30 runners hit the tarmac

A respectable sized team of 30 runners met on our hotel steps to warm up for tonight's 1-mile run down to the Royal London Hospital, for our first visit of the year to join forces with the utterly brilliant Barts Volunteers.

After navigating the endless sets of traffic lights en route to the hospital, we soon arrived in the A&E reception where we were met by task owner Nancy and her wonderful team, Richard and Bernadette.

Tea, coffee, chatter - and litter

With such a big crowd of us, it soon became clear additional tasks were required, so I led a breakaway team out to the pretty little John Harrison Gardens, this huge hospital's only green space, for a wonderfully productive litter-pick with a team of 8.

Meanwhile, three larger teams were dispatched all over the hospital led by Nancy, Bernadette and Richard to: distribute Evening Standards to patients on the wards; chat and read to elderly patients being cared for on specialised wards, and, an exciting new addition to this task: making tea and coffee in the A&E department.

What a wonderful night. By the time runners were congregating back in Reception at 8.10pm, their faces said it all: smiling, full of appreciation, knowing they had also been very much appreciated too.

An impromptu speed session

And so we said our goodbye's and went our separate ways. At which point, we formed two teams to run back to the hotel, playing the Greyhound and Hare Game. I led the hares with a 2.5-minute head start, while this week we were lucky enough to have Katherine leading the greyhounds who managed to catch half the hares, but not task force members Sarah, Becky and Liz, who had somehow managed to end up on the other side of the road, but to their advantage.

What a fun, impromptu speed session - well done everyone for playing along, and rising to the challenge.

Showing some GG love with this week's shout-outs

Welcome to new runners, Gordon, Sarah, Linda, Rachel and Pete, who was visiting from Stockport! Thank you all, for helping to make this a totally brilliant night - and we hope to see you again very soon.

...And thank you to Becky J for back-marking, Katherine for leading a great little speed session, and to Sarah who this evening brought us some exquisite chocolate contributions to the week's snack haul (N.B. team: please don't leave me alone with said snacks after the run next week).

...While next week

...we're back to our favourite adventure playground, to build furniture from reclaimed wood, and decorate the indoor space! And chisel our cores for the weeks of training ahead. Fun, fun, FUN. Sign up here

11 Goodgymers ran 4km to help Haggerston Park shift over 80 wheelbarrows of woodchip!

Welcome along to newbies John, Sarah and Bekki - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Come along to the GG Christmas Party this Saturday down in Southwark - full details here.
2. There are two long runs in December - one led by Graham in North London on 9th and another by Dom in South London on Saturday 15th.

After our intros we warmed up and headed the long way around to Haggerston Park. Bruce met us there who is the coordinator for Hackney Parks, each month GG Hackney helps out a different park with whatever needs doing.

Last night the task was to shovel woodchip into wheelbarrows and transport it over to a row of tree's along a pathway in the centre of the park. The aim was to mulch as many tree's as possible in 30 mins! Some people ran and even raced with there wheelbarrows! They were met by Rebecca and Bruce who helped spread the woodchip, importantly leaving a gap between the tree so it can breath.

GOOD work!

Over 30 minutes we mulched 26 tree's, spreading over 80 wheelbarrows of woodchip - impressive!

After a group picture we said our goodbyes to Bruce and headed the quick way back to London Fields. Once there we did a progression run, increasing our speed every minute for 5 minutes - nice!

Thanks for coming out in the rain guys, see you soon!

PB out