On a beautiful Sunday, 14 GoodGym’ers turned out to lend a hand at White City Adventure Playground for their big SOS challenge volunteer day.

A big welcome along to Bianca who completed her first good deed, hope you had fun and hopefully see you again soon!

For those that have never been to or heard about White City Adventure Playground...it is an absolutely AMAZING children's adventure playground that was opened on the White City Estate in 1970. It is run by the "can do" organisation, the Play Association who promote the importance of play and promote play as an essential part of a child's wellbeing, social and emotional development. The Play Association provide more than an adventure playground, as the following projects are also delivered: after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, play opportunities for disadvantaged children and teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends.

Today there were a range of tasks for all the volunteers to tackle, all of which had been laid out and explained on their mission (im)possible board - there were about 15 different tasks that needed to be completed! Wow! What a challenge this was! As always the group weren't overwhelmed with the enormity of the challenge and set about clearing the garden area, painting the play equipment and creating the colourful 'shady shack canopy area'.

Words cannot explain the wonderful transformation from the beginning of the day, please just check out the photos, because as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words"!

With hands, faces, GoodGym tees, and numerous other body parts and clothing covered in either paint or mud, the group paused for some well earned refreshments that had kindly been provided for all the volunteers. This SOS challenge was a wonderful example of a community pulling together and helping out a fantastic local community organisation that is so important in providing both play and care provision to children.

Thank you all for coming along, everyone at the Play Association were so appreciative of all your efforts...Rob said “We put out the call and loads of GoodGym’ers literally came running to help out, we seriously cannot thank you enough”.

19 GoodGymers ran 5km up to White City Adventure Playground for an Earth Hour Special!

The blossom is out and the nights are finally beginning to get lighter and warmer as we edge ever closer to some lovely outdoor tasks in the sun! Tonight was a special night in H&F as we were celebrating not one but TWO big 50th good deed milestones. A big CONGRATULATIONS to PB and January good deed machine, Helen and to the man who's often laughing and people recognise definitely not because of the fact he's got his name written on his GoodGym tee, Will for reaching their 50th good deeds last night. Will they both reach their 100th good deed together?!

Amongst all my wonderful regulars tonight, it was lovely to welcome along Helene and Mia for their first H&F group run - hope you both enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon!

For what it's Earth! Onto the news...

This week GoodGym is partnering with the WWF as part of Earth Hour, the world’s biggest switch off event on Saturday 30th March at 8.30pm. Earth Hour highlights the changes needed at a global level, but also encourages everyone to take personal action. You could, for instance, change the way you eat, embrace reusables and buy less plastic, or help to restore nature in your community. You can share your pledge using #VoiceForThePlanet throughout March to show how you are making a difference.

1. Special Earth Hour GoodGym group run - Saturday 30th March - meet at 5pm outside London's City Hall for a 2.5km run down to Spitalfields Farm. For all the details and to sign up, click here.
2. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - Our friends at Fulham Palace parkrun will celebrate their 300th parkrun event...and the best news is that GoodGym will be helping out with a BIG takeover event! Sign up here - please fill out the spreadsheet with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
3. RunUK volunteering - Sunday 14th April - RunUK are offering a free place in any of their upcoming runs if you volunteer at the Putney & Fulham half marathon - if you're keen just drop me a line.

With the name and number count and short pulse-raising warm-up completed, we began the 2.5km run up to White City Adventure Playground. Pausing only briefly at the top of Hammersmith Grove for our weekly wall sit we arrived in record breaking time. When we arrived we were greeted by the ever enthusiatic and appreciative, Rob and Koj. They both welcomed us in and briefly explained to the group about the "can do" organisation that is the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do at White City Adventure Playground - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends. Following on from our visit a few weeks ago, Rob and Koj gave the lovely feedback that other organisations and schools in the area had heard of GoodGym, and most importantly that the children and after-school clubs loved their newly painted kitchen and the work-in progress toilet transformation!

Koj explained the jobs that we would be lending a hand with tonight...

1. Finish the painting of the boys & girls toilets - in two shades of blue for the boys & yellow for the girls, and remove all the toilet tissue balls (also delightfully known as spit wads) stuck to the ceiling.
2. Paint a big graffiti wall - cover over the current graffiti in a nice fresh coat of white paint.
3. A surprise competitive litter pick in the playground.

