We are ONE!

Last night we turned one year old! A huge thanks to all that have been involved with @GGSheff to make it what it is today a really great bunch of people from all sorts of backgrounds and running abilities that have come together to do good in their community and to get fitter. You are all truely a fantastic bunch!

Following a brief inside photo now the clocks have changed we set off to a brand new task in Kelham Island with In2Change a fantastic organisation that work with young offenders to avoid repeat offending and provide users with skills and education at the centre.

On arriving at In2Change we were greeted by MAGIC MARC & BRILLIANT BRIAN who gave us a tour of the building and the project and got us tooled up for the nights task.

As the planned paint job had already taken place we went for plan B which involved some painting of doors and some cleaning of the gym which needed some love to bring it back to sparkling splendor.

Both Brian and Marc were very happy with the efforts of the group and thanked all before we headed off to Craft & Dough for our anniversary celebrations where we were surprised with some generous Prosecco from 'THE KING' Steph Gilmer in his abscence and some fantastic GG cupcakes from chief organiser of the meal Kim Longbon. Thanks to both for your extra efforts and to all that attended for coming together to celebrate @GGSheff becoming one!

Here's to another fantastic year!

18 excellent @ggsheff runners ran 3km to help the CATHEDRAL ARCHER PROJECT tidy up their community garden.

After hearing about the teams efforts on Sundays run at DIG DEEP we set off into town taking on a few obstacles on route to the CATHERDRAL ARCHER PROJECT.

On arrival LOVELY LYNN welcomed us with cold bottled water and a brief about the project and the tasks for the eve which included a lot of cutting back of overgrown plants. The aim is to be able to use the garden as an activity for the project and its users who will hopefully take ownership of the garden.

After a good 45mins of hacking away the area looked a lot clearer and ready to be used once again. Lynn gave us a lovely thank you before we headed back off into the city for the fitness session.

This week we took advantage of the cities structures and landscape and focussed on some stair sets, box jumps and a killer hill rep session to finish off before heading into the SHOWROOM for a well earnt drink and natter.

Until next time.

HAPPY RUNNING

A lucky 13 ladies, hauled ass and grass and tons of mass, for the Willesden Town Team's tube Station Garden project!! HURRAAHHHHH

What can I say but WOOOWWWW WOW WOW WOW WOW The Brent team did not let me down this week after I sent out a call for help and requested many hands on deck for this show-stopping task!

Showing up to tackle the big project on hand was a fierce team of females, demonstrating all the girl power under the sun! Although we were missing our lovely regular lads; Dan, Enrique and Samuel, we had no doubt our girly grit would be enough to do the business!

After warm welcomes to newbies; Nic and Alba, the team prepared themselves for the epic journey..... ermmmm okay, it was literally across the street, however, that short stint did not phase me, as I knew what was in store!!

So the amazing community group - Willesden Town team are a collection of local residents who aim to give back and make Willesden a more pleasant place to live, much like us at Goodgym Brent. What a power-house team we make then! So when they requested our help with some heavy lifting and shifting, how could we turn them down?

The task Willesden Green tube station has 4 platforms, 2 for the Jubilee line, and 2 for the Metropolitan. The Metropolitan trains do not stop at Willesden any more. Consequently there are two platforms where the travelling public do not have access to. These platforms have brick planters on, where the town team garden. Last year, for the first time ever Willesden Green entered the TFL underground garden competition TFL in Bloom, and lo and behold, won the first prize, in the "cultivated garden" section. So with the competition coming up again this summer, they want to retain their position at the top of the league.

In order to do this they must develop the gardens and they currently don't have sufficient organic materials to keep planting. Therefore, Willesden Town Team had two dumpy bags weighing a ton each, one of compost/topsoil, and one of wood bark/mulch delivered at the top of the stairs of the tube!! Here's where we stepped in to help Our task for the night was to help them shovel, bag, lift and shift the compost from street level down the stairs to the platforms, ready for the green-fingered workers to set to planting over the next few weeks.

Now when I tell you these bags were big that is no serious understatement, in fact, they were enormous with a combined weight of 2000kg!!! So with the timer set and the girls ready to begin, we set to work and said Soil long to the streets and down to the depths we did run!

The girls worked tirelessly for a solid hour, shovelling, lifting and then running up and down the stairs to make sure we completed the task on time, with a cleared street at the end! And oh my goodness, did they put in some blood, sweat and tears..... okay tears were of laughter, but still!!!

On average each girl ran 10 trips, carrying 20kg a time down the 34 steps from ground level to the platforms!! All done in a perfectly timed hour. WOW!!!! Now that is some serious strength work right there!!!!

We watched as the bags got smaller and smaller and eventually the compost up top, was down below and the clean-up and sweep was the last thing to go! we were even treated to ice cold waters from Nest cafe next to the station, gifted to us by the wonderful owner Omar! Thank you!!!!

Now despite the incredible efforts, we still had some time to kill at the end of the session...... So, what better way to play out the rest of the day than Racing the train of course I'm not kidding!!! The girls steamed their way up and down the platform racing the jubilee line on the opposite side.... and yes.... of course they won!!! A train is no match for these wonder-women, who even had enough puff left to knock out some tempo runs street level to cap off the night!!!

With stretch and rest time upon us, we marvelled at the epic efforts and anticipation of sore quads in the morning because of all those stair runs!!! But hey hoe urban gardening ain't for the faint of heart, it takes real girl power to show this mulch gumption!

Until next time fitness familia!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE