A whopping 35 runners trooped out of St Pancras & Somers Living Centre on Wednesday night to get out and do some good in Camden.

We had two newbies join the herd - welcome Collette and Katie - as well as TWO big celebrations of the milestone variety:

Becs (as in the Rebecca Clarke, GoodGym Media and Comms extraordinaire) reached her 50 Good Deeds milestone tonight and Laura Lambert hit 100 Good Deeds! Stop reading right now and go and give them a cheer! Well done to you both. Big milestones deserve cake baked by Liz, but more on that later.

As normal, the team split with 10 runners going with John to C4WS and the rest of the rabble coming with me to see Helen in the Camden Scope shop on the high street.

C4WS Report (by John)

A group of 11 threaded their way through the crowded streets of St Pancras and Bloomsbury, avoiding swiftly opened van doors on the way, for our 12th visit this winter to the homeless people's shelter at the American International Church. We knew the routine by now, setting up a human chain to move sheets, mattresses and other bedding from a storage area to the warm area where less fortunate Londoners can spend a night away from the streets and enjoy a hot meal in comfort. In a few minutes we achieved what would have taken an hour for the busy helpers in the church. Afterwards we jogged back to Granary Square for a fitness session: three laps round St Martin's School of Art at a steadily increasing pace, before a relaxing warm-down on the swivel chairs at Coal Drops Yard.

Scope Report

23 of us arrived to Helen's Scope shop in Camden high street, ready to get stuck in. A queue formed and our very drilled taskmaster handed out the jobs to the waiting teams. Jewellery needed sorting and pricing, mannequins needed re-dressing (by the GoodGym visual merchandising team - "Sorry if it's 'Devil Wears Prada' but I think we need a belt here."), shoes needed polishing, donations needed sorted (and steaming) and the upstairs office needed an early spring clean. So many jobs and so little time, but we managed to do them all and boy did that place shine as we left.

By the time both teams got back to base, it was time for blondies and fudge (both made my the inimitable Liz!) to celebrate the two big Good Deed milestones. Liz's recipe for the delicious blondies are at the bottom of the report if you'd like to try at home.

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSIONS AHOY: There's not one but TWO plogging Community Missions today - one at 1pm at Red Lion Square Gardens and the other is Glebelands Wood Nature Reserve from 4:45-5:20pm! Let's beat Lambeth to be the top scoring London GoodGym in the January Challenge. We can do it!

NEXT GROUP RUN: It's official, we're going back to Alara Wholefoods and there'll be a box of granola in it for every runner after you've helped shift some manure, tidy up the pond and do some weeding. A smaller group of us will be heading back to C4WS to make the beds again. It's going to be a brilliant night whichever task you choose.

Liz's Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies:

Ingredients

125 g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 g butter at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

150 g crunchy peanut butter

175 g light brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

100 g white chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/gas 3. Butter the sides of a 20 x 20cm square cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together until very soft. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder and the chopped chocolate and mix to form a dough.

4. Place the dough into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until golden brown and almost firm in the centre.

5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, before removing and cutting into squares.

6. Eat!

JANUARY CHALLENGE SHOUT-OUT: It's January, it's cold, it's always dark and everyone's broke. Luckily GoodGym Camden's here with lots of ways you can do good and get fit (and win this Challenge for Camden!), all you need to do is make sure your Strava is linked up to your GG account and get those miles logged in. It's a friendly competition between GoodGyms around the UK, but the key word there is competition and we must win! Camden's now #5 of all GoodGyms in all the land, but it's only the 9th and we've got a lot of January left. Sign up to the January Challenge here. (Well done if you've already signed up and linked Strava!)

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A whopping 35 GoodGymers shook off the running cobwebs and rang in the New Year with a run out in Camden on Wednesday night.

We welcomed two new folks to the herd - shout out to Niccole and Lauren. I hope Camden is what you'd hoped for (and then some) and I'm looking forward to seeing you out with us again soon.

How about Christmas Tree Run (Take 2)? Same time, same place next week - sign up now!

Tonight was the second Annual GoodGym Camden Christmas Tree Run as well as our regular bed-making at the American International Church.

