31 GoodGymers were out in force around Camden last night - the rain held off just long enough for us!

After a power cut at the Living Centre, we had to regroup at the Coffee House (our usual pub ending point for the run) and leave our bags there.

NOTE: This will be the same drill next week as there's another power cut planned for Wednesday 26th Feb. Make sure you come to the Coffee House, 60 Chalton St, Somers Town, London NW1 1HS for 18:45 next Wednesday.

After a quicker than normal intro speech, we had not one but two big milestones to cheer:

• Beth hit 100 Good Deeds and wore the Camden Cape with all the felt, bells and whistles on. It was a particularly windy night last night, so lots of cape-flapping in on the run (and ceilidh at Cecil Sharp!).

• Our very own Liz continued climbing the Heroes leaderboard by hitting 400!! Please do give both of them a big ol' Camden cheer before you read on.

There was so, so much cake in the pub that was it was difficult to peel ourselves away to go running in the wind, but Reader, we did and we did well.

Coffee House Report (written by Liz)

Having volunteered as tribute to look after the bags in our usual pub, I spent my time scaring people away by alternating between reading science(TM) documents (not aloud), and by overloading them with cakes/biscuits whenever they ventured too close (cakes/biscuits courtesy of Beth). The scaredy-cakes worked, and everyone's gear was still there at the end of the run.

C4WS Report (written by Chris)

The team of 12 runners, led by Chris, headed off earlier than the rest of us to get down to C4WS to make the beds for the homeless as normal. We've only got a few more weeks running there now, so if you'd like to make beds and you haven't before, come along on Wednesday nights - our last evening of bed-making is on the 25th March.

12 runners made 12 beds - 6 men's, 4 women's and 2 volunteers up on the stage. Nice. After that it was a longer run around Camden, coming in at 5.8km in total before the C4WS team arrived back at the pub ahead of the ceilidh-ing crew.

Cecil Sharp House Report

Hitting the pavement up to Cecil Sharp House, we arrived in good time for Susannah but unfortunately she was nowhere to be seen! We searched around and spoke to the reception team but nobody could get through. We couldn't into the shed to get the tools and there was no information left about the task so we couldn't get stuck in as we normally do so instead we danced!

While we were waiting to see if Susannah was just running late, the staff let us come out of the cold into the dancing room (and Strictly rehearsal space, apparently!). The inimitable Lizzy with her font of dancing knowledge then became the impromptu ceilidh instructor and, luckily, we were even numbers so everyone had a partner. After a few practice run-throughs of the different steps, it was time for the real thing and boy, was it a wonderful sight.

A few times through, it was time for us to run back to the Coffee House, full of beans and with empty stomachs ready for the cake-geddon that was to follow. For the lack of doing good in the community, we certainly came away feeling that we'd done some good in the GoodGym Camden community - the laughter was never-ending as we were dancing.

I think we saved a night of a few mishaps. Well done all. There'll also be a ceilidh social at Cecil Sharp in April, so come along to that!

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSION: This Saturday, a team of us are going to the Great Croft Age UK day centre gardens to help out with some weeding and organising. Jade and the team are working on the next phase for the garden and need our help to get the plans in motion. We'll meet at 1pm on Saturday by the gates to the gardens on Harrison Street - sign up now!

NEXT WEEK: February has been a strange month for tasks - everyone seems to be on holiday or not replying to emails. We'll definitely be going back to C4WS but the second task is TBC. Get your name down and I'll look forward to seeing you there with us. Meet at 18:45 at the Coffee House, NW1 1HS instead next week, instead of our normal meeting place!

9 full of running GooGymers shifted 7k to the Ebury Estate to save as May of the potted plants as possible from the demolition!!

Great to have you all along for our Wednesday night workout! Getting settled into our new digs at Marshall Street Leisure Centre.

After the pre warmup of poolside we were off finding a new route down to the Ebury Estate to help Homeless Britain! Maybe a slightly too scenic a route meant we got plenty of distance in on the way there but did avoid most of the busy foot traffic!

4k in the bank and we had arrived at the Ebury estate. With charity leader Mike in hospital we had instructions of what to do. With another block due for demolition in the next 2 weeks as part of the development work of the estate we had been tasked to save as many of the potted plants as possible by moving them from one garden to another before the block is raised to the ground and the garden flattened.

30 minutes of potted plant carrying action with a couple of spills and some ingenious carrying techniques we had moved nearly 100 pots across and safe to grow away from the building works!

With the task complete we tried a well trusted and surprisingly shorted route back to base to round off a top evening!

Next week we are off to little Venice so plenty of distance to be covered there!

See you there

Joel

7 Westminster GoodGymers ran 5.5k from to St Andrew’s Youth Club to get it ready for 2020!

New Start Location Next Week!!!!! We will be running out of Marshal Street Leisure Centre only about 300 metres from the New Balance Store, just off Carnaby Street. I will be waiting outside to meet you!!

Running South running past the posh shops and through St James park working out what the bronze domes were for!

We made it 2.5k to St Andrews Youth Club, with a VIP visit the club was even busier than normal and the huge range of activities for Westminsters young people again blows my mind every time!! Our bellies started to rumble as the smell of the cookery club making Chinese New Year celebratory food drifted over.

Prepared for the craziest garage in London we entered the main store room in the club and after a month gap it was in big time need of some TLC!! Looking like my bedroom back in 95 there was hardly a piece of floor without something random placed not neatly on it. So we emptied the garage and put the jigsaw back together! Creating a walkway and order not seen in the garage this year!! Allowing for things no matter how random to be found and the youth club to function seamlessly as usual!

With the garage looking great it was time to head back to scout out our new Start location!! Working out (getting wrong) the routes to Marshal street hopefully it will be smooth sailing next week!!

5.5k complete we said goodbye to New Balance which has been our home for the last 3 years!

See you next week

Joel

17 Great Westminster GoodGymers ran 8k to Little Venice to clear 26 buckets of plastics and rubbish out of the canal and tow path with the Canal & River Trust.

Amazing to have such a strong group this evening!! Awesome running from everyone smashing out some of our longest runs of the year/ever!

Working our way nearly 4k up to Little Venice where we grabbed our grabbers and buckets and headed off to rid our waterways of as many contaminates especially plastics as possible!!

The canal was really bad this week and there was so much to pick that the buckets filled at a great pace!! Picking up random items like an onion!! To the oh too common cigarette butts we did a great job in the 30 minutes of picking.

Tipping all the rubbish away into the bins and getting running again, zipping our way back to Oxford Street at an excellent clip we were back dead in time with a whole lot of aerobic fitness and Good complete!!

Next week we WILL be meeting at New Balance one last time for our run to St Andrews Youth Club!!

Tom who ran with us this evening is completing his first ever Half marathon this September. Here is his fundraising page if you would like to donate.

This September I will take part in the Great North Run to raise funds for the National Autistic Society (NAS). In 2015 I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome: a form of autism. On 13th September I will be running for The National Autistic Society, so that children with autism get the support they need to fulfil their potential. Follow the link for my fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tom-mccann3

Have a great week

Joel