Twelve runners set out on a beautiful Monday night for short trot down to the Old Harlesden Police Station where a huge task awaited them out the back...

Abraham was there to meet and greet, and introduced us to Colin, who explained that a new art complex called CREATE SPACE will soon be opening there and will be available for local community use, and that they are fighting to make it a great space for everyone, rather than letting it be developed into blocks of flats. Anyone looking for more information about volunteering or signing up as members can contact colinlearatceatespace@outlook.com (0749 232 1626).

Colin led us out to the previously unexplored territory round the back of the station, (where the creepy old Willesden gallows are located!!!) and set us all to work, with Sadhana, our intrepid (and prolific) photographer catching all the best action moments!

There was (quite LITTER-ally) heaps to do;

• moving wood

• weeding

• sawing branches

• moving piles of mattresses

• litter picking

• fighting unruly ivy...

...but the team were undaunted - we had no trouble with the rubble! and cleared some space in that place! Bravely ignoring slugs and wee beasties, brushing past clumps of nettles and thistles and enduring their nasty stings, we worked on for 50 minutes, searching for doc leaves to soothe the pain, but to no avail... We packed up and set off back for the Queensbury with just a sliver of daylight left - yay for spring!

Before you go... The next GoodGym monthly drinks will be on Thursday 6th April from 6.30pm til late, upstairs at the Marquis of Cornwallis, WC1N 1AP (near Russell Sq). All the details are here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-monthly-social-april I hope you can make it!

The next is a 'save the date' for the GoodGym Olympics, which will be held on Saturday 10th June at the Parilament Hill Track from 1-6pm; the idea is that different boroughs compete in events like 400m, and the elimination mile, to more novel events like a welly throwing competition and even hopefully a wheelbarrow race with real wheelbarrows. Each area will be encouraged to make their own flag for the event and even have a GoodGym Bake-off (ala a summer fate style), so hopefully it will be something for everyone.

Bye for now, till next time! XXX

On an evening which was bright, dry and beautiful.... yes that's right.... BRIGHT DRY AND BEAUTIFUL HURRAAAHHHHHHHH spring had definitely sprung when twelve GG bunnys hopped and leaflet dropped their way to 11k. Yay!!

With the task at hand being the bi-monthly all community leaflet drop, usually the fitness vibes that accompanies comes from track attack. However to bring in the new season I decided to spice things up with a newness here too. So, instead of going round and round, we went up and up - hills that is.... but the best hills near by meant we had to bandit our way through to our neighbouring borough of Camden, running 5 jubilee stations on route to boot. All the way to Swiss Cottage and the hill that leads to Hampstead! Pow Pow.

So the 2 mile warm Up turned into a delightful cruise, basking in the last of the sunshine, we whizzed through Kilburn, West Hampstead, up to Finchley Road and beyond to good old cottage of the Swiss. It's safe to say we were working as a team, as no body was left on their..... Toblerone OMG I can't even take Credit for that terrible pun - step forward please Mouse and take a bow!! LOL

On route, as the team paper chased their way along, handing out all the leaflets on route, I on the other hand could not take enough pics. The beautiful blossoms and natural spring colours coming through, beaming out like they were screaming at us "spring has sprung" and it certainly did give us more Spong in our own steps. Glorious!!

Before long we had arrived at check point one - the base of the hill, just behind Swiss Cottage station and with a neat little one mile distance to the station at the top (Hampstead) the team buckled down for a fast paced grind on that oh so steep and taxing incline.

Taxing maybe, but no one paid the price of surrender, as one by one the pack flew into the home straight, just as the last of the light was etching away and the glow of Hampstead tube took over to light our way in(ham)stead.

Back slapping and congratulations of our epic hill dash over, with a swift turn on our heels we were back to it, pacing back down, with gravity on our side this time! Thank good(gym)ness !!

With a speed split emerging and rapid front pack, the team eventually split in two and with Debs and Enrique taking the lead, group one sped off into the night with epic pace. Group two led by me was a Girl Power affair, but with crew love cheering us on, we recharged the old batteries for one final push the last 2miles back to base.... Of course with lots of stops for photo-calls all the way home. Click click flash, the final hurdles we did smash.

And before we knew it the burning lights of walk lane were upon us once more and one final corner turn led us back to the twinkle of The Queensbury and our home once again. Full team recoup, regroup and stretchy stretch, we finished for the night exactly how we'd begun, smiles and good vibes.

A Beautiful night, filled with beautiful people, doing beautiful things. It can only be GG Brent of course!!