A small but mighty group of 9 - led by the brilliant Louise - ran down to Jonathan and the team at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road for our first (official, non-community mission) bed-making of the New Year. 8 beds were made for those who needed them and, as the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down, a slightly longer run was on the cards for the return leg back to the Living Centre.

As the beds were being made, 5 packs of runners had fanned out across Camden Town in competition for the Cardamom Cup (but mostly just for the bragging rights of being the winning team) in the...

Second-Annual Camden Christmas Tree Run!

For the second year running, Camden runners went head-to-head in a competition to harvest as many abandoned Christmas trees from the streets around their chosen collection point as they possibly could. The time they had? 70 minutes. 5 teams. 25 runners. And the victors? Returning to the Living Centre at 20:28, just 2 minutes away from disqualification, was TEAM TREE-MENDUS with a whopping 14 trees collected and thrown over a fence (into the collection point).

The final scores were as follows:

Team Tree-Mendus - 14 (8.79km)

Team Tree-Angle - 11

Team Five-and-a-Wreath - 5 (8km)

Team Pines 4 Pints - 4

Team Ho (ho ho) - 4

Commiserations to the other teams, but don't worry - you've got another chance to win next week! With a hat tip to sportsmanship, Team Tree-Mendus unanimously decided to give Team Tree-Angle the revered Cardomom Bun baked by yours truly this morning, to enjoy at the pub. Rumour is that there might be more baked goods for next week's competition.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS GALORE: In true Red January spirit, Liz has been organising community missions for us Camdeners to get stuck into; Plogging - lunchtime litter picks - this Friday (anyone can join in, regardless of location), Volunteering with the Canal and River Trust this Saturday and, next week, Volunteering at the Ally Pally Parkrun!.

NEXT WEEK'S RUN: We'll be back with the Christmas Tree Run (Take Two) and some of us will be going back to the American International Church. Come along!

Happy running (and missioning) until then.

Thanks go to Liz for the excellent punnage.

29 GoodGymers came out on an otherwise deceptively clear evening to do good on Wednesday.

After a quick intro, and welcome to two newbies to the ranks - hello Paul and Dean; it was brill to have you with us. See you next week? Here's the run signup for next week if you want to book yourself on already!

As it's now the winter season, we split the task and group in two.

Our tasks

While I led the 17 strong group up to Susannah and Cecil Sharp House, Steve led the 12 good souls to the American International Church (C4WS) to make the beds at the homeless shelter.

After hearing what Susannah had to say, we got stuck in and started racking the lawn, sweeping the walkways and collecting all the fallen leaves. George deserves a special mention as he fell into the trap of going for a "Special Task" that basically meant he was the only raker entrusted with scraping the leaves from the garden. But true to form, he finished the job as the clock struck 8. Also, well done Rebecca, John and Hanry for such a perfect leaf clearing that it should be the new example of how to do it in the encyclopaedias of gardening out there. Beautiful work. Lizzy was also particularly excited to have supersized Hulk Hands (see pictures!) and was scooping away with astounding efficiency. Hat doffed to you!

Over at the American International Church, the team got started with making the 13 beds the shelter needed tonight. Duvet covers, pillowcases and towels in place by 7:45 (rapid work, team!) they waved goodbye to Jonathan (the C4WS minister) before heading to Granary Square for a quick fitness session and to see the new Christmas lights.

Meeting back at the Living Centre for 8:20, we all had a cool down and reminder of upcoming community missions and next week's run (and December's Christmas dinner), we said goodbye with some going to the pub and some going home.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSION KLAXON While we don't - as Camden - have a Community Mission for you this week, Islington are after extra pairs of hands to go and help the Crouch End Open Space project by laying some woodchip, planting some trees and other lovely outdoor tasks. It's happening on Saturday 17th November and you can sign up right here.

NEXT WEEK'S RUN We're going to be splitting the task again - one half of the group will head back to C4WS to make some more beds for the homeless, and the rest of us will be running up the road to our friends at Alara Wholefoods! 100% likelihood of more granola as a thank you from Alex and the team, so more than one incentive to get your name down for next week's run!

