As the nights draw in (yes, really) 21 runners covered 7km, swept away sycamore seeds, shifted, lifted, pulled and painted and enjoyed the view.

Every so often we get all excited and plan ahead for what we might do to celebrate a fellow runner's milestone, but sometimes someone might like to quietly put their head down and get on with it, without saying anything. Tonight Jacqueline did just that and completed her 100th good deed!! I only know this now, from looking at her Strava entry, 'My 100th GoodGym at the Seniors'. She's a cheeky one, sneaking that past us without saying. We're fond of a celebration here in Lewisham and WILL NOT be letting this one go without a knees up, so a social is now on the cards for the week after next. Congratulations Jacqueline, we're all very proud and very surprised at the same time :)

Thank you to Steve for the excellent - and apt - title pun!

Lots of our regulars are off enjoying the sunshine elsewhere at the moment, but very kindly keeping us updated, with daily photo updates of sunrise/sunset runs, poolside relaxation and red t-shirts on tour. Those of us still here in a slightly grey south east London (possibly due to the eclipse?) were undeterred by a bit of gloom and were all set for some hills. Joining us this week, all the way from the east was Ian, the trainer for soon-to-launch GoodGym Ipswich. We love welcoming new trainers and showing them the sights, so really put Ian through his paces by appointing him back-marker, along with Sean and Stephen, who are very familiar with the route to Seniors.

Before we headed out to warm up, we had a little celebration of milestones, with a grand presentation of three lovely black 50 t-shirts to Helen, Kim and Stephen, who have been waiting patiently to be able to show off their achievement. Well done you three, I can't wait to see you wearing your tops with pride.

The run over to Seniors is a longer one, but we love the extra opportunity to chat and catch up on the weekend's gossip. It's also a hilly run, but we ran hard and it was great to see everyone picking up the pace to reach the top, even if it was just 'to get it over with'. At Seniors, we were met by Cathy and Norma, who had a few different tasks waiting for us. Cathy went through the various jobs for tonight and everyone found a role and got stuck in. As you can see from the photos, the garden is vast, so there is ample opportunity to spread out and find yourself an area to work in. Tonight's jobs were painting the garden chairs (there are still many more to complete, but what a joy to see some (three) chairs being finished!) and sweeping up sycamore seeds - these pesky fellas are very good (and quick) at taking root and, before you know it, you've got a sapling to deal with.

At the far end, a team of gardeners set to, pulling up the bindweed, which had wound itself around anything that lay in its path, covering a whole area of ground around the raised beds. Along the side of the building were some pallets, which were carried over and laid down next to the existing beds, creating a foundation for some recycled art-handling containers, now destined to become raised beds themselves. In the middle of all this was a shed with a barbecue in it. This barbecue needed pulling out and, to do this, Sean and Michael pulled out everything else and had a jolly good spring clean along the way, great work!

That's an awful lot of work, completed in just half an hour, creating little pockets of transformation throughout the space.

Our return leg took us up and over (again, really well done on the hill climbing everyone, sterling work!). A trip to these parts wouldn't be complete without pausing to enjoy the view of a lit-up London from the top of Blythe Hill, just gorgeous!

Next week we will head out to Crofton Park Community Garden, to work on some more digging, shifting, weeding and so on. I will be away, so this run will be led for the first time by our run leader Conroy. Why not sign up and join in?

12 runners ran 4.5km to strip paint for Kingsgate Community Centre

High knees, hill sprints, 'n helping. Climbing was a big theme of this Monday's GoodGym Brent where 12 runners ran 4.5k to help out Kingsgate Community Centre.

Starting from a brisk warmup outside the Queensbury, we jogged gently for 2k before arriving at Kingsgate Community Centre. Kudos to the Brent regulars who prevented me from going the wrong way!

At the Centre we were first told they weren't expecting us - argh! But not to fear! Our lovely contact Louise soon explained to the caretaker that we were there to help out and we got cracking on brushing the paint off the railings to set the groundwork for repainting. This should help Kingsgate when they come to repaint, so a worthy cause! Particularly inspiring to see some extra-pro scraping techniques being practiced including backwards scrubbing (courtesy Joe) and musical scraping tools (courtesy Tabitha). Definitely a visible difference and a good chunk of paint off by the end of the evening!

Whilst one group brushed and scrubbed to get the paint off, another group practiced hill sprints. We learned how to work the arms, technique for landing properly and driving the legs forward, and maintaining good form running uphill, before putting that into practice with either three hill sprints, or a continuous 5 minutes on the hills.

