19 Storm Troopers stormed through a triple-task special with much gusto!

Despite the falling rain and strong gusts of winds courtesy of Storm Brendan (a regular at all GoodGym sessions this week), an amazing 18 GoodGym’ers ignored the lure of the dry and warm and braved the elements to get fit and do good in their community.

The good news was that Matt ‘it’s never rained on any task I’ve done’ Nash was in attendance and promised that “It will be fine. I guarantee it will stop by 7...”. And we all very much had our fingers crossed that Matt was somehow controlling the weather 🤞.

With everyone gathered we headed outside to a nice and dry cordoned off area of the Better Gym car park...oh the glam!

We started off by welcoming Mikaela's wonderful housemates, Stephen, Teo and Martina, for their first GoodGym H&F group run. Definitely a baptism of flyer run, thank you all for coming along, top recruiting Mikaela!

Just news it!

1. January Challenge 2020 - We're doing very well with 60 good deeds and over 600km run/walked as a group racked up! Great job team! You check on H&F's progress in the GoodGym leagues here. Will we beat our 2019 totals of 107 good deeds and 1,627 kms?!

2. Upcoming Races - As Sarah kindly mentioned, there's some great upcoming events that other H&F GoodGym'ers are getting involved with: Sunday 2nd February at 9.30am - Wimbledon Common 'Dash for the Splash' 10km and Saturday 8th February at 10am - Richmond Park 5km & 10km.

3. GoodGym H&F Starter Session - A date for the diary...Saturday 25th January. Details to be confirmed shortly!

Tonight we were going to be the session backwards, we’d be starting with fitness, then the group photo and then the tasks. I of course forgot to state this was not in a literal sense as Biscuits turned his back to me while others asked how we were going to be running backwards in this weather...what a bunch of comedians! 🙄😂

Following a quick-warm which included high knees, jumping jacks and spotty dogs we then smashed out a 6-minute legs, abs and arms blast. With some power lunges, jump squats, frog jumps, planks, elbow touches and dead bugs blitzed,all great exercises that build muscle strength and endurance to aid running, and it turns out quieten your GoodGym group 😉. Good work team!

Leaflets, leaves & lumbering

To keep everyone moving as much as possible on this damp evening we had a triple-task special, 3 short and sweet/sharp tasks completed as a group...

1. Open Age H&F provide hundreds of weekly activities for local residents aged 50+ to sustain their physical and mental fitness, maintain an active lifestyle and develop new and stimulating interests.

2. Maesbro Centre - The Maesbro Centre is the hub of all the Maesbro Community Centres. Maesbro offer a total community service from early years to older people – with arts and cultural events, sports and fitness classes, adult learning, help with gaining employment, and much more!

3. Christmas Tree-cycling - one final hunt for abandoned and hazardous Christmas Trees left on and around surrounding streets and roads in H&F that needed to be collect and taken to a Christmas Tree-cycling point.

Task 1: Leafleting for Open Age UK

With the leaflets in hand we captured a wonderfully lit team photo, and as Lucy and Katie humorously said, “you’d never have guessed it was taken in Better Gym car park!” or maybe you would…

Time flyers when you're having fun!

Ready to run and leaflet we began our run up towards Shepherds Bush, pausing briefly to regroup and for the beloved wall sit. Once on Bloemfontein Road the group split into two to cover both sides of the street in the now well-rehearsed ‘leaflet chain’. In just 5 minutes all the leaflets had been delivered and we set off towards the Maesbro Centre.

Task 2: Clearing leaves for the Maesbro Centre

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the Maesbro Centre and were faced with a car park filled with lots of wet and soggy leaves. Everyone gloved up ready to tackle the leaves, and after a long period of absence, Sarah was at last reunited with bin bags which she efficiently divvied up between the team.

A leaf encounter

Lucy and Matt ensured the team had ample lighting, to help with both the leaf collecting and the ‘gram photos. With a few barriers successfully negotiated and many piles of leaves scooped up into the 4 bin bags in just 10 minutes we called time on the car park clear.

In what might be the next promo shot for big bags, Helen, Cookie, Mikaela and Sarah held a big bag over their shoulder as they struck the classic ‘smile and lookback’ pose 📸.

Task 3: Hunting for Christmas Trees!

PINE tingling!

After searching a number of streets with no luck, not even one pine needle, we decided to have one final check through the Trussley Road tunnel and on Hammersmith Grove. FINALLY, success!! We began to spot one Christmas Tree after another. The team divided up and worked either solo or in pairs depending on the size of the tree to collect and carry the Christmas Trees to the Christmas Tree-cycling point outside Loris Community Garden.

Searching FIR & wide!

Lucy and Jonny were still empty-handed so set off on an inTREEpid run up the road to find one final Christmas Tree. They had the important job of neatly placing the final Christmas Tree of the season onto the large pile of rather dishevelled and dead looking Christmas Trees.

PINING for home

With the temperature dropping and the rain falling harder, we set off back to base for a stretch off under the shelter of the car park before heading home for warmth and food. A total of 42 leaflets delivered, 4 bin bags of leaves cleared and 9 Christmas Trees successfully tree-cycled. Top work team! Fingers crossed for better weather next week!

Hope you all have a great rest of your week! Sign up for next week's run here. The monthly social has been rescheduled to next week, so please do join for drink, food and more chats following the run!

AND, if you'd like to get involved with Community Missions, there's lots coming up in the West, check them all out here.