29 GGers ran 5-10k to help Abbey Community Centre and Skip Garden!

Welcome along to newbies Ellie and Jenny, plus welcome back to second timers and regulars!

This week was all about big numbers for the Camdenites:

1. Frances Powrie hit an amazing 300 Good Deeds - FP has been smashing missions and group runs for over three & half years and she is an amazing part of GG! Well done!
2. Equally as GOOD Chris Howson has now hit a 60 month streak for group runs, that's 5 years in a row! Wow!
3. Long run this Saturday from Wandsworth to Croydon on the Wandle Trail - more details here
4. Social on Thursday 4th October at Islington Townhouse - News, IPOM & More - details here
5. Sofia 2019 here and for race suggestions for 2019 please see the form here.

Skip Garden Report:

21 of us headed to Skip Garden, it's been a while since we've helped Global Generation with their work but it was great to be back under the pretty lights and amongst the skips, bees and chickens.

Harvest Festival prep!

Our task was to be heavy lifters, a group of four lifted ten huge heavy bags of soil, a bookcase and a planter from a storage cupboard to the back entrance. Meanwhile the main group formed a chain gang to move logs, crates and more from one location to another for storage.

After finishing up we headed to the canals for some running and then everyone smashed a time trail around Granary Square! Everyone smashed it!

Abbey Community Centre Report:

A team of 9 headed north via Primrose Hill on a speedy mission to deliver leaflets for the wonderful Abbey Community Centre, based near Kilburn, about their older persons services and community cafe.

The brilliant Brent Trainer Pritesh was on hand to lead the gang around town - great job!

Please note someone left a John Lewis suit & suit bag in the Living Centre - please contact me if that's you

Sign up next week here when we'll be helping Sheltered housing and Coram Fields.

PB out

28 GG Camdenites ran between 5-10k to help Abbey Community Centre and Ashdown Crescent Sheltered Housing

Lovely to have you all along! In the news this week:

1. People from Camden, Islington and all over the GoodGym world are meeting this week for our annual shindig to discuss the future of GG. If you have any feedback or suggestions please forward them onto me.
2. July's Long Run is this Sunday from Finsbury Park - see full details here.
3. There is a mission this Saturday helping to setup the Queens Crescent Community Festival - sign up here.

Sheltered Housing Task:

18 of us headed north to Kentish Town and beyond to help the amazing Sheltered Housing. Over 40 residents are housed and receive care through this fantastic organisation. The work we do makes a huge amount of difference, enabling people to use the garden more freely.

Our tasks were as follows:

• A general sweep up of the area, importantly including the decking which is going to be hosed down and varnished this week.
• Planting and watering the garden area.
• Clearing weeds and cutting back plants etc
• Laying new paving stones down

Over 30 minutes we made a huge impact and everything was looking top notch. While Chris and Katherine grappled with getting a hose over the wall, we took a group picture and sent off the first group to run home.

With a lovely down hill run home, the air got cooler and we were back in no time :)

Abbey Community Centre Tasking:

Pritesh led a team of 9 over Primrose Hill and beyond to help Abbey Community Centre - a fantastic local centre which works to help both the young and old in the community through various projects.

After a steady 5km the group got to work watering the garden, weeding and cleaning some trays which will be used for the local book club/exchange. George revealed some special skills by putting together some cake stands in record time before joining the gardening work. Nice work guys!

Sign for next week here, please look out for where we will be meeting.

PB out.

26 Camdenites ran between 5-10km to help Abbey Community Centre and Cecil Sharp House

No newbies this week but lots of lovely people as always - thanks for coming as always.

In the news this week:

1. This month's long run is on Sunday 24th June with either 11km or 16km options - all details here
2. Danny is organising volunteering for the British 10km, with a GG team taking over an aid/water station - in return you'll get a free entry for a Virgin Event. See full details here
3. Kat is organising track sessions at the Regents Park Track every Thursday from tomorrow. Meeting for 6.30pm and starting the session from 6.45pm.
4. Well done to Chris Howson who hit 200 good deeds last night, Chris has been coming to GoodGym Camden for nearly 5 years and has made a huge difference in that time.

After the intro we set Pritesh's group off early to head the 5km out and back to help Abbey Community Centre with watering the garden. The group got the work done in amazingly quick time and enjoyed the run up Primrose Hill - nice views :)

Folking around

The rest of us headed to Cecil Sharp House to do our monthly gardening for the home of English Folk Music. The venue has a big event in the gardens at the weekend so our work focused on making sure everything was tidy and weed-free.

We split into two teams with one looking after the garden and walkway entrance and the other group taking care of the car park. The weeds had nowhere to go but in bags for mulching :)

A beautiful and very tame Robin joined us by flying and bouncing around all the activity. Over 30 minutes we did what is equivalent to 10 hours work for Susannah - she is very appreciative of our efforts.

Before heading home we did x3 hill sprints up Primrose Hill to focus on building our strength and aerobic base.

Thanks all as always!

Sign up next week here when we will be helping Sheltered Housing.

PB out

It was rainy, it wasn't that warm and I had a feeling that we might have a low turn-out. What do I know!? A lovely nine of you joined me in Brent this week as we nipped over the border to Camden to help out the lovely folk at Abbey Community Centre.

There was no particular news as we did our intro but I am very sorry to say that we forgot to acknowledge Clare's 50th good tonight! Congrats to her and we look forward to her joining our black t-shirted brigade soon!

Black T-shirt time!

We had a 3.5km run to Abbey, we took a slightly longer route to keep off the busy main roads but it was a good run and taking us from Willesden Green, pask Kilburn tube and up to West Hampstead station before heading down to the community centre. There we met Simone who explained that we would be delivering flyers for the local community cafe they run at the centre on Saturdays.