Everybody's form really improved even over just a few minutes, which was really encouraging to see!

But were the GoodGym Brent regulars satisfied with one fitness session? Oh no. We had some serious fitness fans in the mix tonight. Post-task we jogged over to Kilburn Grange park to do an exercise set and some core work with everyone contributing 2 of their favourite exercises. Some particular highlights were: squat jumps, burpees, riding your bicycle on the floor, and 10 seconds of mindfulness. Obligatory sit-ups and press-ups included.

Two fitness sessions down, we ran the rest of the way back before cooling down with a few stretches. Top running and good-deeding from all involved, and a lovely start to the week. Thanks for making my first visit to Brent such a great evening :)

Six runners met on a fabulous Monday summer evening for a short run to the local former Willesden Green police station-cum- future community hub and all-round creative space, followed by a jaunt up to Gladstone Park for a breath-taking relay race!

A smaller group than usual, but no less full of good vibes and energy, Claire was happy to welcome second-timers Jo and Emily, Joe with an 'e', and Brent regulars Liz, Tabitha and Deborah, vying for the 50 good deed black t-shirt, who will be the first...?

We set off down to the High Street with a spring in our step to the task that awaited us - yes that's right, moving old mattresses ready for collection, and stacking up a batch of new ones. There was no sleeping on this job though, we shifted those mattresses quicker than you could say 40 winks and even had time for a cuppa tea.

Meanwhile, out front, Deborah, Tabitha and Jo had set about sprucing up the surroundings, litter picking, weeding and ... oh dear... standing in poo (ever heard of bag it & bin it Brent dog owners?!?). Not one to be a party poo-per (groaaaan!), Tabitha didn't let that take the smile off her face (well, only temporarily!).

With tools packed up and gloves returned, we said our goodbyes and thank you's for the hospitali-tea and ran off towards Gladtstone Park for a tempo relay race, the six were paired up and ran round the bottom of the park in different directions till they met somewhere near the middle, high-fived and changed direction to race back to the start point - competition was fierce and there was only a measley 17 seconds between the first and last finishers, impressive work! We regrouped for a well-deserved stretch out on the grass before heading back to the Queensbury.

Well done everyone! You make Brent Brighter!!!

Leafleting for affordable and free counselling services in Brent to support the people of the borough to achieve positive and healthy mental health! POW POW Random and raucous run report written by a boisterous, banter filled GG Brent, in a game of Run Report Consequences at our summer drinks ting! Enjoy the madness!!!

The beautiful crew, knew what to do when they met in The Queensbury, for a run and some leafleting. Good gym a'hoy, let's spread lots of joy, said the leader named Ellie to the merry and many.

The rain was pissing down and the group looked like rats who were drowned and that's before we had even set off for the task!! Oh Well... Hoods up and off we went to show Brent what's up!

Handing out the leaflets was wayyyyyyy to easy for us pros, so we went for a sprint down to Cricklewood as well! Yay.

As we scattered, the group were dumbfounded......where could she be? Despite excruciatingly aching muscles each took a road and ran, yelling out Ellie's name..!!! Oh there she is.

Next the runners were told that "Glutes" are evil and must be destroyed..... (Side note from actual Ellie talking now..... this is a fiction.... I love GLUTES!!!) and 24 glutes were P-lunged from existence.

The sadistic leader then tortured the athletes until half of us had broken down, however, she was relegated back to base and made a visit to the police station for her comeuppance (oh wait that was last week)

We finished the keep-fit part of the evening with some lunging and stretching. Elisa said "Hi" to a guy.... The group said "Who's that?"....... She didn't know but he was very very handsome! Perhaps he'll come to Goodgym next week..??!?! Let's hope so!!

All stretched out and ready to roll (and drink), there was just enough time for a quick photo op (Ellie never misses a trick) Ellie pulled one of her poses for the photo, giving up the totality of any semblance of normality. Ellie also had a moment when she talked about the mystical side of sports training.

Two late arrivals showed up with medals from the 10mile race yesterday.... Sadhana and Mouse Yipppeeee. More practice to be done at Goodgym, as there are many more races to be run with fellow goodgymers!!

The end......The chips..... The drinks..... The Italiano sisters told me to write this! Hummmmm thanks for that stunning finisher Samuel!!!!

See you next week!!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE