We had cake-off in H&F last night as 31 GoodGym'ers made a piece of cake of weeding and cleaning at Springvale Tenants Hall

It was our 3rd birthday celebrations in H&F last night which meant alongside our run and good deed for our community tonight there would also be three additions: cake, games, and well more cake! What made it extra special was that it was a record-breaking night in H&F with a massive 31 GoodGym'ers!

It was lovely to welcome along Joshua for his first H&F group run - you choose a good one to begin on! Thank you for coming along and lending a hand with all my wonderful regulars, and tourists from Wandsworth and Lewisham tonight!

With everyone donning one very fashionable party hat 🥳, or in Catriona’s case about four(!!) we headed outside for a quick round-up of this week’s news...

• Tomorrow (5th Sept) is the next GoodGym social at The Court on Tottenham Court Road, all details are here.
• GoodGym is turning 10! 🔟🎉 There's a big party at City Hall on Thursday 12th September and there will also be a BIG day of missions on Saturday 21st September - more details coming soon!
• New FREE Local Run Group - Meet at the Stable Yard in Holland Park at 5.45pm for a 6pm start 🕕. The Sept dates are as follows: Weds 4th, Thurs 12th, Weds 18th & Thurs 26th. Each run will be approx. 5-10kms. No sign-up is required, there is also bag storage ✅ & toilets ✅.

Three running 3️⃣🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

Before we headed off on our short run over to Springvale Tenants Hall we had a quick warm-up to get the pulses raising, after some exercises that tested everyone's co-ordination skills, we had a special honesty quiz on all things H&F. Some fun facts we all learnt was that this was our 175th group run, the 1st H&F group run was on 6th Sept 2016, there were 27 runners at the 1st run and 11 runners have celebrated their 50th good deed on a H&F group run (well I think it's 11!). For those that chose the incorrect answer there was the punishment of jumping jacks and squats.

After one final burst of fast feet we headed off towards our tasks tonight at Springvale Tenants Hall with Bex and Sarah backmarking. As it was a short run tonight we had a bit of fun on the way there as we looped back on ourselves through Brook Green to get in a few extra metres!

Weeds, three afraid, be very afraid!

When we arrived at the Hall we were greeted by the lovely Berni and Tom, and some very high and might weeds! With everyone in and gathered around Berni ran through the list of jobs for tonight:

• Weeding in the garden area between the path cracks 🌱
• Weeding and sweeping at the front of the hall 🧹
• Weeding and chopping of ivy outside the garden area ✂️
• Sweeping of leaves 🍂
• Removal of cobwebs 🕸️

There was lots for everyone to get stuck in to! And luckily tonight there were lots of hands to make light work of all the jobs.

The good knife

While we had a few of our favourite pointed weeding tools to help us weed between the lines, Berni also had the genius idea of using the cutlery knives from the kitchen. They were on point as they helped everyone to get to the roots of the weeds and it wasn't long before there were piles of weeds that had been removed from where they were very much not welcome!

Amazingly, the party hats remained on everyone's heads, with Catriona doing a particularly good Lisa Simpson/Garden Gnome impression and Chi rocking the alternative shoulder hat...

The powers that three declared that the weeds shall not path! 🛑

As ever, 40 minutes flew by and it was time to down tools and complete the final tidy-up. Phoebe and Joshua ensured absolute perfection on the front path before they joined the others inside for some treats that Berni had kindly provided to the group as a big thank you.

Check out the difference!!...

Before heading off we all gathered for some group photos infront of the red GoodGym t-shirt Berni has displayed up in the Hall next to a number of photos from our previous visits over the past year, what a lovely gesture!

We've never ab'd it so good!

Filled with the first round of treats we all gathered outside and headed off towards Brook Green for tonight's fitness session, With 'Mr Abs on Tour', Chi in attendance the group were treated to a hardcore 5-minute abs blast before a slightly more chilled game of 'plank the parcel' which essentially become 'squat & pass the parcel'...

There were sweets, challenges and cheesy party tunes galore as the two parcels made their way around the circle, with everyone seemingly picking on Mo and Catriona each time, and they definitely were not competitive in their plank off! An honourable draw!

As the nice light summer nights are now sadly behind us we ended the game very much in the dark, but with lots of amusement as we ended on none other than S Club Party! Well done to the winners, Catherine and Alice.

Cake the bit by your teeth 🧁

There wasn't much between the group and all the post-run cake celebrations. In what I think was record-quick time we made it back to base and were stretched off ready to either head to the pub, or home.

In the pub the celebrations continued with bakers Catherine, Bex, Tom and Jonathon all offering out fabulous cakes, naturally we all had to have a piece of each. The night was completed with some oops upside your head, retro polaroid snaps and flexed muscles! Most importantly, Alice ended the night with her favourite bottle from the Olympics, enjoy the apple goodness!

How to cake it in H&F 🎂

Thank you for an absolutely brilliant evening, and the most amazing array of delicious cakes that catered for all...Bake Off eat your heart out! Here's to the 4th year of getting fit and doing good in H&F! Thank you for your efforts each week and for making Tuesday my favourite night of the week.

AND...a big thank you to everyone who baked, bought party hats and helped with the fun and games.

Next week, the wonderful Ana is leading you to Flora Gardens to lend a hand with some painting, please sign up here. Have a lovely rest of your week and weekend! See you in a couple of weeks!