OMG, is it true? Your damn right it is..... We hit 22! Not just that.... Now hold onto your hat Four Boys did come for some Goodgym fun!!

On a beautifully sunny Monday, we hosted Brent's largest ever familia affair, with a whopping 22 runners, rolling deep to represent the west wing of Goodgym! YIPPEEE And yes you did read that correctly we had not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR marvellous males, holding down the fort for the Brent Brigade. This is a big dealio y'all, because up until now, we've been a largely female populated crew, so to welcome these guys, filled us with delight!

Also in the mix this eve were four fabulous newbie faces: Dinesh, Zara, Simon and Audrey who to their credit threw themselves straight into the old familia faces of the beloved Brent crew, with all the smiles and enthusiasm under the setting the sun!

So after welcomes and housekeeping, we set to stepping the 2 mile dash down to the task for the eve, a Granville day out gardening jobey for our great friends - The Granville Community Kitchens in south kilburn. As we set off it was clear to see, with such great numbers there would be some diversity. Some were fast, some were slightly slower, but everyone running hard to get to the lawnmower!

With Debs and Joe taking on leader of the fast pack roles, there was no stopping the speedy twosome, as they pushed pace and got the front pack to the task in swift time. I led from the back and enjoyed every last chat with my gang of girlies; Mouse, Amy and the fabulous familia clique the Anandas, who as well, to my delight, had brought mum back!! Hurrah!!! Ready to rock the roads and give back for Goodgym looking fresh to death in her floral enemble. Go on Mum!!!

So with crew 2 arriving with me in 30mins flat, we were delighted to enter into an already busy scene. The weeds were being wacked, the plants watered, the holes for compost being dug and the awesome foursome of guys on deck, putting themselves to good use by shifting some Shhhhhhhhhhhshould we move on..... It definitely needed some expert MANoeuvring that MANure!!

While the gang worked their magic, Leslie our host served up some delicious treats! Fresh watermelon and some lovely cold H20 Water way to be treated hey!!!

With 30minutes of hard graft under our belts, the gang didn't stop there. Next up they got to stepping with some fitness drills to finish off the session. Three rounds of plank holds, with various arrangements: Low holds, high holds, hip dips, high to low changes and press up practice thrown in for good measure! Core blimey they were working hard and putting in the real-deal efforts..... I expect nothing less from this team of legends

Last whistle blow and it was sadly time to go. One last pose, because as we all know, I do love a snap of my Goodgym pack.

Last shutterbug of the night achieved and we were off once more, into the eve which was still gloriously light. The speed demons head off like bullets and leading the back-packers once more, we cruised it home with all the good vibes in the west! Snapping selfie pics with pink elephants all the way home.

Back at base and it was stretch and last banter, with The Ananda's mamma telling us of her secrets to youthful looks..... wait for it...... A full bowl of spicy curry before every run!!! Yikes But you should see this woman, like Benjamin Button, getting younger every step she took!! Think I may try that one out, but perhaps a Korma, no warmer?!?!?

BOY OH BOY, What a night, to welcome our blokes in with the female folks. We focussed our run, towards a wonderful cause in Kilburn. Ran four hefty miles all with big smiles. The weather couldn't have been hotter, but no group could be better, than GG Brent, from Goodgym, heaven sent.

See you next time fitness familia!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

32 awesome runners ran 7km to sweep leaves, pick up litter, clean windows and flyer for Charlton House!

What a beautiful evening it turned out to be! Quite warm, yes, but lovely nonetheless. It was Mridula's 50th good deed last night and we suspect she might even have been the fastest person ever to have reached 50! Isn't she AMAZING!!!

We were joined by a fair few new faces last night which is GREAT! Please welcome Matt W, Tina, Stephen and Corrazo to the squad!! Give them all a cheer!

After talking about what we had for lunch for 10 minutes we went a did a little warm up consisting of a few lunges, squats etc and a little run around pretending to be flamingos on one leg :) A few minutes later and we were good to go!

We split into two groups. Ben C took the lead and headed off through the park with his speedy gang. The other half of us took it a little easier, although the hill never seems to get any easier does it!! But once again, you all smashed it, and it must be helping, since Mridula did hill repeats in Hilly Fields with GG Lewisham on Monday and said it was a piece of cake compared to our hill so the training must be paying off!!!

Our group had a well deserved rest at the top, we took a lovely photo under the tree and then cracked on towards Charlton.

We arrived and group 1 had already started working hard. Alex, Steve, and Matt G ran off to deliver some leaflets whilst everyone else had a bin bag in hand going round picking up litter. Unfortunately, there wasn't a huge amount of equipment but thankfully you're all a bunch of superstars and just mucked in regardless. Everyone buddied up to clear as much litter as possible. Linda armed herself with the broom to sweep the leaves off the path whilst other people cleaned the windows. According to Clare, they were actually making the windows worse... but I don't believe that for one second!

3, 2, 1... GO!!!

At just after 8 o'clock, the boys returned from their flyering duty and everyone else had finished their jobs. Mridula had of course collected the most litter because she is the best at everything! We put the bin bags inside and brought everyone together for a quick little relay! We split into boys and girls in attempt to make the teams relatively evenly weighted. Teams 1 and 2 lined up one behind another and the simple task was to run to the wall, run back and tag the next person in to do the same thing until everyone had finished!

The twins went head to head on the first run... it was tense but they came in roughly neck and neck. Next to go was Matt J who was running SO fast he even had a little tumble! Hope your knee is ok Matt!

