Goodgym Kingston runners Rob and Kate met Lorena and her sister Milena at Las Aguas to begin our great debut plinternational ( plog international)! The goal was to clear the walkways leading up Monserrate of litter. Monserrate is a hill that dominates the city center of Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia. It rises to 3,152 metres above the sea level, where there is a church with a shrine, devoted to El Señor Caído.

Rob was keen to lead the stretches and warm up inspired by our Kingston run leader Mark. While Kate was pleased to point out that because we were warming up for our jog and task at 11:30, we’ll still be mid -plinternational at exactly the same time as our Kingston group run was warming up outside the Guildhall, because they’re 6 hours ahead of us in London. It’s like we’re doing a split task litter pick on two continents with team Kingston Goodgym this Tuesday!

Post warm up and we were all stretched and planned out. Lorena came prepared and got out the bin bags and she donned her gloves. There was plenty of plastic litter to be picked up provided by Coca-Cola and Gatorade as well as many plastic cups, countless plastic straws and lolly sticks, plastic spoons, sandwich bags and water bottles. We were so pleased to be able to clear up the area and couldn’t bottle it up! The climb soon became a bit trickier and Rob mentioned feeling a bit dizzy from the bending down to pick up litter at over 1500m at that point. It seemed like the hill kept on going and we were getting tired but we knew we’d get over it! We kept a positive altitude and felt better after a little encouragement from some locals. We passed many people on the way up that saw us gathering rubbish and said ‘muchos gracias’ and ‘buen trabajo’! Someone even stopped us to take a photo of us and say that he likes what we’re doing and is happy to see us cleaning up the rubbish. He also asked Lorena about our Goodgym group. As we’d almost filled two bags of rubbish we were relieved to find some larger bins to deposit them into near the top and could continue the climb on what was more than merely a slight incline as Mark might say but was certainly a solid hill! The views of all of the city of Bogotá at the top were a great reward!

“Dib, dib, dib” – we set off to do our best tonight despite being a few regular runners less than usual on a sunny gorgeous evening. We worked up a sweat running 4.25k along a positively ‘balmy’ Hogsmill (let’s just leave the description as that) and met our two other runners who made their own way to the task location due to injuries and work commitments. Rob missed the shout at the brief though so CONGRATULATIONS on 50 Good Deeds!! What a trooper!

Our task tonight was helping to clear the outdoor area of Southwood Park for the Royal Kingston Scout District before an important fundraising event they have coming up.

Their founding Chairman James welcomed us with his son Adam who was about to move up from Scouts to Explorers and gave us a fascinating insight into the district venue – over 70+ years old and where the Chairman was a scout himself as a boy. This great outdoor space alongside Hogsmill services all the different groups in the Tolworth, Surbiton, Malden and Kingston areas. There are five sections you can join, depending on your age – from Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and even a network for young people up to 25.

Luckily, we didn’t have to clear all 3/4 acres of the site (well not tonight anyway) – but we cleared the worst of the weeds (including some mutant giant leaf ones) around the entrance area with all the tools available and some shoe-digging (a new exercise/ gardening technique?). For our photo call at the end we even managed to do a few new ‘tyre’ exercises – as if we weren’t tyred at all!

Then it was dib, dib, dib time to get back and promise our run leader that we GoodGym will always write a good run report…

We tried our best! Thanks for having us James and looking forward to the return visit especially as there was talk of there being chocolate!

Finally, a big thanks and farewell tonight to our Colombian runner Lorena who has run with us since Winter last and departs home to Colombia tomorrow. We will miss you Lorena but happy running back home in Colombia and stay in touch!

And best of luck all those doing the Vitality 10k.

Next week’s Heart Foundation run is beating to a different rhythm now so look up and sign up to help at Citizen Zoo – See you then!

Happy Birthday Kingston

Party time for sure fell upon us runners at the Kingston Guildhall tonight, there was Martel’s Birthday… Jane hit the 100 good deeds, the new Mayor coming to office and GG Kingston celebrating doing good deeds for one whole year already!! I know exhausted just reading that aren’t you and you haven’t even got past the warm up yet!

Neither had we as we had cakes to be set out, balloons to be carried in and out of Guildhall and a budding young chef, a 13-year-old boy named Luke to thank for making such scrummy cakes to help us celebrate.

Did anyone eat one before the run??

Ok so the brief was briefer than ever (I’m sure cakes were going already during it) as we had to meet the Mayor but not before a document check is squeezed in and of course we welcome two brand new runners Tom and Lucy. Great to have you join us and while we are here let’s shout out to Victoria, Eliza and Africa from Richmond for making the trip over to party and run with us.

We made it to the Mayor just on time and had a great send off from his party including the Chief Exec for the council (who is promising to run with us soon!) some lovely words said and photos had and then there was no escaping it. Escaping the craziness that is a warm up from a run trainer that just does not sleep at night inventing ways to get a team primed for action and Kingston bless you for you have survived a year of them - so much Kudos to you all.

