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

Swapping Monday blues for running shoes, a Goodgym perfect 10 help an angelic book shop sparkle again!

Undeterred by the election of the absurd and not swooned by the bright light of a supermoon, members new and bold gathered at GG Brent local, The Queensbury. We welcomed 2 new members again to the fold this week - Amy and Hannah and were pleased by the return of Helena even after last weeks Queens Park mile attacks! Special shouts go out to both Eliza and Deborah for making it without their usual running mates - There's no 'I' in team!

Completing the crew we had (She ain't got no belly) Coach Ellie! Making up the rest of our terrific team of track-tastic trudgers: (Next week's coach) Clairey-Bell, (Can't tame me) Amy, (Getting leaner) Samina, (Every one's a-fan-a) Hannah, and the rose among the thorns Enrique (that's me : )

Hot to trot but sweaty we were not, as our destination was just a short skip away. We had arrived at our Beginning, and we vowed to make it Glorious!!Greeted by the the welcoming 'Hi there' of our favourite JEEP 'dri-ver' some of the team tooled up with sponges and things, others charmed a lend of a ladder as two nipped into a Sainsbury's loo, to fill a blue bucket and one of those green recycling bins with water, to wash away some sins.

'Wax on, wax off' type upper body efforts cleaned the Sign and window - "watch out below, oops, there's water on yo!" (unlucky Samina! and everyone else who got splashed!) Working so concertedly, we managed to remove, quite sweetly, some unsightly graffiti.

Having heard the good news it' time we were off to climb the mountain. Following Ellie as she ran, grinning with her cunning plan - Hill Training - AAAHHH MAN! (Did someone say squats - apparently we chose this?)

Pointers on technique said like words of encouragement lead to a fast and steady start for the group, then a shaky turn had us realise that calories are what hills burn! A self imposed beasting drill on a damp North London Hill. The collective sigh of relief upon arriving back at the bottom after Hill folly three was red in the face for all to see.

Speaking of bottoms. . . Even after the the trio of triumphant trips to the tip, any GG Brent meet wouldn't be done without the monkey on all our backs (sides) SQUATS!!!

Delirious by this point we squat. We squat and hold, we squat and thrust, oh god we even (balancing pretty well considering) bounce in to and out of alternate squat lunges!!!???

Back to base to celebrate Andrea having just achieved a distinction in her Masters!!!

Monday's really are good!

Kinda sad it ended - We're all broken. . . and just a little mended : )

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Here at BadGym there are three ways to be evil:

1) Group runs. We all meet up once an week and go and make the borough a little bit more dreadful to live in. We find newly-decorated community centres and graffiti the walls; we visit public gardens, pour bleach over the flowers and scatter dandelion seeds everywhere, and we occasionally "give people a bit of a kick-in"

2) Missions. A small group of runners go to a vulnerable person's house, find a job that they struggle to do themselves and make it even harder. Classic example include putting lots of heavy furniture in front of doorways and removing the handles from saucepans.

3) Coach runs. This is where a runner is paired up with an isolated older person that they visit once a week and terrorise. The basic idea is to get as drunk as possible, get a cab to their house, do a runner without paying your fare and then sit and abuse the older person for a good half hour or so.

Four new evil-doers joined us tonight: 'orrible Oscar, Scary Scott, Spirit Sophie and Haunted Hazel. We hope you hated it and never come back.

So, this evening we paid a visit to Barnsbury Community Centre. Our job for the evening was to pull up flowers and plant weeds. We also had to smear lots of dirt around the new floor tiles in reception. We worked hard at generally messing the place up for a good 20 minutes and it look awful when we left. Brilliant!

And there was lots of getting fat tonight. Atrocious Alex provided gummy sweets and chocolate beans, Dastorous Dan provided homemade ghoulish biscuits and Spooky Simon provided the usual biscuits.

Ghoulish Game of the evening was finding three hidden chocolate pumpkins concealed underneath cones. Can't remember who found them now and I don't care cos I'm evil. BTW They were poisonous! Ha ha ha ha ha!

And also lots of dressing up this evening. See main photo for the efforts. Some clever ideas with Frightening Frances dressing up as "plantar fasciitis" and Ghastly Graham as a Trump supporter, but by democratic vote Bella and Hazel were clear winners and fought over their prize: a little millkybar ghost. I hope it rots your teeth.

Our disgusting debate? The best way to murder somebody and get away with it. Notable ideas: Richard suggested reversing over somebody in your driveway and Chilling Charlie like the idea of Ricin. There were other good ones that I forgot. If that makes you feel left out then GOOD!

I hate you all. Please don't come back next week,
Spooky Si

P.S. there's a picture of a mushroom with another mushroom on it in the photos. This is because I accidentally copied it across with the other photos then thought you might want to see it anyway

9 GG Brenter's ran 6k, to shift 4 wheelbarrows of rocks, 8 of leaves and avoid 1 crafty little fox

On the coldest night of the year so far, the wrapped up and raring to go crew of Brent gathered eagerly at the good old Queensbury Pub on the high road of Willesden, for a housekeeping full of good cheer, good chats and the welcoming of 3 newbies into the fold YAY - The lovely Enrique, our only fella for the night and Sisters Tania and Eliza.