🍕CAMDEN CHRISTMAS PIZZA PARTY 🍕Come and eat some pizza with us on the 11th December. We'll be running as one big group back to the Homeless Shelter and then once we've made the beds, we'll hotfoot it over to Granary Square to eat some pizza at Happy Face. You've got until the 27th November to sign up. Would be lovely to see as many of you (group runners, coach runners and missioners) as possible!

26 of us GoodGymers came out to run on another Wednesday night in Camden.

We had one lovely newbie tonight - Jodie - it was great to have you with us. Looking forward to seeing you on another run with us soon next week's link is here if you fancy! Tonight was also a milestone for Meredith and Hayley, as tonight's run marked their 100th good deeds! Well done both of you, and what an achievement. Here's to the next 100.

After our part crowdsourced intro - thank you CJ, Frances and Meredith for firing off the ways you can get fit and do good with GoodGym - we stretched and then headed off on our task just over 3 kilometers away to the Ashdown Court Sheltered Housing in Kentish Town.

After what seemed to be some of the longest waits until the green man flashed at crossings - or was it just me?! - we finally arrived in Kentish Town, met Cathi and got stuck in. There was lots to do:

• Clearing out, sweeping and reorganising the tool shed

• Sweeping and de-leafing the terrace and paths

• Bulb-planting in the garden

• Moss-scraping the patio stones

• Moving some furniture from upstairs

Beth and Frances even helped tidy up one of the residents' balconies (see photos!).

With the bulbs planted, the paths swept and the moss scraped, our job was done. We had a quick team photo and said goodbye to Cathi before running another 3km back towards the Living Centre. After nearly 7km (!), we made sure to stretch out properly when we got back to base. From there it was on to the pub for some - there was an amazing cake baked by Hayley to celebrate 100 good deeds - and others headed homewards.

Next week and other news

COMMUNITY MISSION: Some of us will be heading back to Story Garden on Thursday evening to carry on our work there from 5pm. Sign up here if you want to help out!

NEXT WEEK: Join us on Wednesday for the an October run up to Kentish Town City Farm to help Mel and the team put up their marquees for the annual Apple Day celebrations! It's going to be a big one, so come along - and bring friends - as there'll be lots to do.

SOCIAL: Oh it's a biggie - the last social to be organised by Pritesh - and an unofficial GoodGym 10 year party, coming up on the 8th November. The record attendance to beat is 83, I think we can smash that! Put your name down here if you're coming along.

Have a great week and see you next time.

Happy running,

Ben

30 amazing people joined me in Camden as we headed to Antrim Grove allotments for the last time this year and ran over 7km too!

We welcomed first time runners Niamh and Rosie Y and talked GoodGym's 10th birthday plans as well as the usual health and safety and general intro!

With that done and much bug spray sprayed we split into two groups with Rosie A leading the more keen runners and myself taking the more sedate group. We took different routes but ended up at Antrim not too far apart. We were split out into various task from weeding, to digging, to chopping and the remainder joined Kat outside to do some conditioning exercises!

With the light fading fast we swapped people over to do the fitness work and before we knew it it was 8pm and time to head back. We posed for a group photo in the dark (turns out my camera's night mode is terrible) and then we said our goodbyes. We split the group again but both took the same route, Rosie A leading a primrose hill posse and me taking the rest around the hill. Once back to base we stretched and then some headed to the pub and others home.

Next week we are celebrating 10 years of goodgym - there will be cake!

Cheers,
Pritesh

57 GoodGymers ran 6km to help Kentish Town City Farm, broke the Camden Attendance Record and I said farewell to you wonderful people!

On my first Wednesday living in London back in May 2014 I enjoyed GoodGym Camden, I found a welcoming community of runners who were like minded people. I was honoured to become your trainer in January 2016, something that's always been more than a job to me. It's a passion; to bring people together, learn about our bodies, help the communities we live/work in and then go to the pub afterwards. You guys are the best!

Thank you so much for last night, the amazing group of you that came in the rain to say goodbye (and hug the goats) and for such wonderful presents.