Star jump Mexican wave anyone? We know how to have fun #warmup #party #fitness #goodgym #kingston #birthday #marketplace #volunteering pic.twitter.com/lIrIoefLhR

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) 15 May 2019

So, to Market – Kingston market that is and some mobilisers and activators in front of Golden Queen Anne and then would you believe …more cake but this time on the run or conga if you prefer (there’ll be no munching this time) and a relay around the square that left many passers by wondering just what we were up to. In fact, some runners too also had the same question I think but it’s party time so let’s all do it! For the record we didn’t use Luke’s cakes here as they were just too good and it’s worth highlighting too that every runner made the task look a lot easier than it was. (A year’s warm ups and acrobatics had paid off a trainer smugly thought!!)

Party games! 🥳🎉#warmup #goodgym #kingston #cake #running #volunteering #tuesdays #dogood #fun #birthday #firstbirthday #ayearold pic.twitter.com/ASK2jWy9gj

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) 15 May 2019

So, without this going on until a second birthday what’s the task I hear you cry and well, wait for it I say as we have a 3.4km run to get there first with the added bonus of a little hill or incline of sorts if you will just to spice it up. Loved it (speak for all of us when I say I think we all did). The task was at Edith Gardens and was to help Citizen Zoo renovate a green space to create a nature reserve for those in the community with disabilities to be able to access and enjoy. It is to be the first of its kind in our borough and wider so in South London. Citizen Zoo are a super organisation so definitely give them a look up to see what they are up to and how you may help the great work they are doing in our communities for wildlife, conservation and habitat so it can flourish, and we can all get to benefit from it.

We were met by two great gentlemen Elliot and Jeremy who had been on site since 8am and they were still fired up and super passionate about the project, so we couldn’t help but feed off the energy and get stuck in (some were feeding off of some cake energy too I think!!). Elliot’s brief was awesome, no sooner done though and we lost Nik and Rob to the woods where the stake banger tool (not sure that is the correct name for the contraption) was put to work as the supports for the dead hedge that the rest of us were creating were put into the ground. The photos speak for themselves here – It was an awesome task and a great chance to assist on such a super project. A gift for a birthday run really so it was hard to leave and we look forward to going back already but we had to run as ….well, the pub was calling and a social was awaiting!

A strong focussed run back was on the menu and….. oh yes, I remember… that was until the run trainer turned to watch most of the group run blissfully the wrong way and so had to go screaming after them. We settled for a strong steady run back rounded off by a cool down without the usual sounds of our dustcart in the background to drown our voices or was it there and I just don’t notice anymore? No matter there was cake and beer to be had and so to the pub.

A great turn out with an awesome group of people, so a thoroughly enjoyable time was had – We even had a GG quiz and the prize of a Unicorn! NO not a real one but one in an inflatable ball – you know ; - )

Thanks all for the great year had and all the super running, good deeds and kind hearts that make a marvellous team to be part of. Such a blessing in the community and here’s to the next year!

Last night 10 of us gathered to practice our lateral movements as well as, of course, do good! However, we could not side step the fact that our task tonight was a little bit of a wash out....

After a warm up to get our glutes fired up and some technical tips to ensure a better squat we headed for Piper Hall Community Centre (To assist at the request of the community group Norbiton One)which hosts an array of events for the Kingston residents. We ran about nearly 3km there, keeping a steady pace in a tight group with our ‘Pied Piper’ (Mark Barun) leading the way.

When you think you are doing what the Trainer asks, and then realise your DEFINITELY not and neither is anyone else! #goodgym #kingston #warmup #lateralmovements #running #volunteering #tuesdays #getfitdogood pic.twitter.com/DvXtwmCxNY

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) 8 May 2019

Once at the Community Centre our task was to 1. Find the key that was in the “coolest” of hiding places and 2. Find the cleaning products, that was….ummmm, not so easy.

We had been asked to wash a number of chairs in the centre but unfortunately, despite there being two kitchens we struggled to find tools to do the job. We scrabbled around and found a couple of bowls, two sponges and a cloth, a lot of paper towels and a collection of different cleaning products - unsure if any were suitable for the job in hand. We were not to be defeated, (Goodgym Kingston never are) and so we…..we just got on with it - we moved all the chairs outside, got our hands (and the one pair of marigolds that one runner had the notion to bring with her) wet and did the best we could with the products we had. In true GoodGym style we formed a production line of washing, drying and carrying back inside until there was only a few chairs remaining. They looked so much better and that was with a 'spit and polish' effort - Imagine how gleaming we could have got them!

We finished by practicing our squats and trying to avoid sitting on a damp seat as we took a group photo, which seemed forever to take - our quads can testify to that and then headed back to Guildhall on a short run that took us through some new streets we hadn’t ran before.

Great run last night with a small but very supportive team! #running #exercise #fitness #goodgym #volunteering #kingston #neighbourhood #support #runninggroup pic.twitter.com/49AzI7dsw1

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) 8 May 2019

Great to see you all - both the runners and the walkers.

See you next week where we will be celebrating our FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Please meet at the Guildhall for a briefing at 6.30pm, we will then have the chance to be given a send-off by the Mayor of Kingston before heading to a new task location in Edith Gardens.

After the task and run we will be heading to the pub (location to be confirmed) to bask in a year of great achievements in our borough!