18 GoodGymers met on a summer's evening to water plants, dig soil, play a tag drill game and run 4km!

With Joel away in France eating desserts Paul Bown (Camden Trainer) stepped in to cover. There was a lot of good and gyming to do but before that we talked about that the news:

• Welcome along to the newcomers this week - Lorraine, Michele and Marjorie! Lovely to have you join us.
• It's GoodGym Monthly Drinks next Thursday at the Star of the Kings, it would be lovely if you could come along!
• Also why not join us for the Cardiff Half Marathon on 2 October, the last in the Big 6 GoodGym Races this year - it's going to be a good one!

Okay onto to GoodGyming; after an active warm up we headed off to Hackney Downs to help HUG, a new organisation, that is helping to create a community garden space in the area, you can find them on facebook here.

We met the lovely Myra who runs the project and she gave us our tasks for the evening, which were:

• Watering the plants, vegetables and flowers in the surrounding garden with a HOSE pipe. Rich took the lead on water with lots of others helping untangle, carry and pull the hose line. Particular thank you to Cecilia who got her hands wet several times turning the HOSE on and off.
• A second larger group used spades and forks to turn and pile up soil in the garden. This was very physical work because of how dry and dusty the soil was. The area which was beautifully cleared will be used to plant wildflowers, which is great for wildlife!
• The final group helped plant new flowers in the garden space and weed around the existing flowers.

Tasks galore!

All the tasks are incredibly important for the growth and sustainability of the garden project space. Well done everyone! Great work!

After a group picture we said our goodbyes to Myra and headed around the corner to do a tag drill game! It involves an individual demonstrating a drill to the group and then everyone does the exercise during the time the individual is running an out and back. It's harder to write down than explain/demonstrate in person but it worked fantastically; we had squat jumps, pushups, mountain climbers, star jumps and more.

Drills, drills and oh some drills

So we had taken care of the good and the gym so it was time for more GYM! We ran 2.2km back around some back streets and through London Fields, despite living in Hackney for about 8 months I still don't know it well enough - thanks for helping with the directions guys.

Finally we did some stretches, felt good about doing good and said "see you soon!"

Joel's back next week, and you are off to Hackney Elderly Caribbean organisation to help with some painting, sign up here.

PB out.

16 melting GoodGymers ran 6k to paint the main meeting room of the Hackney Caribbean Eldery Organisation in Stoke Newington.

On the hottest day of the year we knew we were in for a treat when James the new trainer for GoodGym Redbridge joined us to help lead the crew on the evenings group run. A top introduction speak check and we were off! Lead my magnificent task force member Clare we weaved our way through the Hackney back streets to Stoke Newington on a 3k run. We were all happy to make it to the task before we melted in the 30 plus degree evening sun, we met Natasha who set us on or way to mixing a variety of magnolia paint to make the now patented GoodGym White. A big stir and a frenzy of masking taping we go cracking with cutting in and dominating with the wonky rollers! Being a few paint brushes down we were able to switch in and out of jobs filling holes and sanding walls. We were also rather good at spilling paint! James proved his handy skills by removing the paint from chairs and the carpet with the delicate application of white spirit. With a last minute paint brush and roller reinforcement we had a epic sprint finish to get all the walls a good first coat of paint before our return in 2 weeks.

James and Clare lead the first group back to base while the perfectionist crew applied the finishing touches. A series of expert stretches awaited the group on the return to base and a fabulous Outro from James rounded off a top but very warm Group run.

Then it was time for the monthly social and brilliant to see 12 of the crew head over to the local for a very much needed refuel and as always top notch conversation.

Thank you to Cecilia for the Pun this week!

I will be away next week but have arranged a high quality replacement in Paul GoodGym Camden trainer and Hackney resident. You will be visiting the HUG garden and the unmistakable Myra to start preparations for a big festival on Hackney Downs at the end of August. Lots of digging and watering to lay the foundations for some amazing animal sculptures we will be creating in the coming weeks! Sign up here.

Best of luck to James with the brand new GoodGym Redbridge! If you fancy a bit off GG action on a Monday Evening Wanstead will be the place to be so get along and say hello repping Team Hackney

Have abreast couple of weeks, keep running and sunning

Smooth striding

Joel