Okay back to the normal report... welcome along to the newbies Lisa and Xanthy - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. A huge well done to GG sisters Kat Kelly and Liz Pang for hitting 100 good deeds, I am privileged to call them my friends and proud of what they've achieved at GoodGym Camden over the last 3+ years.
2. Go along to CREOS Community Mission in Islington this Sunday - it's a great one that ends with a free picnic!
3. So I have two races planned that I'd love for you to be apart of - Rother Valley Running Festival (near Sheffield) on 16th November. Also we'll be going to Kiev in May 2020 for the next #GGxEuro Trip! More details about both coming soon.

Corrr blimey there was so many of you! Such a big group, in fact such a big group that we broke the Camden Group Run Attendance Record and were just a few people short of breaking the GG World Record. Next time.

For the run up there we formed two groups of 25-30 people, with brilliant Run Leaders and Taskforce Peeps leading, middlemarking (cheers Steve) and backmarking each one - thanks to Abi, Kat, Chris, Aidan, Patrick, Steve C, Frances, Rosie and James for all there help leading groups through the wet streets of Camden. Meanwhile Mr Lee and I formed good-cycle again and helped direct at various points along the 3k route.

Ciao now Bown cow

Upon our arrival at Kentish Town City Farm Mel told us the brilliant news about the mean old trustee board had been removed, new guys had come in place and £100,000 being donated by a very kind donor. The farm has been saved, a hollywood ending! Then she set us to work with four tasks:

• Three people collected up debris in the goat area
• Twenty-Five people removed old decking from around the pond, and then chain ganged it all the way down to the bin at the bottom of the farm.
• Fifteen people shovelled muck, bagging it up and re-piled it
• Finally thirteen people racked and evened out the ground up at the Arena

The farm was full of activity for 30 minutes, we got so much done and Mel was really pleased! Thanks for working so hard in the rain, muck and more. Next it was GOAT TIME - we hugged them, said hey to little Rosie and fed them - all the fun! After a special group photo we headed back to base for stretches and then onto to pizza + beer! Thanks for Kat, Rosie etc for organising that!

Bown-ding into the future

What a special evening to end a special time for me personally at GoodGym ( both Camden and Islington). As I said last night I started without a beard and not really knowing what was up, the community that is GoodGym has enabled me to grow into who I am today. Thank you so much for the fantastic presents, the messages, the individual farewells and for just being you. You guys are my family, I love you and I'm going to miss you so much!

See you at a GoodGym Event sometime soon!

PB over and out for the final time.

33 Goodgymers ran 4-5k to help Little Village Camden Branch make cots and wrap gifts for local mum's

Welcome along to the newbies - Lizzy & William - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. It's my last GoodGym Camden on 14th August, I'd love you guys to all come along for the run and the pizza + beers party afterwards.
2. It's the GoodGym Olympics on Saturday, come along from midday for the best day of the year! Last minute events may be avaliable.
3. Lots of community missions happening this week - including a Friday one helping Story Garden.

Corrrr what a fun evening! A lovely big turnout, a wholesome task and a nice run to finish.

Kat led the group for a 1km loop while Liz and I walked over to the task. Sarah and her colleague from Little Village Camden Branch where very much ready for us. They explained how their project helps to work as an gift bank where people donate anything from cots to soap, these are then sorted and then distributed to local families.

We split into eight groups for the task, the first of which packed and wrapped products as a present to local mum's. Over 40 minutes the team worked hard packing these presents up, filling boxes and boxes!

Everyone else was put in groups of 3-4 people to make up seven different cots (including a Boris Toddler!), they were all different and only one came with instructions. The task was to put the cots together, check they had all the parts needed, make sure everything was safe and then write out clear instructions for the donors to use.

Helping local mum's and babies!

Each team had it's own method to building and writing out the instructions. Over 40 minutes all the teams completed the tasks set, with Chris' team finishing first and arguably Dharmesh's team having the hardest to put together. Two teams managed to get onto a second cot but unfortunately both missed parts.

It was nice to have a different task that didn't involve weeds or woodchip, it involved lots of team work and everyone did great - well done!

After taking a group picture Kat led the group for a run around the canals and Granary Square - nice!

Sign up for next week here, task(s) tbc.

PB out