21 GoodGymers ran 4km to help Holloway School with lots of gardening!

Welcome along to newbies - Stephen, Pete, Culann and Jack great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. A huge well done to Meg who hit her 100th good deed last night - woop woop!
2. This Sunday is the monthly community mission to help Crouch End Open Spaces - sign up here.

After collecting together we talked GoodGym and warmed up before heading for the 2k to Holloway School. There was a lovely sunny up hill section which got everyone working well.

Upon arrival at the School we met Jonathan one of the teachers, he tasked us the following:

• Moving huge sacks of weeds and debris across the school grounds to be composted
• Meanwhile a big group pulled up weeds and grass, getting all the roots out as well as the surface shrubs. This area will be used to grow veg, something the kids will help to look after :)
• A team of three hoed and raked along the bottom of the hedge at the front of the school - awesome!

What a great task! We got so much done, Jonathan was really pleased and one of pupils who was passing was confused what we were doing to there school haha.

After a group picture we headed back the same way, a splinter group did a loop of the Emirates and see stretched out. Next was the best way to finish GG Islington ever - we headed for a picnic on Highbury Fields - yum!

Next week Aidan is in charge, you'll be helping Thornhill Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project.

PB out

22 Goodgymers ran 3-5k to help Single Homeless Project and Caledonian Park!

Welcome along to newbie Esther - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. You've got until Thursday to enter the GG Olympics which takes place on Saturday 3rd August. #TeamIslington
2. On 22nd September GoodGym is off to take on the Scottish Half Marathon/10k in Edinburgh - trains and accommodation will be booked soon - full details here.
3. Join the Unofficial GoodGym Facebook group here.

Caledonian Park Team:

Eleven of us headed over to Caledonian Park where we met Miriam, Head of the Friends of Caledonian Park. The group with help from volunteers like us are improving lots of areas of the park.

Our task this evening was to get rid of two huge areas of laurel plants which are redundant plants but also poisonous - with there leaves capable of releasing cyanide.

The area will be used to make an aputheatre which will be just lovely. Using forks, saws, a pick axe and various other tools two groups of five worked hard over 40 mins to get loads done - awesome!

We then ran home to eat Scandi biscuits and stretch.

Scandalous biscuits!

Tip-top woodchip shifting by GA:

Meanwhile, 10 entrepid runners joined team woodchip ran over to Islington’s Single Homelessness Project, where we shovelled a giant pile woodchip from the road outside onto the front and back garden of one of their houses.

With the humidity proving no match for 10 dedicated GoodGym runners efforts, we made short work of the woodchip pile, whilst tidying up the gardens at the same time. This made - and I quote from our - “a massive difference”. The garden is now ready for new plants to go in, in the Autumn. Top work!

Taking a different route back, we looped along the streets back to the emirates for everyone’s favourite summertime activity: Emirates hill sprints! Dividing into two groups, great to see lots of enthusiasm for squatting, springing, and star-jumping. The holy trinity of summer exercise.

Woodchip shifted; workout smashed. Well done team.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Mildmay Community Centre and Ramsey Flowers Group.

PB out

26 Goodgymers ran 4-5k to help Barnsbury Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project!

Welcome along to newbies Poppy, Nikul, Rachel, Nicoletta and Sam - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Make sure you get signed up for the GoodGym Olympics (3rd August) by the end of June! Full details here, represent Islington!
2. Join the unofficial GoodGym Facebook group here.

This week GoodGym is partnered with the Great Get Together, a scheme which was started by Jo Cox's family and friends to bring us more together, we have more common than we do apart. Everyone joined in with the wristbands and stickers, and hopefully spoke to someone new over the evening.

Barnsbury Square Gardens Report by Aidan:

A lovely sunny day for a trip to Barnsbury Square Gardens. Lucy was ready, waiting for us and eager to get started! Several tasks for us to take on tonight. The gardens are loved by the local community but sadly that means the grass has to take a pounding and as it is clay based soil the gardens can dry up easily. Helpful then that we had plenty of forks so we can loosen the ground and free up the ground.

Also plenty of leaves to pick up which clears the soil to get much needed rainfall. To finish off, their beautiful flower beds need edging to frame their gloriousness.

Lovely running

Some lovely gardens with plenty of great dogs, worth a visit! Fun fact there are two air raid shelters underneath the centre ground. Graham led us back with eager Steve offering up an extra 1km around the Fields.

Single Homeless Project:

Just as we were collected together Regina called to tell me the woodchip had not arrived for the task. There was still plenty of gardening we could do to help this fantastic charity, which provides hostel accommodation to those in need.

After 2k of running we arrived to help Regina, she got us doing the following tasks:

• Two people litter picked through the back and front garden - lots of cigarette butts!
• Four people weeded and tidied the front garden
• Three people tidied the paths in the back garden, putting any woodchip that had overflowed on top of the carboard.
• Three people took on an extremely spikey bush, cutting it back and then digging out the roots.

Once all the above was done we bagged up more weeds and debris, swept up and then took a group picture.

After running home along Holloway Road we did a fartlek session around the Emirates, stretched and went to the pub for pizza and beer.

Sign up here for next week when we'll be helping Caledonian Park and probably Single Homeless Project.

PB out

First, a big congratulation to everyone who took part in Sofia and a extra applause to James and Sally who did the run with us yesterday even though they just did a long run the day before. We also had Laura turn up after doing a casual 80 mile bike ride with a big fall of the bike in the middle. Glad she was able to make. You all deserve a nice rest.

During the introduction, I realised we had quite a few new runners. So welcome once again. As a quick count with everyone saying their favourite food and drink (Mainly Cheese and Gin with a surprising Pina Colada vote), we were off to the Rose Bowl.

It was a short 15 min run with the beautiful weather giving the runners a reason to smile and talk about. It was great to see the current GoodGym runners talk to the new ones. As we entered the venue and had a look around, we knew that we were going to be in for a mighty task of weed clearing.

The teams were unevenly split in two with the smaller group tackling the face of building and the larger taking on behemoth edge of the bowl which looked like a full on weed invasion with the paths and other paved parts looking less than inviting.

As I was walking past trying to capture the perfect profile picture for some of the runners social media, the discussions I came across included:

-What some people work as which included office jobs and community jobs.

-Other runs that people do which i think i heard someone mention about their parents showing off their parkrun time to their son as a sign of encouragement.

-The UK citizenship test which one of the GoodGym runners has passed (Well done). The test consist of some pretty serious questions that could have an Nigel Farage questioning his Britishness. One of the runners has tried to take Citizenship test from around the world and and the UK one is one of the hardest.

-One of the groups was just working in silence with determined faces to complete the job before the time is up.

There was a pretty significant job that had been done. We can now see the pathway edges and also the hidden bit of pavement that was being covered by green hue of weeds but it looks like we might need another visit to finish the job.

On the way back I decided to do squeeze in an easy fitness sessions to make Paul proud. This included planks, sit-ups and leg raises.

Thank you all for enduring me. Hope to see you all again soon for a fitness session. Paul will be back next week.