It is my pleasure to announce that 21 lovely Goodgymmers joined us for Simon Fitzmaurice's first outing as GoodGym Islington's new trainer, and ran to fix up an overgrown garden at the amazing Mildmay Community Centre. Great to see familiar faces, Goodgym tourists (Thanks Nurjehan!) and new participants (Becca, Caitlin and Gerry- welcome everyone) getting stuck in!

Shout outs to the Goodgymmers who helped out at the Crouch End Open Space over the weekend- the well-deserved picnic looked delicious. More information can be found here.

If anyone fancies a long social training run (not for setting PBs!) next weekend, Trainer Simon will be leading the Goodgym Monthly Long Run on Sunday, a route called "The Tour of the Docklands". 10km, 10 mile and 16 mile distances are available, starting from Greenwich and finishing in Stratford Olympic Park, passing loads of River Thames landmarks on the way. Sign up here if you want to get involved!

After a few warm-up exercises, and learning everyone's favourite biscuit preferences (I think Dark Chocolate Hobnob was the most popular...), our crew ran through Highbury Fields Park and past Newington Green to Mildmay Community Centre, and were greeted by Mus, the head gardener for this evening's task. Armed with secateurs and trowels, the team uprooted weeds and snipped back thistles and thorns from the main garden area at the site, whilst concentrating on staying upright on a steep slope! Lots of really impressive teamwork on display, and we ended up with loads of bags full of green waste by the end of our session.

The Mildmay Community Centre is a fascinating building- the whole place is fully sustainable and eco-friendly, boasting a roof full of solar panels for everyday energy usage, green gardening spaces and rain water receptacles to store water for the plants. Some really exciting projects are coming up, so we will be sure to return soon.

Just a reminder- next weeks task to Caledonian Park will start at a different location due to the Bank Holiday. Our start location will be:

The Arc Centre 98b St Paul Street London N1 7DF

(Nearest tube stations are: Highbury & Islington or Angel)

Have a fantastic week! Happy Running! See you soon!

42 GoodGymers ran 5k to help Rose Bowl Community Centre with gardening and lots of heavy lifting!

I love you guys and will thoroughly miss being your Trainer, it's been a fantastic two years of good-ing, fun times and biscuit eating! Thank you so much for the farewell run, pizza and beer. I really appreciate you all coming to a PB Islington record run #PB4PB - plus of course thanks for the presents - so very nice of you awwwwww

Welcome along to newbies Amy, Kate and Gilbert - lovely to have you along!

One bit of news - go along to help CREOS this Sunday for our monthly Community Mission.

About last night

After a rather long intro we warmed up and then split into two groups for the run to the Rose Bowl Community Centre, one led by James and the other by Graham! Meanwhile the good-cycle gang (Steve Lee & I) cycled to the task. Upon our arrival Dawn and Ceri were the most prepared ever, they both thrive off large groups of people so they loved us! They tasked us with the following:

• Clearing the ivy, leaves and debris from the court/play area
• Lifting various items out of the container - bikes, metal poles, DJ decks and more. These were then sorted for either keeping or throwing.
• Clearing as much bamboo, leaves and weeds as possible near the back gate
• Cutting back the ivy along the back wall - a very satisfying job!

Over 40 minutes the garden of the community centre was buzzing with activity, various shouting and everyone being careful to not stand on tools. We even found some wings which we attached to Graham and then he presided to fly away back to Alexandra Palace....

Whatever you say Dawn, whatever you say

Overall we collected up three huge sacks and ten bin bags of garden waste, made everything look beautiful and sorted out a huge container full of stuff! Awesome! After putting all the tools away we took a group picture and then headed back to the Emirates for my final time trial with you guys and biscuits galore.

Once again thank you so much for being an awesome community of runners, GoodGym has always been more than a job to me. I'll miss you guys!

Make sure you come along to support Simon Fiztmaurice (New GG Islington Trainer) from next week, you'll be off to help Mildmay Community Centre - sign up here.

PB out for the last time.

35 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help Waterside Adventure Playground and the Single Homeless Project!

Welcome along to newbies Neil, Caroline and Michael - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. My last GoodGym Islington is going to be on Monday 12th August, I hope you can come! Sign up here. After 5+ years with GG I'm going to be moving to Sheffield to do a Masters in History. I'm sure going to miss you guys!
2. It's the GoodGym Olympics this Saturday at Parliament Hill Athletics Track, there is going to be tons of different events taking place. If you aren't signed up to compete definitely still come along to support. All starts from 1pm on Saturday.
3. Next Thursday (8th) is the August GoodGym Social - more details coming soon!

SHP Report:

Graham led a brilliant group of 15 people to help the Single Homeless Project on Grosvenor Avenue. As ever Regina was delighted to see us and had lots for us to do, including:

• A group of five picked up and took through bikes, metal scraps, old pots and other bits of rubbish from the back garden to the front for it to be collected and thrown out/recycled.
• A group of three led by Steve weeded the beds and around the planters.
• Meredith and Kat got stuck in smashing up planks with a mallet to make fire wood. They were helped by residents which was great.
• A team of four led by Frances swept the paths and pushed the woodchip back onto the beds.
• Lastly four people put front removed weeds, litter picked and did some cutting happy trimming!