With all the equipment layed out and ready to go, despite my maths and division leaving something to be desired, the team split into three groups: Team painting (/team toilet), Team Wall and Team Litter.

When you've gotta Van Gogh, you gotta Van Gogh

Team painting, led by Helen continued the blue and yellow job we started a couple of weeks ago. With many crouched round toilets in interesting positions and up ladders, the team worked tirelessly to get the job done. Many of the other team members also got involved with the final bits of the blue boys toilet painting so as not to leave it unfinished, plus it answered the age old question of "just how many GoodGymers can you fit into a small boys' toilet?"!

It's all white now baby, the walls all white now

Team wall, led by Catriona, overseen by Sophie and her helpful running lights, rolled their way quickly and efficiently to a fresh looking white wall. With a couple of inconveniently placed plants removed by Koj...no longer a sight for saw eyes. It didn't take long for the team to freshen up the wall ready for the youth club to graffiti away on a nice blank canvas.

A litter pick of this and a litter pick of that

Team litter, led by Sarah, who of course took charge of the bin bag, throughly combed through the grass and adventure playground. A plethora of litter objects were found and the bin bag full to bursting upon their scout round the entire outdoor area.

Nifty fifty

Before we headed off and said our goodbyes to Rob and Koj, we had a quick '50' based quiz while running on the spot to get the blood pumping again. Those that got answers wrong had to do either 10 jumping jacks, 10 squats or 10 press-ups, depending on the question. Despite, naming no-names, SOPHIE, Googling one of the answers there was impecable honesty from all. Fun facts learnt tonight were: the incredible Mal Law ran 50 mountain marathons in New Zealand not South Africa (check out FIFTY - The Movie), Tin is the chemical element that is the atomic number 50, and Jo Pavey will reach her 50th birthday before Paula Radcliffe.

Bake it happen...bake room, bake room!

With everyone nicely warmed-up again we headed off on our run back to base. Andrew and Catriona led a group of speedsters back while I attempted to stay in-between them and our wonderful milestone backmarkers tonight, Helen and Will. Once we were back at base we had a nice stretch off and the part of the evening many had been looking forward to....cakes and flapjacks! And oh what a fabulous array of wonderful treats there were, Bake Off eat your heart out! Great night all, thank so much for staying a little later to get the painting job completed. And well done again to Helen and Will Next week we are heading up to Wormholt Park to help build a loggery. Please bring a head torch if you have one! For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a fab week all!

With the rain bucketing down all day and the Met Office issuing yellow wind weather warnings, amongst injuries (hope you had a RICE rest up this evening) and work, the Task Force and I were slightly trepidatious about the effect of these on numbers tonight. We neededn't have worried as a brilliant and hardy 17 other GoodGym'ers came out to do good and get fit at one of our favourite task locations, the brilliant White City Adventure Playground. Amongst all my wonderful regulars tonight, it was lovely to welcome along Mo for his first H&F group run - hope you enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon!

Win, news or draw

1. GoodGym Shindig 2019 - weekend of 19th July, in Ironbridge. Register your interest by 21st March.
2. 50th GoodGym Area - later this month the 50th GG area launches & as part of the celebrations all the areas have been tasked with representing their area launch number pictorially with as many people as possible! GG H&F were area no. 24 so next we will be attempting to get creative with 24...ideas welcome!
3. Community Missions - Up for a weekend community mission? No DBS check is required for a community mission.

• Sun 17th March from 10.30am - plogging & some bootcamp in York Gardens, Battersea. Sign up here.
• Sat 6th April from 12pm - help sort food donations for City Harvest in Acton. Sign up here.

AND a big well done to all those that ran either the Thames Meander or Big Half at the weekend - Sapphire, Jonny, Johnny, Sarah, Eloise and Matt - some cracking running and times in those very windy conditions, well done guys and girls!

Wall present and correct

With the name and number count and short pulse-raising number game warm-up completed, we began the 2.5km run up to White City Adventure Playground with Bex expertly back marking. Tonight our luck seemed to be in as the rain had stopped as we set-off and something that was very much a rarity, we didn't get caught by all the traffic lights! En route we had one quick pause to get in our traditional 30-second wall sit (with some taking the word "wall sit" too literally!), wall sit done we headed across the zebra crossing and up to the entrance of White City Adventure Playground.