We had a few hundred flyers and we split into three groups to get them delivered out on the amazing Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, more commonly known as "Rowley Way". One group consisting of Caroline, Danny and Liz ran to far end of the estate and worked their way back to us whilst the remaining six split in to two groups and worked up each side. We were done in no time and only disturbed a couple of sleeping dogs!

Ping Pong

With all the flyers delivered and a cheesy group photo taken we headed back to the centre for a little treat. Monday nights at Abbey are table tennis nights and the group got involved with a few minutes of table tennis and enough time for a little coaching for everyone!

With a little coaxing we all finished our games and with a group photo for Simone we were all done and headed back to base having escaped 'the hill'! A stretch off before our goodbyes - a great night doing good and some great running from everyone too!

Sign up for next week here, the task isn't confirmed yet but there's some interesting stuff in the pipeline!

Cheers, Pritesh

34 GoodGymers ran between 4-10km making beds for the homeless, gardening for St Mary's & leafleting for Abbey

Cooorrrr, lots of people - glad we had 3 tasks! Welcome to newbies - Alex, Ana, Julia, Pierre, Jonathan and Charlotte - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Last night it was Hayley's 50th GOOD DEED - WOOP WOOP! Hayley has been coming to GG Camden since 2016 and we really appreciate her amazing efforts :)
2. TONIGHT there is GG Monthly Drinks in Holborn at the Square Pig - Pritesh will be leading the party with puns, facts and probably some fiction! See you there :)
3. In JUNE there is a trip to the Lakes for some races and good old GG fun! Full details here

Right onto to what we actually did last night, we had three amazing tasks in our wonderful Camden, helping;

• Abbey Community Centre
• St Mary's Flats
• C4WS & American International Church

Report #1 by Pritesh at Abbey:

Eleven of us went along to help the wonderful Abbey Community Centre. It's a long old run up towards Kilburn but we were all keen to keep a good pace to stave off the cold. We were rewarded with a stunning view of central London at the top of Primrose Hill, all the lights twinkling in the cold clear night.

Stunning!

Arriving at the centre we were tasked with delivering flyers to the two tower blocks opposite - Snowman and Casterbridge - to let the residents know about the community cafe that runs every Saturday at the centre.

We split into teams and spent 15 minutes delivering throught the blocks and finishing off any spare leaflets to the houses in the surrounding area. We got everything done in the time and then made our way back to Somers Town with a quick stop for a group shot too!

Report #2 by PB at St Mary's:

Eleven of us headed to St Mary's Flats, a local community in Somers Town that we've been helping for over 4 years. After a 1.4km loop we met Jon who explained the main task was to de-litter an area of plants and re-compost it. Dragging the compost bag from one end of the estate to the other we got to work.

We split into two groups to de-litter across the estate, mainly focusing on cigarette butts, dead leaves and debris. After 20 minutes we'd de-littered both areas, composted and watered the flower bed.

Upon reaching Granary Square we did some conditioning, including:

• Calve raises
• Single leg squats
• Circuit routine - press up, mountain climber x2, jump & squat

We then met Frances' group and did our monthly time trial with some quick times in the cold weather!

Report #3 about Frances at C4WS:

IT'S FRANCES BIRTHDAY, she led the run and it was the best of times. There were 17 guest beds to make + 2 over night staff beds. With a team of 12 people they got the work done really really quickly - efficient! Also there was a cat that Frances seems to have spent most of her time with, haha.

Here is Rosie's haiku about our weekly task at the shelter:

We are making beds

For the homeless in Camden

First the mattresses

Sheets, duvets, pillowcases

Well done all, lots of good done for Camden!

Sign up for next week here, we have a NEW TASK helping GROUNDWORK!

PB out.

27 good peeps ran between 4-10km and helped Abbey Community Centre & Cecil Sharp House

Thanks for all coming along on a windy but warm night! Welcome to Ellie & Adam whose first time it was at GG Camden last night - lovely to have you along.

1. Come and do Regents Park 10km on Sunday 10th December - only 2 days after the GG Xmas Party!
2. On the last GG Camden of the year (13th December) we are going to have Xmas organised fun, including a meal out afterwards - see here.
3. It's my birthday this weekend! I'm doing Mile End Parkrun on Saturday and then going for breakfast - all welcome :)

Cecil Report by PB:

Taking the standard route to Cecil on the back streets we arrived at the home of English Folk Music to a greeting of water & tools. We headed to the back lawn, with violins playing in the background, and spread across the garden sweeping, raking and bagging up leaves. The best tool in town were the leave grabbers!

Once we'd collected over 10 bags up we moved onto the car park, switching bag colours from white to blue due to CO2 contamination. The majority of the leaves we collected (non-car park ones) will be taken to Susannah's allotment where over two years they will break down into mulch and then be brought back to Cecil Sharp to be used to feed the garden. Quite a cool ecosystem right?

Leaf it out

After a group pic we split into seven teams of two, and did the first ever Cecil Sharp Relay - flying around the building, narrow paths, past the rose trees and past the bags of leaves. Everyone had lots of fun with all teams finishing in under 62 seconds - speedy!

Upon our return we did four sets of strides to finish off, read all about their benefits here.

Abbey Report by Kat:

Pritesh led 11 runners up to Abbey Community Centre. Channeling PB, Pritesh emphasised the importance of good running posture as we tackled Primrose Hill. After a quick water stop at the centre, we headed out to do some leafleting to advertise the centre and their cafe.

Quick work!

Many hands make light work, we split in to two groups and quickly distributed over 200 leaflets. We set off back to base, with a short break at the top of Primrose Hill for a rather windy photo.

Next week we are off to Alara to help with Kings Cross Orchard Project (4km overall) - sign up here.

PB out.