See you next week!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Monday-Funday was excitement city, when 9 Brent beauties, set out to run 5miles, do some good and throw out a massive dollop of crew-love all over West London. BOOM

As always, my beaming Brent bevy of beauties awaited me this Monday eve, ready to rock some community love all the way to Stonebridge Park.

New to the mix was - Sabina who my joined ravishing regulars: Sadhana, mouse, Steph, Liz, Amy, Elisa and Debs and after mega announcements, race updates and a sprinkling of Italian lessons from Debs and Elisa, the team wasted no time hot-footing it out the door, to set to work on the first leg of the tour.

With the 2.5miles distance in our sites, I led pace from the front with mouse scooping up the rear. In no time at all we had steamed all the way over from base camp to Dollis Hill, our first marker along the way. Next up, along the north circ, 2nd marker, 3rd and 4th all melting away as we flew past - Sadhana's bridge, Ikea and the Wembley Arch with Debs shouting proudly omg i've run all the way to IKEA YIPPPEEEE

Finally arriving on Pitfield Lane, the whole distance was dashed in 30mins flat, even though the crossings seemed to take a hundred years to go green! This epic time of course also included one brave effort from she-warrior Steph hurting her ankle on route. But like the badass she is, she moaned not one jot and with the help of the magnificent mouse supporting her sister in arms, we all reached our destination for the night - Sufra community food bank, with bags of time to get stuck in and help with the task for the night.

Sufra Community Food Bank, had one request of us this week, shift the massive mountains of soil from A to B, to pack the massive, empty tanks due to be stuffed with veg that would grow, ready for summer plucking. So with shovels and wheelbarrows a plenty we got to work. Confession time........Of course I say 'we' when really the gallant girls did all the back breaking work, while I photographed the epic efforts. Standard!

In 30mins the girls had shovelled, shifted and wheeled 50% of this mountain and managed to pack 4 troffs to the brim AMAZING WORK. Sadhana even had time to complete her planking challenge and pose for some seriously sexy snaps!!

After the work it was full steam ahead, back to base and at full pace. Thank goodness for Mouse who volunteered to lead the last leg, as poor Steph really couldn't run on hers and for the first time in Brent GG history there was an order for an Uber!! But a necessity measure when one of the troops needed a helping hand, or should I say Leg back.

Back at base we regrouped and stretched and hugged out the last of the love for what was an unbelievable team effort, proving goodgym isn't just about spreading love to the community, it's also about supporting and caring for each other and working as a team to help each other along the way too.

See you next time for an even bigger dose of crew love!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE.

Like spring flowers, eighteen runners emerged to the relatively balmy 14 degree temperatures of a fine Monday evening in their home patch of Brent, to run 4 miles to the Harlesden Community Gardens and back, bagging up an impressive collection of litter on their way.

It was lovely to see so many people out - we welcomed first time GG runner Sam whose sister had recommended GoodGym to her, keeping the family vibe strong were the Awesome Ananda's times three, Sisters Sledge Tabitha & Deborah, and yet another family affair - Eliza and Tania...

Not to mention the backstreet boys, Enrique, Vojtech and Sam, the girls next door Sadhana (radiant as ever in high-viz), Liz, Samina, Amy, Beth, Steph and Great Aunt Claireybell making sure the family stayed together and no feuds broke out...!

We set off on the two mile run to the Harlesden Community Gardens on a mission for litter, we got gloved up, grabbed some bags and swept the area like a swat team. With so many pairs of hands on the case, we had the place cleared in no time, which meant that there was some spare time for some fun circuits in the playground!

Four groups were formed and each group spent 60 seconds each on:

tricep dips using the benches

jumping jacks

jumping lunges

monkeying around on the climbing frame (not really - working hard on their biceps as they slowly lowered their body weight or swung across to the other side!)

Then it was time to head back towards base, but as we had some speedier runners, they went off ahead to blitz the area around the old Willesden Green police station, whilst the others made their way back at a steady pace, bagging an impressive haul of cans, bottles and other miscellany...

With the streets looking a bit more respectable, we jogged back to the Queensbury for a quick stretch out, and a chat about upcoming events:

A few of us in GG Brent have already signed up for the Richmond 10 mile run on Sunday 4th June, it's not too late to join, and with all this extra daylight for training, what more excuse do you need...?

Also Tough Mudder in May, and for those of you who just wanna have fun of the non-running variety, we will be arranging a post run drink shortly.

Thanks so much for your Bags of Enthusiasm and positivity which helped to make really rubbish night actually really great :)

Lots a love xxx