Slippery ten wet

Last night a fantastic ten GoodGymers joined me raring to get fit and do good good in H&F, despite the horribly wet and cold conditions...and unfortunately not armed with flippers, arm bands and googles...

Amongst my trusty and wonderful 'regulars' it was lovely to welcome along GoodGym tourists Africa from GoodGym Richmond and and Steve from GoodGym Lewisham - thanks all for coming along!

In order to delay stepping outdoors for a few extra minutes we ran through tonight's yellow painting task at Ray's Playhouse down in Fulham - with me very glad and a touch smug that I'd managed to arrange an indoor task on a rare rainy Tuesday night in H&F - and of course the weekly news.

News....w'ater do you need to know.....

1. GoodGym London Christmas Party! (Saturday 1st December) - Hosted by GoodGym Southwark at the Old Library in Burgess Park. Fancy dress theme - the first letter of your GoodGym area - hoping to see some 'hammers', 'frogs', and other great H&F letter outfits there!...... £4 donation, lots of killer tunes and dodgy dancing! Sign up here. Please also bring along any sportswear donations you may have for Polly.
2. GoodGym H&F Christmas Party (Monday 10th December) - Re-arranged to The Hop Poles in Hammersmith. To help us get an idea of numbers for the evening, please sign up here.
3. Maverick Trail Races (Saturday 26th January) - As we discussed last night, quite a few of us are heading down to Sussex in January for the first of the Big Six GoodGym Races in 2019, there are three distances of 8km, 15km and 23km to choose from, sign up here & please enter your details on the spreadsheet. Looks like a nice introduction to trail racing for those that have never run trail before.

And, well done to all those that ran or cheered in the Fulham 10k on Sunday, some great PBs, including a sub-50 by Helen!

Raining on our parade

Once we'd completed a quick pulse raising warm-up underneath the shelter of the Better Gym car park we set off on our 4km run down to Fulham. At points it felt as though we were running in zig-zags as we avoided pedestrians, brollies and the many puddles en route. With every traffic light seemingly against again, we had some unwelcome pauses but were making good time. Good use was made of these pauses with some wall-sits done by Johnny and Chris, whilst everyone else completed a few jumping jacks in an attempt to keep warm.

However, as we approached Ray's Playhouse it appeared to be in complete darkness and sadly once we arrived at the entrance we were faced with a padlocked gate and no sign of the caretaker, Caroline to welcome us in. Hoping that she was just late and hadn't either forgotten about us or had a last minute emergency, I made a couple of calls which sadly went unanswered.

Admitting defeat on this occasion (that'll teach me to be smug!) the group posed outside Ray's Playhouse with big disappointed faces before beginning a slightly longer 5km run back to base via Eel Brook Common. In the Common we completed a short interval session in an attempt to not only improve our speed and endurance but also to get the blood pumping to provide more warmth!

Puddle and squeak

A few degrees warmer we continued our run back, which unsurprisingly featured many shouts of "PUDDLE!". As yet another traffic light went against us again, talk of hot chocolate, warm showers and dinner became the main topic of conversation and something everyone was very much looking forward to once we were quite literally home and dry. With Tom expertly leading the way and Jason back-marking it wasn't long before we arrived back, all a great deal damper and colder than when we had set off, but still in high spirits!

All that was left to do was a much needed cool down and stretch before everyone parted ways for the much longed-for showers, dinners and hot drinks!

Puddle whammy

Apologies for the lack of task and photos last night, thank you all so much for coming out despite the very wet and cold conditions, all super (soggy) troopers!...very much BLUE in feelings, especially in the fingers, instead of the bright YELLOW paint!

Next week we're heading back up to the wonderful White City Adventure Playground to help finish off the garden area, sign up here. Should be a fun one, hopefully the weather will play nice too....

Have a lovely week!