On a chilly Wednesday evening 9 GoodGym-ers braved the cold, ran 8km and cleared St Saviour's grounds of leaves!

With Cory away I took up the Westminster mantle and was pleased to meet eight hardy runners who wanted their Wednesday night fix of getting fit and doing good!

Smooth was not how the night was going to go but no problem ever stops a GoodGym-er and with a hastily cobbled together sign in sheet, a slightly all over the place intro and some last minute direction setting we were all ready to go!

Not so smooth

Huge thanks to Howard and newcomer Jason for leading the way with their superior knowledge of Westminster's streets!

We managed to evade the hordes of shoppers around Oxford Street and made our way south to Pimlico, and with a a brisk run that really warmed us up, we reached Saint Saviour's and set about finding the store cupboard where our tools were waiting for us! This ought've been a simple task in itself but proved to be the hardest part of the night! We weren't to be stopped though and after much wandering about the church grounds we found a door that accepted our code and we were rewarded with gloves, rakes, brushes and bin bags!

Found it

In 25 minutes we cleared the whole rear section of the church and completely filled all the bags provided for us! We posed for a group photo (thanks to David our impromptu photographer) and then were back on our way to base. Earning ourselves some bemused looks from those around we completed a good stretch outside the university and then headed on our merry way home.

A great night

Thanks to everyone for supporting me and making it a fun night for all! Don't forget the upcoming GG Christmas party - lots of fancy dress options for Westminster!

You can sign up for next week here!

Cheers, Pritesh

Meanwhile in Westminster we headed 2 mins over the road to the Salvation Army to hand deliver a bunch of coats and toiletries and help out with giving them out as well as joining the other volunteers on soup kitchen duties.

The plan was simple, wander over, help out for the 30 mins then head off on a 30 minute tempo run so that exactly what we did.

The Salvation Army run a very tight ship at Princess Street drop in centre. Rough sleepers turn up and are offered food then ask what they need whether it be food, clothing or toiletries. You write it all down on a piece of paper, they are given a number, you go downstairs into the store room, collect the clothes, call out the number and bobs your uncle they are a little warmer.

We spent 30 mins there mingling, chatting and helping and then we were off.

An ever so slightly uncomfortable pace from light to light just to get the blood pumping, followed by some stretching and smiling and we were all done.

Thanks to all of you who came out to play, see you next week.