healthy mixture of red shirts, black shirts, and some multi-coloured newcomers welcomed into the fold. After our arrangement with the Victoria Park rangers fell through late in the day, we instead headed to our usual corner of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park to take on our old adversaries - The Nettles. Five of us departed from the main fellowship for a separate mission to help clear the garden of a local blind lady, while the rest of us threw on our £1 pairs of gardening gloves and headed to the Park.

We soldiered on into the evening, reclaiming previous areas where The Nettles had begun to return, as well as forging new territory. It turns out that £1 pairs of gardening gloves aren’t all that effective at stopping nettles, but we battled through the stings, as well as the incessant bites from insects and the odd badger.

We bagged up our former foes, and started the run back, stopping off at the foot of Mount Mile End for a bit of ‘beasting' with the new recruits. We conquered the hill in twos, ending the evening nicely exhausted. It was all very ‘Lord-of-the-Rings’, but with more lycra and squatting.

I’m sure we’ll be returning to the Park again. We may have won the battle, but the war is still to come…

Luke

Write up from the side mission;

After the briefing in the hotel and Varon's plug for GoodGym Haringey we set off with the group for a short run before four of us peeled off to do a mission for an elderly lady who is partially sighted and needed help with her gardening.

Tonight we mucked in to do some general weeding, trimming, cleaning between the paving slabs and rehousing the biggest population of woodlice we'd ever seen! A solid forty minutes or so later talking about GoodGym, programming, school trips and minecraft, we had filled four bags of green waste: a job well done. We said our goodbyes and jogged through Victoria Park to get back to the hotel. The group were not in sight so we could only assume that Tom took the "no supervision, no time limit" rule quite literally; they could still be there!

Patrick