After 30 minutes we'd got loads done, Regina was really happy! We were recruited with some free drinks - turmic sofa and apple cider vinegar - yum! Graham led the group back to base and did a fun fitness session on the way back.

Aidan's Waterside report here:

A great 3k run down to Waterside Adventure Playground where we met Sarah who has recently started at the Playground. The playground is free for all the community to use; one of our regular tasks here is to loosen up the wood chip to make it a softer landing for the kids to play.

They also have a sandpit with a water feature they would like to bring back to life. Sadly it needed a whole new lining, so tonights task was to clear out as much sand as possible. We also had another pile of sand which needed bagging and removing as it has been sitting in stagnant water.

The Sand People are easily startled, but they will soon be back, and in greater numbers."

Everyone pitched in and we speedily finished all, with Sarah very happy she can go back and say the sandpit is ready the next step in its revival.

No trip to Waterside would be complete without a quick climb around, having a childish moment. The moment is over quickly though as we need to finish our run and get back to base!

Sign up for next week here, we're all off help Caxton House help prepare for their summer festival!

PB out

21 GoodGymers ran 4-6k to help the Single Homeless Project and Rose Bowl Community Centre!

Welcome along to newbie Tim whose first time it was! Plus welcome back to Patrick who used to come when we met at Highbury Fields.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to both Claire Rees-Sewak and Claire Choe who hit 50 good deeds last night - an amazing effort from both of you - be proud! Black t-shirts are on there way!
2. Next Monday after the group run we are going to have a picnic - please bring goodies to share. Full details here.
3. We've got two community missions coming up - setting up a community fete in Newington Green on Friday and helping Crouch End Open Spaces on Sunday 21st July.

SHP Report:

Another week of helping the wonderful Single Homeless Project and another location up at Shaftesbury Road near Crouch End. A team of 12 of us were on hand to help Regina with the following:

• Clipping and cutting back overgrown bushes
• Sweeping the paths in the front and back garden
• Weeding and then piling it up to be composted
• Litter picking

Over 30 minutes we got everything done and Regina was really happy! We had some spare time so we treated ourselves with a longer run home via the parkland walk and the railway line trial. Finishing 10 mins early where we stretched and ate SQUIGGLES - arguably the best biscuits from the southern hemisphere that for one night only were in the northern hemisphere!

Rose Bowl Report by James:

Nine of us ran to Rose Bowl, a youth centre offering music, art and drama-based activities, sports and even circus skills training for young people in the local community.

We were met by Dawn, who knows us well as she used to work at Waterside Adventure Playground where GoodGym has visited several times in the past. First up Al, Meg, Abi and Patrick took some old car tyres away from the garden area we’d soon be prettifying and transported them upstairs inside.

Next Claire, Amelia, Patrick and Al rid the outdoor area of weeds and Frances got handy with the strimmer. Dawn would spontaneously scream with excitement every time she saw our progress. She was so grateful! Meanwhile Meg and Steve between them made about 2,000 saw strokes to create 50-odd wooden medallions, which looked oddly like biscuits to our one-tracked Islington minds.

SQUIGGLES

The out-front team then moved a big wooden arch and two big pots to a different area, to clear space for a table to go. Meanwhile Abi and James headed out the back to the football pitch area where they weeded all around the perimeter then swept everything up and collected it in waste bags.

We then checked our watches and, yep, it was exactly Squiggle o'clock. Only one thing to do at that time of day. Even Dawn treated herself to one of these tasty kiwi morsels.

Next week we will be helping Holloway School and having our picnic!

PB out

20 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help Ramsey Flowers Group and Mildmay Community Centre!

Welcome along to Haus, Amelia and Heather whose first time it was last night - woop woop!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Graham who did Finsbury Park 5k on Friday and Sally who did the Maverick 15k on Saturday!
2. This Saturday is the Night of the PB's - more details here and sign up to volunteer here.
3. We've got a couple of Community Missions coming up: helping CREOS and Notting Hill Genesis

Mildmay Community Centre Report:

A group of us ran to Mildmay Community Centre where the very well prepared gardener took us out to the garden where we'd be working. After everyone eventually found a left and a right glove we got to it - weeding around the edge of several planters, removing ivy from a fence line, and clearing the ground around a rare apple tree then surrounding it with fresh compost.

Weed-free

There was talk of a competition to see which of the planters could be rendered the most terrifically weed-free, but in the end it was pretty obvious that we'd all put in a winning performance. Nice work team.

Ramsey Flowers N1 Report:

Ten of us headed to Ramsey Flowers N1, which are a local group who look after the area behind the Rose Bowl - including St Paul's Walk. We met Becky who gave us a few tools and bags, and then tasked us with wedding and sweeping the park area.

We focused a lot on generally cutting things back and tidying up the borders of the flower beds. During our tidy up we saw Dawn and people from Rose Bowl, they are lookikg forward to us helping next week. Over 30 minutes we got tons done, bagging up 7 bags of weeds and debris.

Next we took on a conditioning and sprints game, took a group picture and ran home. An all around great evening of Goodgym!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping the Single Homeless Project and Rose Bowl.

PB out