In true GG spirit, everyone was cheering and clapping for their team mates which was LOVELY! And of course it was never about the winning was it guys and girls.... no not at all....! Ha, yeah right! I've never seen you lot run so fast!!!

Team 1 finished a few seconds before team 2 but as it transpired, team 2 had an extra person and therefore an unfair disadvantage so victory was theirs! Better luck next time team 1!

After a lovely group photo at the front of the house, we headed back the way we came, through the park and most importantly down the hill!

Oh hey Vickie!

We arrived at the uni and along came Vickie. I of course took this as an opportunity to massively embarrass her in front of everyone by announcing her huge ultramarathon success but she is amazing and it was such a huge achievement so how could I not? :) And Mridula saw this as a perfect chance to gloat that she had beaten her to 50 good deeds.

There was no time trial this week due to the concerts at the uni blocking the way. Chris had a mild panic attack when he realised the Jacksons were playing at the weekend. We have an MJ superfan in the house!

We had a little stretch on the grass, made our way back to the room (Chris moonwalked his way back) and then headed to the pub!

Thanks so much for coming everyone! Well done on the run, 7km is a big deal especially in that heat so give yourselves a pat on the back! Also thanks for just getting stuck in at the task. You're all amazing! See you next week!

Amazing GG Brent tonight!! 2 tasks, 2 teams and 2 run reports!! POW POW

Part one - Elle Energy talks shaking asses with the masses and chopping the grasses

OMG Could it be... A number sixteen, who came out to clean, chop and shift and pick up sticks across the borough, it could be none other.... Than the Brent GG, hurrah and Yippppeee!!

So there I was on this sunshine filled glorious evening with tasks coming out of my.... heavily branded Elle Energy leggings clad bottom!! Not one but two of our community friends requested support tonight and so as not to let anyone down, my glorious crew showed up in masses, to shake their asses down to Harlesden Community gardens... and.... our old pal Col, at the Police Station for a last min help request to make the building a safer environment by clearing some crazy debris!

So with a 9/7 split we head down Walm Lane in our two teams, red tees glistening in the sun and making people stop and stare at all the laughter and good vibeing fun.

At the turning up to St Peters Av, we said our goodbyes and departed, with me leading the 4mile gang to the gardens and Mouse and Sadhana leading on to the Police station. And can I just say it was absolutely wonderful to welcome back so many beloved old faces - Nisha, Dimple, Roshni and Isabelle and...... the incredible Karen back from her half marathon charity run in Kenya!! But as Karen was used to running next to Giraffes in her last big jaunt, she may have been disappointed by the lesser impressive wildlife on offer in Harlesden so chose instead to hit up the Police station for some much needed grounding. With our jungle runner specialist lost to the coppers, it was left to me and crew 2, to Get down, get down and jungle boogie with Gabriel at the gardens and tackle the massive branches for some serious tree surgery!

Along with the jungle bashing affair with our resident dare devil and head for heights honey Liz leading the way, the gardens played host to all manner of other nature filled fun - Watering the plants although Debs mistook my ass for grass at one point, soaking me entirely!! Thank you cheeky monkey!!, clearing litter from the grass with help from some extremely cute local kids, stomping down compost and breaking up branches and with only 30mins to do our best, we wasted no time and threw ourselves in to the tasks with motivation and grit!!

In no time at all, it seemed, the time was up and wishing farewell we turned on our heels once more! Fast pace and gunning for a race, there were a few points where the gang were smashing pace below 7min miles AMAZING aghhh but wait.... was it because they heard from team one that if we swung by the cop shop on route back, we could enjoy some of Colin's home made banana and date smoothies..?!???!!! No monkeying around, because these chasing chimps couldn't be stopped from getting to those bananas!!

After the jungle-juice pit stop we had less than a mile to trot back to base and rejoin our lovely gang once more! So as we reconvened, we shared our stories of the wet and wild adventures on both sides and how maybe one day if we were lucky, we could be selected to join Colin's special boat party VIP's!! Dunno how my land loving jungle Janes and Joe our resident (not so good with heights) Tarzan would do on water..... guess we'll have to see when the invitations arrive!!

Ok here goes - Part 2. Second half of the run report, from the marvellous Mouse

Colin’s milkshake brings all the girls to the yard…

Seven super strong GG Brent ladies (Dimple, Roshni, Nisha, Isabelle, Karen, Sadhana and Mouse) smashed the short distance down to Willesden Green's old police station to assist Colin in his cop shop clearout.

And imagine our delight to be welcomed with by a lovely pear….of juices (clear and cloudy) and homemade banana and date milkshake. Fruity!

After a quick refreshment break we set to work in clearing a variety of items (tents, musical instruments, boxes of ladies shoes that Colin offered to us but alas - despite lots of interest from Karen, Roshni and Nisha - no-one was Cinderella and the shoes did not fit) out and up into the gallows. We didn't hang around… and before Colin knew it we'd lifted and shifted everything bar a bit of tinsel that made a bid for freedom. He was almost lost for words… almost.

And so we moved on to our second task of the evening… clearing out Claudia’s closet! Thankfully there were no skeletons to be found, just a huge variety of theatre costumes and props, which Sadhana created a one-woman show with... whilst pocket rocket Dimple scaled a ladder to heave everything up into the loft.

Jobs all done there was just time to check out the “medicinal herb” garden and the hives on the roof...the bees knees! before we bid farewell to Colin and his trusty sidekick Rob and ran back to base to regroup with the rest of the GG Brent team and swap stories.

And there you have it Fitness Familia. A lot of LOLs and always Good Vibes, I am in love with this fierless, happy and wonderfully weird Goodgym tribe

See you next time!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE