It was a fun and sunny afternoon at the London Marathon Community Track, with the Olympic stadium as a backdrop

We were there for the RepRunners community Sports Day, organised by long-standing GoodGymmer Chi and his team. All our worries about who was coming, and what we'd entered, came to nothing, as the event was very relaxed - we just had to sign a waiver on arrival

Early on, Kat, James, Latoya and Asad sped to second place in the 4 x 400m heat, and made the final!

In the “impossible” relay, Kat gamely managed 100m of burpees - actually a bit more than that distance - in the first leg, before handing over to Danya, who made up some ground with her lunges. However it was John T, fresh from running the bean-bag-on-head race, who made the most impression with such an incredibly fast bear crawl, his opponents thought he must be cheating. But he definetly wasn't, he was just super-quick, as the remaining fragments of skin on his thumbs would testify. Asad sprinted home to ensure GoodGym won the event

Then came the Ladies' 1500 metres, in which Danya ran a great tactical race, tucked in behind the leader throughout, then perfectly timing her sprint on the home stretch to secure another GoodGym gold!

I entered the 400 metres, and 100 metres races, despite having run 7km in St Pancras earlier in the day. I didn't win but got amazing cheers from GoodGymers and others as I approached the finishing line. I also did the egg and spoon race, partnered by Manoush, who’d entered the tournament independently, but joined our team and seemed keen to attend a future task. She additionally took on the sack race, with James, and the bean-back-on-head thing

Alison put in a gritty effort in the plank and squat challenges, and we had great support from Sarah, Kathryn, Olivia (who also tried the plank challenge, managing four minutes!) and Ilana. We didn't brave the beer mile, but overall came third out of ten teams. More importantly, it was great fun. There was even an on-track dance session!

Let's go back and do it again in 2026

(some of the pictures above are by @ciaoruns)

Mr T is still feeling a little under the weather, so his was a short list today, but he also asked me to get him some cough medicine and vitamins to try and get him back to good health - an easy walk to Boots and then down to Holland & Barrett and back up to Lidl for the rest. It was only as I got back to his flat with all the treasure did he mention he'd forgotten to add milk to his list so it was just a quick dash back downstairs with the remaining change, and he's well stocked for another week.

David and I were (strangely) hoping that the TV that Mrs N wanted removing would be a real old school big box CRT version (possibly even black and white...), that would probably weigh a tonne...it wasn't, but it was clearly an early edition flat screen model (built 2006 according to the label on the back) which still weighed at least half a tonne...thank goodness technology has advanced in the intervening c20 years.

Fortunately we didn't have far to go with it, and with the help of Mrs N's friendly neighbour, we navigated our way outside the building, and left the TV visible from the street ready for an arranged collection. Mrs N was delighted to be rid of this particular dust collecting item of semi-antique furniture!

We had plenty to fill each other in with. I got the shopping done quite quickly so we spent a lot of time nattering away.

Nine wonderful GoodGym folk make a difference in Camden Town!!

Tucked within Camden Town's bustle is an estate with a very special communal courtyard 👉 and this lovely group gifted 60 minutes to make this green space much healthier and nicer!

Emilie, Jackie, John, Steve, and I started out in Somers Town and we took a social conversation-filled run up and over to Camden 👉 where we met Christy (on their first good deed – a huge welcome!), Imogen, Michael, and Vic who had all made their own journeys by bike and foot :)

Welcomed by Dan, Vic, and other residents, this special team split into a bundle of good-deeding efficiency:

❤️ We targeted the raised decking 👉 pulling weeds, grabbing fallen leaves, and sweeping everything into a pristine shine!

❤️ We scraped the weed-filled gaps between the paving slabs 👉 leaving the courtyard a shining advert for block paving!

❤️ We shaped the larger bushes 👉 cutting back the dead wood, gifting freedom to the buds yet to come!

And over everything else, last night felt like a community coming together 👉 our lovely group and four local residents 👉 it was a special hour :)

Here's to next time!

I visited Camden area today to help out with the weeding 🌱 in Mr N's backyard. I arrived around 6 pm and was welcomed by him at the door 🚪. He was very kind and welcoming but he clearly struggled to move and also couldn't hear that well what I was saying. Well a kind smile always gives a clear message even if you can't hear it 🙂 and I relied on that.

He showed me the backyard which was clearly neglected, there were weeds but also a lot of styrofoam flying around, foxes 🦊 poo, waste bags and a general rubbish 🚮.

Mr N said that his neighbour 👨‍🌾 helped him with the weeds in the past but now he is away traveling. He also said that it's probably more than a year since the last tidy up and I could totally believe that 😆.

I started with the weeds that were taking a lot of garden space, but - luckily - most of them were quite easy to take out (nice and clean, together with the roots 👌).

Then - Mr N grabbed a shovel and started to gather a styrofoam from the ground so I helped out with that. The wind 🌬 was quite strong and a bit cheeky 🐒 as whenever we tried to gather the styrofoam in one place it kept sending it back from where it came from 😈. We did progress though and by the end there was much less of it and much safer to walk.

We have collected around five bags of weeds and a couple with the styrofoam. Mr N was thankful, said it's looking much clearer now and asked if we will come back to do the front garden. I didn't take the bags out as he said his daughter will call services to collect them.