On a chilly October evening in Hackney 21 lively GoodGymers ran 6k to start a massive project with Core CIC buy starting to clear the building out in record time.

We started the evening by welcoming our GoodGym first times and high fiving our returning runners from their little breaks! 👏🏻👏🏽👋👋🏾

After a few big ups to the GoodGym Cross Country Team for a great first races of the season we got underway lead excellently by Hackney Task Force's Clare who guided us through the bright lights of Hackney expertly. We arrived at the brand new Core CIC building to meet Danny one of the Co directors of the project who walked and talked us through the amazing vision he has for the building and providing a location to help treat muscular skeletal disorders at reduced or no cost for the people of Hackney. If you want to find out more about the project check out the website and video here.

After the tour we got down to business removing all the ceiling tiles we could reach on the first floor at an impressive rate! Ripping up flooring, taking up carpets, dismantling shelving, taking apart kitchens. You name it we ripped it apart!

As the time ticked on we cleared up the space and took all the unwanted stuff out to be dumped in a skip, where we made a brilliant discovery Vintage clothing, there was a mad scramble and many outfits were tried on all beautifully modelled by Amy, Clare, Becky, Eva and Kate.

With a big thank you from Danny, we headed off into the night with a job well done on the 3k run back to base, a few stretches and very quite round of applause we finished the run but not the evening.

19 of the crew headed around the corner to TAD Turkish restaurant to get our eat on and had a great time doing so.

Brilliant to see so many of you come along to the monthly social and really hope you all can come along again on the next one which will be on the 22nd of November (put it in your diaries). A big thank you to Cecilia for choosing and organising the restaurant really appreciated, thank you!!

Next week we are off to Mabley Green to put some trees to bed for the winter! Be great to have you along for some more fun on the run! There will be a few running drills and skills thrown in for good measure to! If you have one bring a head torch or anything that lights up. Sign up here I also see that Hackney GoodGym Great Kev is making special visit from his new home in Bristol.

The Regents Park 10k race is coming on fast on Sunday the 6th of November and be great if we had a Hackney crew go down and dominate a top 10k race! All the information is here. Any questions about it give me a shout.

Pritesh of GoodGym social fame is wanting to do an East London GoodGym Monthly social! If you have any ideas of top drinking establishments for the GoodGym family to come visit either drop Pritesh a line on Twitter or tell me and I will pass it on.

Soft and smooth steps

Joel

23 brave Hackney GoodGymers ran an impressive 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shovel, barrow and rake 4 tonnes of special gravel to create a path around the park.

On a moon lit evening in the enchanting Abney Park Cemetery we were ecstatic to welcome 5 newbies to the GoodGym Hackney fold! Loved having Ben, Steffica, Dominique, Lara, and Ramy along!!

Setting off on through the back streets of Hackney working our way the 3k up to one of our furthest locations of Abney Park Cemetery, which is one of the Magnificent 7 cemeteries in London. Where we got stuck at traffic lights we burst into some strength building action and knocked out 2 minutes of alternating lunges. Soon enough with a little navigation from our resident free running Coach Runner rep Andreana we had run 3k in 18minutes to reach Tom at Abney park.

With military precision Tom have 15 wheel barrows, a stack of gloves and a range of rakes and shovels waiting for us to get cracking with. We hot footed it down to gravel and got to work, 4 of us shovelling away loading up the barrows while 15 barrows safely navigated the spooky path up to the 5 rakers who modded the path creating a perfect camber for the rain to wash off. We set a steady and efficient pace with the keeping everyone working hard throughout! The 4 tonne mound of special gravel was going down nicely with excellent work from Will, Ros and Rich the barrow pushers kept a high leg turnover and kept coming back for more! While the rakers guided by Tom created 50 metres of path which is a GG Hackney best effort!!

With the gravel gone after 35 minutes of action we wheeled out way back up the main road, thanked Tom for his amazing organisation and begged him to let us come back for a GoodGym Halloween dress up special on the 1st of November (fingers crossed).

For the run back 10 steady eddies came with me and got going with some Cautiously aggressive running on the 3k run back to base while 13 speedsters completed 40 Lunges, 20 squats and 2 minutes of Ab planks before beginning the chase back to base!

Some impressive running from everyone saw us arrive back to base pretty much together so our Team stretch. We relaxed the muscles, wished the Cardiff Half marathon crew of Patrick, Anna, Dan, Nico and Jack (sorry if I forget anyone) the very best of luck on Sunday! I will be following you around and look forward to hear all about your races in the next couple of weeks!!

Looking forward to a big turn out for the Hackney Marshes GoodGym Parkrun tour on Saturday! All the information is here be a fun free 5k run and if you are able a breakfast after to.

Next week we are back to the unmistakable Gillett Square to finish off our work cleaning the Pop up Kids adventure playground equipment!! Would love to have you along for another fun filled Tuesday evening sign up here.

Thank you to Ros and Rich for the pun and Michele for some pictures!

Smooth and positive

Joel