After welcomes and warm-ups the team hot-foot it through the chilly winds down to Harlesden Town Gardens where Gabriel was waiting with his trusty torch. The task to be achieved this night was a Wheel-barrow of laughs shifting piles of rocks to support the development of a rockery and leaves into the newly built comps patch. Needless to say we totally rocked it

After 40mins of back breaking shifts cheered on by a medley of my weird and wonderful spotify treats (summer and holiday inspired) We spaded, pushed and shovelled our way through the lot, managing to avoid Mr Fox who had taken up residence there.

Back to the road and it was fast, fast, fast all the way home. The team were like a speeding bullet, running like a pack of wolves in formation, a beautiful site to behold! Up hills, round bends, through the darkened parks. As we raced through the blackness there was only one thought in our minds, it's head torch season and our short shorts days are numbered.

Back at base we stretched and reviewed. Another epic night, fantastic vibe and laughter that carried our legs through the distance.

See you next time.

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

A whopping 45 Goodgymers gathered in Islington this Monday

A mass of goodgymers flocked to Highbury Pool this Monday, ready to get involved. We welcomed several first timers to GoodGym, why not go and give them a cheer and say welcome to Imogen, Caroline, Sarah, Laura, Susann, Wendy, Claire, another Imogen, Alice, Victoria and Emma.

Congratulations were in order for Patrick on his Berlin Marathon time as well as everyone who went to Cardiff Half Marathon on Sunday. Well done to everyone!

Farming fun at Freightliners

This week's task was with the wonderful people at Freightliners Farm. No one loves a visit to the farm more than GoodGym, even if it does mean shovelling some manure. As it is a short run plenty of people took on the challenge of a longer run with Graham leading the way with some laps of Highbury Fields. The rest of us were too eager to see the animals and headed straight for the farm.

Graham describes the longer run:

A group of hardy GoodGymers set off to up the pace and distance with a few extra laps of Highbury Fields before starting.

Following a few warm up drills (featuring high knees, tail flicks, walking lunges, and sprints, and my best attempt at something resembling an army drill), we headed off to get the extra distance in.

Brilliantly, everyone did at least an extra two laps and upped their workout with an extra 2k - nice! Given the number of people who did extra laps in total, I reckon we did at least 50 laps of Highbury Fields collectively. That's about 10 parkruns, and longer than marathon distance - excellent job team!

With the extra laps under our belts, we ran over to the farm where remarkably we didn't get lost. Well except for that one-bit-where-we-ran-5m-past-a-turn-but-that-totally-doesn't-count. Which as any Islington regulars will tell you - a pretty big success given my navigation skills! A pre-task running session success.

We may have had a big group, but there was no shortage of work to be done and by golly did we tackle it. With wellies and gloves at the ready the first group got stuck in shovelling a mountain of manure into sacks. Working in pairs they tackled the task with gusto. Great job! By the time everyone from the longer run joined there was plenty more work to be done. There were groups:

• Shovelling manure

• Shovelling compost

• Transporting 60 bags of manure (and then taking another 20 bags)

• Sanding a table

• Sweeping the courtyard

• Cleaning the paths

• Weeding the paths

• breathe

Phew, amazing work! And of course a special shout out to the Torchbearers, which has become a bit of a regular task now that Winter is coming, without them we can't see a thing!

It wouldn't be a trip to the farm without meeting the animals so before leaving there was plenty of time to say hello. Once we were all cleaned up we set off back in three groups for a quick run back.

Only in Islington...

Going with the farm theme, the debate this week was "What is the best farm animal?" Going for a very democratic voting system of shouting your answer goat was definitely heard the loudest.

Keeping the farm theme alive, biscuits of the week were a childhood favourite Animals and a random find of Zoo biscuits. Both going down very well post run.

What next?

• This month's drinks are on Thursday 6th at the Islington Townhouse in Angel. Local to us so come along! More info here.

• If you're too committed to the running to be drinking then why not try a Fitness 4 All training session in Camden, also on Thursday. More info here.

• If I haven't tempted you by either of these then we will see you next week!

Awesome effort everyone!

Aidan

On Monday night 17 runners headed down to Stepney City Farm from the Town Hall Hotel. A nice mix of first with GoodGym runners, first time Tower Hamlets runners and familiar faces made the 2km run down to the farm where we met Simon and a collection of goats, pigs and ducks.

We split into two teams, one to start on the huge pile of compost that had built up since our last visit, the other to empty a pond. With loads to do we stayed on site for early 50 minutes, slightly curtailing our run home, but with the satisfied knowledge of a task well done.

We then split into 3 groups to head back to base with the help of Bryon, Andrew and Alison via different routes, at different paces.

Until next time!