After a couple of buzzes at the door we were greeted by the ever enthusiatic and appreciative Deputy Manager, Koj. He welcomed us in and briefly explained to the group about the "can do" organisation that is the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do at White City Adventure Playground - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends.

They see us rolling, we painting...

With all the equipment layed out and ready to go, Koj explained the jobs that we would be lending a hand with tonight...yes you guessed it, more painting for the team!!

• Paint the kitchen area - in a coastal glow and grey colour scheme.
• Paint the boys & girls toilets - in two shades of blue for the boys & yellow for the girls, and remove all the toilet tissue balls stuck to the ceiling (spit wads are apparently what they are known as, delighful!).

What was really nice about this task was that it was something that the children's council, which they formed themselves and meet every month, suggested as one of the ways to improve the centre, as well as choosing their own colour schemes for the toilets. Following a quick health and safety briefing the team split into two teams, 'team kitchen' and 'team toilets' and as always quickly and efficiently got armed with paint brushes, masking tape and ladders, and began tackling the tasks at hand.

No laughing ladder, this wasn't for the paint hearted

Within minutes Jonathan was up the ladder and scraping the spit wads from the boys' toilets ceiling, while Sarah, Steph, Eloise and Sapphire began painting the walls blue.

High rollers, without a royal flush

Mo provided a clean sweep of the area outside the toilets before he began the high roller job of painting the mapped walls in a fresh coat of coastal glow.

Yellow, is it GoodGym you're looking for?

Andrew, Bex and Jonny began the white wall transformation in the girls toilets to a nice mellow yellow, with the hand dryer providing an amusing suprise for Bex as she rolled over the dirt underneath.

We got so EMULSIONAL, life is a ROLLERcoaster

Team kitchen: Helen, Tom, Will, Alice, Matt, Catherine and Johnny (rumour is Johnny chose the kitchen as this was the most likely place the biscuits would be!) started by prepping the kitchen walls with masking tape so as to get a nice neat finish. Catherine was also introduced to her biggest fan by Koj, the cooker fan!

Both team kitchen and team toilets did an impressive paint makeover job in just over 40 minutes, with all the walls looking fresher and brighter than before - and we'll be back in a couple of weeks to finish the paint jobs amongst some other environmental jobs in support of the WWF and GoodGym partnership.

Last but squat least...we pushed through to the end

With all the paint pot lids put back on tins and the majority of the brushes and trays cleaned up and left to drain, we 'luckily' had time for quick indoor fitness session. After some incorrect guesses as to what tonight's music based fitness session song was, "Happy" by Pharell was revealed. The challenge was to either squat or do a press-up on the word "Happy" or "Happiness" - with the latter holding the plank position until the phrase was heard in the song. As Tom was going to be away for three weeks he had no choice in the matter, lots of squats for him so that he could fully get his squat fill! The song seemed very much longer than it had done on last listen but everyone did a cracking job and executed their exercises brilliantly, including Koj, great work all!

Before we said our goodbyes and thankyous to Koj, the team posed for a team photo around the GoodGym t-shirt and scrapbook that the children of White City Adventure Playground have been working on, all the photos and previous run reports are in the process of being cut out and pieced together into the scrapbook - such a lovely gesture, we love helping out here!

School runnings

Task, team photo and fitness session completed, we said goodbye to Koj and headed off on our 2.5km run back to base. We all picked up the pace for the latter part and aside from one quick stop for the traffic lights, it wasn't long before we were back at base completing a quick cool down and stretch off. Thank you all for turning out on what threatened to be a pretty wet night, next week we've hopefully got a Two Task Tuesday! We'll be helping out two local schools in the area with some painting jobs, sign up for next week's run here. Have a fab week!

Despite the pouring rain and prospect of another wet and cold run, last night a brilliant 12 other GoodGym'ers joined me to do good and get fit. On #GivingTuesday, an annual event that aims to highlight the importance of giving back, our task tonight was at the wonderful White City Adventure Playground. It was lovely to welcome along Carla for her first H&F group run - great having you along, hope you enjoyed it!

With the rain still coming down as the clock struck 7pm we headed outside and for the second week in a row made use of the sheltered Better Gym car park area to do some quick intro's and a round-up of the week's news...

Have I Got News For You!

