GoodGym guides, Louise, Joe, Harvey and Charlie headed over to Paddington Rec track to join some new and existing guides, VI runners and friendly guide dog, Mario.

We had a lovely evening of guiding runs, inducting the newcomer guides, and talking about running shoe brands and upcoming runs. We hardly even noticed the cold!

A collection of guides from GoodGym, parkrun and Achilles all joined forces at the Achilles International VI group session at Paddington Rec Track last night.

It was a cold evening but GoodGym guides Rachel, Charlie, Danny, Olivia and Jack were quickly warmed up and put through their paces by Naqi, Ashfaq and Andrew, completing distances of 5-8km!

It was great to see Chris and Maria back out so soon after their Battersea Park 10k the evening before and Joanna running with Maki and her mother Chikako. We then headed back to Maida Vale station and headed home.

A really enjoyable evening as always and look forward to the next one.

Great effort all!

The tubes went on strike but a small and mighty group of Achilles International allies joined forces and struck back

The Achilles International London chapter brings together runners who are blind or visually impaired for a social run and meeting each Thursday. It's so important and valued by all, but especially the visually impaired runners who often have less choice and flexibility to exercise.

Alas, the strikes meant it was too difficult for many to meet at The Emirates, but the show still went on. A few local runners assembled and were joined by Achilles guide John who heroically jumped on his tandem bicycle to pick up Naqi and bring him to the session (and of course took him home afterwards!).

Naqi had his choice of guides and paces and enjoyed a warm up before several laps with our speedy new member. Patrick happily volunteered to watch the bags (listening to music of course!) while the others went for a social jog and chat.

Next week, normal service resumes at the Paddington Rec. Details and sign up are here

A lovely collection of runners and guides assembled at Paddington Rec for their weekly training session. Welcome to Kamran who joined us for the first time, and joined with Michelle and Nora to guide Andrew. Patrick was putting Naqi through his paces, and Danny and Ashfaq were also speeding along so much so that both pairs came off steaming with effort! Tom and Andrei were also flying round whilst Carl paired up with Charles and Joanne joined up with Maki and Chicako. It was a great turn out tonight and everyone enjoyed their runs. Meanwhile I looked after the bags and lovely Mario, Andrew's new guide dog 🐕

7 guide runners and 2 VI runners met at Green Park underground despite the impending rail strikes making travel a little difficult. With the ratio of ~3:1 guides:VI runners there was opportunity for me to shadow Charlie, an experienced guide, for 1 lap of the park before guiding Ashfaq over 2 laps. I then shadowed and guided Tom for 2 laps including a challenging sprint finish. Everyone was so welcoming and put me at ease. I’m looking forward to guiding again and would encourage others to go along and give it a try.

A warm sunny evening meant there were lots of picnickers out in Green Park, but it was a lovely evening for a run.

Charlie, Sekai and John guide ran with Tom, Naqi, Mark, Mark and David while Steve took all the photos and watched the bags and Ashfaq demonstrated his super skipping skills.