Well, who knew that running in the cold and dark could be so romantic? After all, we were running a Valentine’s heart-shaped route (thanks for the visual, Strava). Although, Mark was kicking himself when Kate pointed out that it was in fact Pancake Day before Valentine’s Day this week and oh, wouldn’t it have been much easier to have planned a pancake-shaped route….

We were feeling the love anyway what with all the good we were doing at Silver Birches Care Home in Richmond, our third visit to this residential home tucked away in a quiet leafy neighbourhood and at the end of a long, tree-lined drive. We have filled A LOT of bags with leaves, branches, weeds and the occasional superworm over the course of our three visits to this venue. By the time we left on Monday evening, the tarmac was almost gleaming in our head-torchlight and we had managed to prune the overhanging branches of a stocky little pine tree without a pair of secateurs in sight. Who needs garden tools when you have ingenuity, body weight and sheer bloody mindedness at your disposal?

Not content with the core body workout we’d just given ourselves sweeping, bending, squatting and stretching to clear debris from the drive, Mark then got us working on our stability and strength by doing standing split balances and repetitions of squats and lunges in the care home car park. Treat ‘em mean to keep ‘em keen, eh Mark? ;-)

So, knock yourselves out, GG Richmond, and slather on a thick coating of chocolate Nutella spread on your pancakes this week. You’ve definitely earned it. And in case you’re in need of some inspiration for your Valentine’s card, here is Jenna’s poetry in motion, perfected whilst hanging from a tree branch…

“Roses are red, trees are green, the secateurs were nowhere to be seen.”

This awesome run report was written by equally awesome sister sledge - Debs and Tabs!!! YAYYYYY!!

10 Goodgym runners braved the cold, less than 10 degrees so I'm told. To help Jack our trusty man, with the help of tools from his van.

We started off running through the bitter chill. Dinesh setting off fast against our will. Before long we arrived to the task at hand, ten-ding the canal, soon to be our piece of land.

As quick as we could we began picking the litter. Luckily for Jack this bunch couldn't be fitter. The bin bags themselves were pretty small, so we set ourselves the task to fill them all.

5 minutes to go and we moved to our biggest task of the night: Pulling the trolley out of the water, what a sight!

The boys set to it, that's right we had four! We're hoping they're all back next week, and even some more.

We hot footed down the road, back to our bit of Brent. Along the way dropped off Debs and Tabs, away they went.

A great task was had by all and thank goodness unlike last time, not one fall!!

See you next time!!!!

Eleven runners ran 6km to help Harlesden Town Gardens

On a dark November night, 8 runners met up at the Queensbury to set off on a 2 mile run over to Harlesden Town Gardens. We found runner Meg, and task leader Gabriel waiting for us with a welcoming bonfire already blazing steadily in the pit that GoodGym Brent runners had helped create in a previous task – great to see it being put to good use!

Dinesh and Dimple arrived shortly after the main group after having just missed us at the Queensbury, but luckily their navigation skills and nous led them to the heart of the action around the glowing fire.

We quickly formed a branch-busting bunch to saw up logs to keep the fire fuelled, and a marshmallow-skewering and toasting, sparkler-twizzling support group to keep them motivated. Claire had sadly underestimated the enthusiasm and marshmallow chomping capacity of GG Brent runners, and one pack of those fluffy sugar and gelatine clouds just wasn’t enough to go around, so Joe and Uthman saved the day by running to the corner shop to re-stock so we had enough to make smores (marshmallow and chocolate, sandwiched between two digestive biscuits, wrapped in foil and toasted in the fire, for the uninitiated!).

It’s great to see how the Town Gardens are evolving, and Gabriel told us about Friends of Harlesden Town Garden’s future plans to build a clubhouse there, here is the link if you’d like to cast a vote to support their funding bid:

https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/voting/project/view/17-4315

It was so cosy round the fire that it was hard to leave, especially after all the sugary indulgence – but somehow we managed to tear ourselves away and get back to the Queensbury again, I don’t know about everyone else, but the hills felt a bit steeper on the way back…!?

You Guys were ace, thanks for coming, great to see your faces!