1. Community Mission (this Thurs!!) - Supporting Fareshare - volunteers are needed to hand out leaflets & chat to people shopping at Hammersmith Broadway Tesco Metro from 6-9pm, encouraging them to contribute something from Fareshare's 'shopping list' of suggested donations. For further details & to sign up here.
2. Tree planting at Brook Green (this Sat!!) - This weekend is London's biggest ever tree planting weekend. Join the Friends of Brook Green to help them plant 250 saplings between 11am-3pm. Please email hello@friendsofbrookgreen.org to register and find out more. To view all the London tree planting events, click here.
3. GoodGym London Christmas Party (this Sat!!) - Hosted by GoodGym Southwark at the Old Library in Burgess Park. If you're coming along, please sign up here, and please also don't forget to pay the £4 donation. If you have any sportswear donations for Polly please bring those along too.
4. GoodGym H&F Christmas Party (Tues 11th) - After our run on the 11th December we're going to head to Nando's for a Peri Peri Christmas. All are welcome! Please sign up here to help us get an idea of numbers.

Enough of the news, hopefully the rest of the run report is a good weed...

With a quick pulse-raising warm-up completed and Strava's set we began the 2.5km run up to White City Adventure Playground with Danny expertly back marking. Tonight our luck seemed to be in as we didn't get caught by all the traffic lights and the rain had thankfully begun to ease as we headed north up Hammersmith Grove. At the top of the road we had a brief pause to regroup, the time was of course filled by some strength exercises, the first one tonight being some one legged squat holds and pulses. Once we'd all regrouped we continued on our run up and through Uxbridge Road up towards White City. With one final pause to get in a quick 30-second wall sit we headed across the zebra crossing and up to the entrance of White City Adventure Playground.

Our play date at the children's play haven!

As was the case two weeks ago, upon our arrival we were greeted by the very enthusiatic and appreciative Deputy Manager, Koj. He welcomed us in and briefly explained to the group about the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do at White City Adventure Playground - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends.

Koj also pointed out a lovely touch that was now hanging up on the wall by their entrance, a GoodGym t-shirt with a scrapbook underneath that the children of White City Adventure Playground had been working on earlier in the day, all the photos and previous run reports were being cut out and pieced together - what a lovely gesture and partnership!

After we'd admired the scrapbook in progress, Koj explained the jobs that we needed to lend a hand with tonight:

• Weed around the water slide area
• Weed and move all the logs around the fire pit

All seemed nice and simple! Following a quick health and safety briefing: be aware that it's slippery under foot, be careful with the tools (despite there slight bluntness), be aware that there are stinging nettles, be careful on the play equipment, don't get trollied...

The group split into two groups: team water slide and team firepit! Would team water slide extinguish team firepit or would the latter fan the flames of competition?!

It's a slippery slope once you've done one weeding job...

With a plethora of puns once again being fired around by both myself and Koj, much to groans and the odd chuckle, everyone quickly set about gloving up and removing all the weeds from the area that they were working in. Team firepit had the added bonus of a trolley in which to place all their weeds and nettles, "a vegan's haven" as Koj cheekily commented. Unfortunately for team water slide it was a wheelbarrow without the key aspect of the wheel, so merely a barrow in which to place all of their weeds. However, with some great teamwork from both Jonny & Johnny - Jon squared - and from Carla and Jonny, they did an excellent job of lifting and unloading the barrow throughout.

Ace of spades!

As before, it was a case of quality over quantity in terms of garden tools, there was some shearly blunt shears, some rakes to rake it in and of course the axeceptionally useful axe. Thankfully Koj had managed to locate amongst the aforementioned tools a couple of spades, these did an ace job at uprooting some of the weeds that had very much made themselves at home both around the water slide and the fire pit areas.

Getting to the root of the problem

In and around both the water slide and fire pit areas there were many weeds and plant roots that provided stiff competition and required extra nettle. With Tom brandishing the axe, he displayed incredible persistence at removing a stubborn root, which was followed by the slightly unorthodox axe cutting of nettles....although it has to be said it worked axecellently!

Wheely good jumping action

Catriona wheeled over the overflowing trolley and emptied in all the weeds and garden waste into the industrial sized wheeling bin which had now also begun to get overly full. To maximise the space inside the bin, Catriona took the decision, with absolutely no encouragement whatsoever from anyone else, to get into the bin and jump up and down so as to flatten the weeds and garden waste - it worked a charm!

