Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us, happy birthday dear Hounslow, happy birthday to us!

That's right, the Hounslow group is officially ONE. We have taken our first wobbly steps into the world of doing good, and have the quads to prove it. Last night was truly a night of celebrations. We cheered Andy who shares his GoodGymiversary with Hounslow, and Will who was also at the first ever group run. We welcomed the lovely Jeremy to the group for his first ever run - throw a cheer his way, Hounslow! A huge well done to Remy who tackled the horrendous-sounding Luton half and showed that race what for.

After a discussion on the best thing about birthdays - cake, friends, joy, cake, gin, gin and wine,having a whole week off work, cake and more cake - we did our warm up and set off for William Hogarth School. It was a short run there so we did it fairly nippily, looking forward to our indoor task. Unfortunately, when we got there ready to do some flatpack assembly, we found that Ikea had literally not delivered, so we were tasked with raking the outside area which was providing a nice home for many, many leaves.

Undeterred we got stuck in, filling up no less than seven black bin bags to the brim with those leafy pests. Great upper body work out, team. We stopped for a quick photo underneath the apt 'celebration of work' banner and then hit the road again. It was so nice of Hounslow to put on a fireworks display for our first birthday just as we finished the run, and it was only right that we stopped for a quick rest to enjoy them.

But not for long - we had a birthday fitness session to do! We divided up into three teams and played a game of Ana(erobic)grams. The idea was that everybody collects letters by doing exercises - one tuck jump for every good deed, high knees while naming Hounslow tasks, guessing the number of good deeds, planking if you were at the first ever run, high fiving someone whose name began with 'R' and many more - until all 15 were collected. Then came the great unscramble. It really came down to the wire, but it is my pleasure to announce that in first place, winning a round of drinks, was.....the Chizzee Rascals! Way to go Andy, Will, Natasha and Claudia.

All that was left that a trip to the pub for the quiz - kudos Team BetterGym for coming SECOND! - and to eat some cake. Except it didn't quite happen like that, did it? Least said, soonest mended - but check out the photos for the full story.

It's been a cracker of a year, Hounslow. Here's the the next, and the one after, and the one after that. And a huge cheer for all your brilliant personal achievements over the past week.

24 wonderful runners ran 5K to revitalise the railings at the Ballast Quay Garden!

It was a beautiful evening over in Greenwich (although still a bit cold for my liking). We welcomed the lovely Nina to the gang and saw a comeback from the speedy Simon who ran with us last summer! Good to have you back Si! Finally we saw the return of everyone's favourite threesome (or trio should I say), Steve who has just finished his exams, Christian who has finally recovered from that nasty cleaning injury and Alex who managed to roll out of work on time despite being in an ice cream coma. And Laura was back for more after her first run last week. GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK GUYS :)

The favourite part of your day!

Favourite thing this week required a little more thought than normal but it was nice to hear snippets of everyone's day!! We had people playing with new cafetieres, eating pecan slices, drinking champagne at work, walking in the park, sleeping in the park (although not whilst walking Linda), leaving work on time, eating Lindt bunnies and copious amounts of ice cream. LOVELY!

Cone flipz!

We did a little warm up in the form of the cone flip game. We split into two teams - one team flipped the cones the right way up and the other half flipped them the wrong way up then we counted to see how many of each there were at the end! This one really gets your heart going as you're constantly going up and down and running around! Mike and Katie were on opposite teams but Mike was hot on her tails flipping over everything she did, undoing all her hard work! No boyfriend points for you Mike! After a few minutes we were good to go.

Since the garden was only a few minutes away, we decided to run the time trial loop that we would be doing in the fitness session so everyone knew roughly where they would be going! Ben P led the way in his little GG race vest (you can join the GG race team here!) and 1km later we were back where we started. A little group photo (the first of many of the evening, sorry it was just too nice not to) and then we set off for Ballast Quay to meet the amazing and super lovely Diane!

We came here last summer to shift some bricks on the shore and this time it was some railings that needed a bit of love. We split into two groups so Ben C took group 1 away for a little jog along the river whilst the others got sanding! Fence dust was flying everywhere and people's faces began to look like the chimney sweepers in Mary Poppins so at least we knew the sandpaper was working! A few wipes with the white spirit and it was ready for the paint!

By this point, group one returned and we switched over. Alex took the other group for a little run whilst the others got stuck in with the painting! Steve was using all of his manipulative skills to try and coax a swap with Clare for her larger brush. "This small brush is really good, you can get all the corners" but Clare was having none of it. George and Christian got more paint on each other than they did the fence but their input was still appreciated. 15 minutes later and the fence was looking BEAUTIFUL. Plus the sunset in the background made it even better. Another group photo and we said our goodbyes to Diane. Hopefully we will be back in the next few weeks to do the other side! STAND BY!

GoodGym Greenwich TT Strava Segment!

We ran back for the fitness session which was a fast version of the run we did earlier that evening. So the idea is we will do it once a month to see how everyone is improving! I think people were a little nervous but I hope everyone understood it was not a race against each other but more a race against your future self :) So stopwatch at the ready, Ben P gave a brief briefing (a short briefing not a briefing about briefs) just to clarify the route and BOOM, away they went!!!!!! Just a few short minutes later and the leaders were coming into the finishing straight. Some really speedy running from EVERYONE! I was blown away, especially with all the corners you had to go around! I hope you all remembered your times. Write it down so you don't forget for next time. We have the official Strava segment leaderboard here which Simon and Amy are currently top of! Congrats! Also massive well done to Linda who pushed super hard and got an amazing time! So chuffed for you!

A little stretch and some Percy piglets and we were done :)

Finally here are a few handy links: Here is a link to the Victoria Park 10K that a few of us were talking about last night if anyone fancies it! It should be relatively flat and fast! Here is a link to our GG Greenwich Facebook group, please join and get involved! Here is a link to the big monthly social which is tonight!

Massive well done last night everyone! Thanks for putting all your effort into the task and the TT. It was awesome and hope you had a great time! Oh and huge good luck to Ben and Brin running Brighton marathon this weekend!

8 runners run a swift parkrun followed by river rescue training

The second of our goodgym starter sessions this month; after parkrun we met at the bandstand ready to learn how to rescue people from the river for our regular Rivercare task.

Rob joined us for the first time, and together With David from Rivercare we made our way to the lower park to learn how to use the rescue bags. Much fun was had by all as we learnt about throwing the line upstream of our rescuee.

Enjoy the pictures, and see you all at our next run on Wednesday evening at 6:45pm