25 bold and beautiful Hackney GoodGymers braved the summer rains to run 4K or 6k to The Bikery and brighten up the volunteer areas with a lick of paint.

Great to have a top turnout for the always fun Hackney Group Run. Lovely to see some GoodGym newbies coming to work their magic with the crew tonight! Lots of energy, smiles and high knees got us under way after the pressure cooker that is the dreaded Head Count. A short pulse raiser was followed by some penguin walking, bird walking and a combination of strength and balance improving exercises.

With our joints mobilised and our muscles massively activated we nimbly glided through the Hackney backstreets on the 2k run to The Bikery. We met the super accommodating Mark who showed us around before we split into teams to attack the painting in hand. With groups in the ground floor and first floor bathrooms rolling away in freshening magnolia we had the black board crew creating a blackboard on the wall of the volunteer room while the notice board frame got a striking black boarder. We were then able to create a couple of statement ceiling beams in a striking blue after an epic taping display by Liv and Hadrien. Was great to be able to help out an amazing charity who provide such wonderful work based opportunities to those recovering from mental ill-health. Click here to see all the great work they do.Hopefully next time the weather will be kinder and we can get to paint the stencil on the front of the building.

For the race back to base on Antonia's request the Speedy group set off first and took the longer 4K loop back. While after a last minute tidy up and test of some amazing seeded cookies. The SuperSonic group powered away on the 4K loop while the Sexy crew steadily ran the 2.5k route back. Some pacy running by all the team saw us all return back at the same time, out of breath having really worked hard on a top session. Some weighty bread aided static stretches finished off the evening before the team headed off into the night.

Next week sees us heading to the Caribbean elderly organisation to paint one of their meeting rooms. We would love to see again for another great session so please sign up here. Remember next week is our monthly social after the run where we will head out to refuel after the session, be awesome to have you along!

Have a top week!

Stride smooth

Joel

Twenty One inspired Hackney GoodGymers ran 4K to the HUG garden on Hackney downs to dig flower beds, rescue the vandalised Williow tunnel and fill the dug flower beds with soil.

On a warm and muggy evening in H-Town it was great to see so many new GoodGym faces both touring and starting out on their GoodGym adventures. The timing of the session could not have been better as we managed to squeeze the group run into the only dry patch of a drizzly day. There were a number of runners with slightly stiff and sore bodies after everyone's magnificent efforts at Run Hackney Half Marathon on Sunday so we eased our way into the session with some gentle mobilisation work to get us all going and flush out the muscle soreness for those that needed it. A few high fives and a skip and a hop later we were on our way on the 2k run to meet Myra at the HUG garden. We split into 3 groups first got to work returning the Williow tunnel to it's former glory after it had been vandalised at the weekend. April showing some amazing core strength to hold herself in the air while digging a hole. The tunnel was soon back to its former glory after some seriously tough work plunging and bashing a pole into the ground to create the space for the Williow to go back into then some overhead knot mastery to knit the tunnel back together. The second group were busy cutting into the turf and creating 6 more beautiful pieces of landscape art or flower beds. The group worked in 3 pairs with one digging the turf out while the the other runner speedily carrying the turf to create some more landscape art surrounding the Williow tunnel with elevated shapes and a tear drop shaped flourish. The third group had their hand full with a 500kg huge bag of soil! The group got a slick production line of diggers and pushers going. With the diggers piling the soil to the Wheel barrows at a super rate while the pushers charged to fill the beds to the brim then stamped the soil down to get all the air out. Even with a poorly barrow the group stormed ahead and finished filling the beds with time to spare after I final push carrying the whole bag over to dump the last of the soil into the beds.

After 40 minutes of top quality action we had completed our tasks and look forward to returning next week for some more adventures!

We said our goodbyes to Myra and then got stuck into a 10 minute circuit blast with one group running while the second group dominated a series of conditioning upper and lower body exercises then switching when the lead runner returned. Seems like the half marathon has had only a very positive running effect on Clare as she stormed the running section leading her group powerfully back each time.

After the big energy expenditure of the circuit we had chilled 2k run back to base lead brilliantly by Chris B where we rounded the session off with a series of static stretches.

Obviously after monumental efforts of Sunday a celebratory evening out was in order so was great to have 15 of the crew head out to our favourite Tuesday refuelling venue for a well earned feed.

Look forward to seeing you all again next week for another addition of running fun! Please sign up here.

Stay Silky Smooth

Joel