Bin there done that!

As always, half an hour passed in no time at all and it was time to clear away the tools and place all the weeds into the industrial sized bin that Koj had helpfully wheeled equidistantly between the two groups. Both the water slide area and fire pit area had a weedy good clearing and the wonderful playful paintings were once again visiable, with all the logs neatly placed around the fire pit...perfect for a cold winter's evening with roasted marshmallows!

With everything tidied away we headed inside for a team photo around the GoodGym t-shirt and scrapbook. We're all looking forward to our next visit and seeing the completed arts and craft scrapbook creation, we too love helping out at this wonderful play haven space!

High fives all round

Before we said our goodbyes and thankyous to Koj, we 'luckily' had time for a quick indoor fitness session. Tonight's music based fitness session involved the 90's classic (the term classic used loosely!) "Everybody Get Up" by 5ive. The challenge was to hold the plank position until the phrase "Everybody get up" in which everyone got up to the press up position, and back down to the plank position on the phrase "Five will make you get down now", and as an added bonus, on the verses a side plank! The song seemed very much longer than it had done on last listen but everyone did a cracking job and pushed through to the end, an excellent upper body workout completed by all, including Koj....and no the song plankfully wasn't an extended remix!

Task and fitness completed, we said goodbye to Koj and headed off on our 2.5km run back to base. We all picked up the pace for the latter part and aside from one quick stop by some traffic lights outside of Nandos, which provided the inspiration for our Christmas dinner in a few weeks time, it wasn't long before we were back at base completing a quick cool down and stretch off.

Despite some pit-iful conditions we'did good!

Thank you all for turning out on what threatened to be a pretty wet night, I'm glad we were rewarded with some dry conditions for the task! Next week, we will be heading down to Parsons Green to help St Dionis Church with some tidying of leaves, followed by some Christmas Card delivery for Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank. Sign up here. Hope you have a fab week!

Warning this run report may contain an excessive amount of puns!

Last night a wonderful 10 other GoodGym'ers came out to play (well technically run) and help out at the brilliant White City Adventure Playground. It was lovely to welcome along the E's of Elen and Emily for their first H&F group run - great to have you both along, hope you enjoyed it, you _played your cards right in choosing H&F!

Still Got the News

1. November Long Run (this Saturday!) - This month's GoodGym long run is the 'Southwark Circle' starting at 11am from Waterloo Station. Sign up here.
2. GoodGym London Christmas Party! (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.
3. Charley is doing a 20km walk for GOSH in January 2019 and as part of her fundraising is 'knitting furiously on the tube' & selling personalised stockings for £3 each or two for £5 - please drop her a line if you'd like one or more!

And finally, well done to Catriona and the rest of the GG Raceteam for running against the elements (think sun, rain, hail) in the Cross Country at Welwyn City Garden at the weekend - the next Cross Country race is at Wormwood Scrubs on 1st December, to sign up, click here.

Name changer

While warming up in a perfectly formed circle we had a quick name and number count with some, naming no names (Andrew) 'mixing it up' and throwing me with the name of "Jake", easily thrown! With Stravas set we headed up on the 2.5km run up to White City, hoping for a nice quick run with the traffic lights, obviously this meant that there were more 'stops' than 'gos' but it allowed us to nicely regroup before we turned up the long and straight Hammersmith Grove. Once at the top of the road there was a brief pause due to the lights being against us again, but much to everyone's excitement we used this bonus time to fit in a 30 second wall-sit before continuing on our run up through the busy Uxbridge Road up towards White City. It wasn't long until we arrived at White City Adventure Playground, with a few bonus squats squeezed in!

A (play) day to adventure

We were greeted by the Deputy Manager, Koj who welcome us in and briefly explained to the group about the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs. This was proceeded by a quick tour of the Adventure Playground, a truly AWESOME playground that is a child's play haven!

All work, no child's play

Resisting the urge to have a play on the swings and slides, the group quickly set to work on clearing the small garden area that had become overgrown in the summer months, this garden area, once cleared will be transformed into a working garden for the children to use. Despite the small selection of tools, as Koj humourously commented "less may not be more" in this case - it transpired that he was a stand-up comedian so I asked what his puns repertoire was like, turns out pretty good, and we all had good fun bouncing puns around the entire evening, well we both got quite a few laughs from Charley so I'll take that!

