A terrific-sized team again

30 runners gathered for this evening's task, always a popular one, as we headed to awesome Oxford House half a mile away in the heart of Bethnal Green, to start The Big Paint Job.

After a quick warm up, Luke stepped in to lead us all down the road to our task, taking in a little detour, to avoid The Longest Traffic LIghts In The World, and to squeeze in a microscopic little more mileage.

It's all in the prep

Sarah, our task owner, was BRILLIANTLY prepared as always: runners had been pre-assigned to two areas, complete with own rollers, brushes and paint trays.

What looked like a large office space upstairs to begin with, soon looked brand new as less-than-white walls were rapidly coated in bright new paint. The runners worked tirelessly in small teams, pausing only to assess their work, or, in Tom's case, to offer extra lighting to show up the faintest of smudges.

And, as always, 30 minutes in, half the team were task-less, having finished so quickly, and were soon tasked with the tricky job of cleaning all the rollers, and helping fellow runners out in the basement. The team work just went on and on.

Hitting the floor for some flexibility work

And then it was after 8 and we gathered in the wonderful theatre area for our Pilates flexibility session. The team were on fire tonight! In a packed theatre, they balanced, and stretched and strengthened - every last rep executed brilliantly, and without a peep. Gold stars all round.

And no sooner had we arrived, it seems, flushed and fresh faced from our run, than we were posing on the ramp for our cheerio pics, to a very appreciative task owner.

Our thank you's - and our shout-out's

A massive warm welcome to Alica and Toto who joined us for the first time, making an immense contribution to this evening’s activity! We hope to see you again very soon.

Thanks from the whole group to our wonderful Task Force, who ran some brilliant activities this weekend, and to Becky G for backmarking this evening too, and to Luke for leading and navigating our run to the task.

...And our new task next week!

Next week, we’re at a brand new task when we’re heading to Victoria Park - yes the Victoria Park - to help the Park Ranger Team spread mulch. And then we’ll be running. This is one not to be missed, so sign up now.

Ready to head out

It was a very cheerful group of runners who congregated in a rather hot hotel room this evening to prepare for our two-task night. Everyone was keen to get going to our gardening tasks, which originally involved a lot of digging, but one of our tasks changed at the last minute, due to a waterlogged garden!

Bryon's brilliant gardening team

After a very brief warm-up, Bryon led the Hollybush team to the Commmunity Food Garden over at the Hollybush Estate where Michael and Margaret soon put the runners to work with bundles of weeding and digging. They worked tirelessly squatting, weeding and bagging, and Margaret was just thrilled with what they accomplished, messaging the minute they'd left with proud pics, asking when they could return!

...and chilly digging at Cranbrook

Meanwhile, I led the second team to the Cranbrook Community Food Garden where task owner Janet was keen for the runners to fill in the many holes the foxes had dug, in and around the vegetable beds. Teams were dispatched to the compost heap, to shovel and wheel compost back to the beds where the filling team were on hand to repair the foxes' damage.

As usual, the GoodGymers were ready well ahead of time, and so a new crew was formed outside of the garden collecting the many leaves filling the borders.

...topped off with sprinting at Meath

And so 8pm came and went, and we all met at one of our favourite training places, Meath Gardens (this is not only very pretty, it's also well lit, so useful for winter fitness). Tonight we were running laps, and so Emily and Sarah started us off, being our first 'hares' for the greyhound-and-hare game, a Tower Hamlets favourite. With a very small head start of 30 seconds, they sprinted off, with a speedy team on their tail. Winners Liam and Chi then headed up the next lap, with an even shorter head start of 20 seconds. In between each lap, we worked on a different variation of the lunge, tailored to our running needs (the hopping and kick-butt lunge may have seemed like mean choices in between speed sets, but they're excellent for the bigger running picture, honest).

And the before we knew it, it was nearly 8.30 and we headed back to the hotel, to cheered in by Chi, and stretched courtesy of Christina!

What a night of GoodGym contributions - thank you. Not only did you work so tirelessly for our task owners, your input to our overall session, and your fitness contributions, were incredible.

Let’s hear it for…

...Our new runners. A big GG shout-out goes to our new runners tonight: Damien Steve and Rebecca, whose first time it was with Tower Hamlets. You were all such an asset to our two-task evening: thank you.

Thanks to our brilliant ‘hares’ tonight: our brave runners who rose beautifully to the challenge of setting the pace for a fast and furious speed session: Emily and Sarah; Chi and Liam, and Rebecca and Fiona. What a fabulous start to the week you gave us.

Thank you to Chi, for helping to lead our fitness session and for some great pics, and to Christina, for some wonderful new input to our end-of-session stretches.

…And thanks to Joel, who always comes up with a game-changing pun at the eleventh hour.

And to our brilliant task force. Who are always behind the scenes, planning, leading and helping to build you a brilliant night. Thanks to Bryon for leading our Hollybush team and for fab pics; to Becky for beautiful back-marking and for meeting-and-greeting so well every week.

And so to the week ahead…

Looking ahead to this weekend, Sat 9th Feb, we have not three but FOUR events you can be part of! Becky G is heading up another fabulous Mile End parkrun pacing event - all those details are here, while also this Saturday, the 9th, Bryon will be heading up a picturesque canal run, followed by shrub-planting and a late pub lunch with our lovely task owners! Come and join in for as little or as much of this fun-filled Saturday afternoon as you fancy.

And next Monday, we’re back to Oxford House, just around the corner, for an indoor task helping to get this wonderful arts centre ready for a lick or two of paint, followed by Pilates session with a focus of flexibility - details and sign up are here.

Have a really good week, everyone, hope to see you soon.