Twenty Goodgymmers congregated in the grounds of the wonderful Meadow Orchard in Crouch End for an emotional evening of doing good and getting fit.

Nurj O'Clock

This report is a bit late because frankly I found it a bit hard to write. Or more concretely, I tried a couple of times but failed miserably each time. You see, even in her absence, Nurj had managed to grab centre stage on Wednesday's task like she had done some many times over the last six years and I knew I would have to write a report with her as the protagonist for one last time. The words just didn't come, to be honest.

So, instead, I have decided to share with you the big Nurjehan-shaped hole she leaves on a normal Goodgym evening. She played many roles within our motley crew: self-appointed timekeeper, naughty gossipy aunt, strict school teacher when we needed a telling off, whingepot whenever we attended her least favourite task that shall now forever remain unnamed, indefatigable do gooder, tireless 5k/10k runner, unconditional friend, and perhaps, the one thing we'll miss the most, her enthusiastic cheerleading of everything Goodgym Haringey. She loved Goodgym. And she preached its praises at any given opportunity.

If I'm allowed a personal note, I'll personally miss a role she played too well without any fanfare or noise but that she relished and excelled at. Whenever we had a new runner in our group, it would always be either Nurj or myself reaching out to say hello to them. She would then proceed to tell the newbie all sort of crazy stories about how I am a mad area activator, I would then reply by telling the newbie to watch out for her because 'this one bites' and thus, within the space of thirty seconds, a newbie was eased into the dynamics of our group and was then shadowed by Nurjehan for the next 45 minutes, regaling them with whatever particular drama was happening at her school that week and making sure their evening was as fun as possible. I'll miss my newbie whisperer.

Our dearest Nurjehan Khan passed away on Thursday 18th July 2024, having completed 273 Goodgym tasks and along the way having become the unofficial face of Goodgym (her face is the landing page of the website). Goodgym Haringey will never be the same without her and we'll miss her.

I'll finish this here before she tells me off for going on too much.

<3

It's Our Birthday And We'll Cry If We Want To

In a moment of incredible timing, this evening also happened to be Goodgym Haringey's 9th Birthday. There will be other nights to celebrate and we will have a social to end all socials in due course, but we did mark the occasion with cakes, chocolate, and hell of a lot of tears.

We're very grateful to the folk at the Meadow Orchard for accommodating us at short notice (this was Nurjehan's favourite Haringey task) and they had loads of fun jobs for us. They even let us use axes on the night. Talk about cathartic.

Normal service will resume next week.

For now, just look after each other and I'm here if anyone needs a hug, a natter, or a cry.

Love to my wonderful Goodgym Haringey Fam

5 Goodgymmers had a lovely time helping out at the Haringey Foodbank.

The foodbank needed their baked beans and soups for 2021 sorted by month and our Goodgymmers sorted them efficiently, whilst discussing a variety of topics, from Warhol's iconic use of the tinned soup to the virtues of white chicken sauce on Bird Eyes waffles.

In the end, Femi was so pleased with our handiwork that we've been invited back next week.

The reviews are in: "Turn up, show the weeds who's boss, clear some paths so the nice people at Living Under One Sun can plant some veggies, make like a tree and leave! Bosh!" - Amy

A lovely day was had at the East Hale Allotments, where 6 fully fledged Goodgymmers (and 2 trainee Goodgymmers) congregated for some clean, sweet, ol' fashioned spot of al fresco urban agriculture.

Prickly thistles, stinging nettles, and even some very angry bees were no match for our heroes, who cleared paths along the LUOS allotment so that Leyla and Co can get on with the job of growing some healthy and scrumptious food for the community.

After some apicultural shenanigans that might have ended up with Josh and I getting stung, and some generous consumption of sweet, sweet pineapple, we all came to the conclusion that a great day was had and that we'd be back tomorrow for some more socially distanced fun. YOU SHOULD JOIN US!

8 Goodgymmers ran just 400m shy of 60k as they took on the challenge of running in every corner of Haringey. As you would expect, they crushed it. 

This will come as no surprise to any of you, but over here at GGHaringey we are head over heels with our home borough. Since we've had to slow down a bit from running to do good deeds (though needless to say, we're still at it), we've been finding new ways to stay in touch with our beloved. 

This week we challenged ourselves to do a group run "together" but in the spirit of the times, each runner ran a different route. The goal was to reach every single one of Haringey's 22 neighbourhoods. Oh, and we did.

At around 11ish on Saturday, we set off for our date with sunny Haringey. 

Niamh (with her ever trusty canine companion) serenaded our beloved whilst covering St Ann's, Tottenham Green, Bruce Grove, and West Green.

Kapil collected flowers for our beloved as he ran from Wood Green to Ally Pally, clocking off Bowes Park and Bounds Green too on the way.

Neil whispered sweet-nothings in our beloved's ears as he flew between South Tottenham, Seven Sisters, and Finsbury Park. 

Our beloved blushed as Natasha, with a smile on her face, regaled our beloved with tales of beauty and romance collected during her travels between Tottenham Hale, Northumberland Park, White Hart Lane, and Little Russia.

Josh flirted outrageously with our beloved as they sat down for dinner, somewhere between Crouch End, Highgate, Fortis Green, and Muswell Hill.

Dave made our beloved smile as they had a drink after dinner, but not before criss-crossing the borough. 

Liam then gallantly walked our beloved home, after a long but lovely day.

And then I* go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like I love you. 

In total, our 8 runners covered 59.6 kilometres between them and and GGHaringey visited every neighbourhood in the borough. We even threw down the gaunlet to our neighbours by putting tanks on the lawns GGIslingon and GGBarnet!

What a fun group run that was! And you can join in the fun too - how many of Haringey's wonderful parks can you cram into one run?

Stay strong!

*I covered Stroud Green, Hornsey, Noel Park, and Broadwater Farm for those interested