Avoiding axecidents

Chris carefully wielded the axe as Tom, Jason and himself tackled the overgrown herbs in the center of the garden. Catherine and Emily worked on the bed behind while Andrew and Elen tackled the weeds and ivy growing up the side of the building, and Bex and Catriona got stuck into the bed near the garden entrance.

A mixed bag...of garden waste

With plants and weeds being cut down left right and center (quite literally) at a very fast rate it wasn't long before the bag of garden waste was overflowing and everyone was carefully balancing the final cuttings and waste onto the pile. Bex attempted one final sweep of the path with a large brush missing the handle much to the others bemusement, but it did the job perfectly.

Zip service

Following a couple of group photos around the very overflowing garden waste bag (in which Tom has a brilliantly placed floodlight behind him) and one in front of the play equipment, Koj dashed inside and re-appeared with the zip line swing.....

Policing fitness with Roxanne

With much fun had and a quick final slide before heading back indoors it was time for the part of the evening we all get excited about, fitness! Tonight's quick fitness session involved the song "Roxanne" by the Police. Following some nostalgia back to our freshers days at Uni tonight we were going to be doing some press-ups on "Roxanne" and some squat thrusts on "Red Light" while in the bridge position, or some squats on both. A tough 3 minutes, great effort all (including Koj who joined in the fun)!

All that was left was for us to say our goodbyes and run the 2.5km back to base. Barring a few quick stops en route with some bonus lunges, one-legged holds and wall-sits, as we'd quite rightly overdone the bonus squats for one night it wasn't long before we back and having a stretch and cool down after all our exertions of the night.

Thank you all for one very fun night, hope you have a lovely week! Next week, we have a slightly longer 7-8km run to Ray's Playhouse to help with some painting! We will have two pace groups so everyone can run at a pace thats comfortable for them. Sign up here. There will also be a post-run social! Hopefully see you there.

Tuesday night, it’s H&F GoodGym night! And to add to the excitement tonight it was part I of the H&F GoodGym 2nd birthday celebrations and a two task special. Tonight we were first heading up to St Mungo’s Reconnection Post and then up to White City Adventure Playground.

To get both tasks completed I required lots of runners and pairs of hands, and thankfully a wonderful 22 GoodGym-ers joined me on a humid autumnal evening for this party run, to do good, twice over! It was lovely to have Alice and Imogen, Mitzi along for their first GoodGym group run and to have Larissa and Jenni from GoodGym Ealing and Michele from GoodGym Hounslow doing some GoodGym tourism! It was also great to have one of my favourite GoodGym trainers, Ana, of GoodGym Wandsworth and Hounslow join the fun – extra great to not be on the other side of her fitness sessions for once!

As always everyone congregated in the Hammersmith Fitness & Squash Centre, however, this week being the party run, Sarah and Johnny were on hand to provide party hats and the homemade banana cake for the post-run celebrations. Much like GoodGym’s group run disclaimer “you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do” some opted out of wearing a party hat, understandably their aerodynamics would’ve been altered and it would’ve slowed them down. Party hat’d up we headed outside this week for a round-up of the weekly news (my voice vs a motorway I think there may have only been one winner, so for those of you who missed any of it…

1. GG London-wide 'Hamingslow' Social – This Thursday!! GG Hammersmith, Ealing and Hounslow will be uniting and hosting the social! It'll be in Hammersmith upstairs at The Rutland Arms! Sign up here.
2. GG H&F's 2nd Birthday - On Tuesday 11th September, part II of the birthday celebrations with a post-run social at The Draft House! Important pre-social request - Please email or whatsapp a photo of yourself aged 2 to Bex before the date for the baby photo quiz round!
3. September Long Run – 22nd September. This month the long run will be the Wandle Trail led by yours truly and Andy from GG Hounslow. There will be two pacing groups and the option of a shorter start point along the way. Sign up here.

AND a big well done to Jason who completed the Spitfire 10K and to Sarah who came 5th (3rd) with her triathlon team at the weekend!

While everyone was gathered in a circle we did a quick name and number count and everyone answered the “what do you like to do on your birthday?” question. The answers ranged from having drinks in the pub, spending the day with friends, having a lie in, eating lots of cake, doing GoodGym to the wonderfully decadent cheese on toast for breakfast.

Following a quick warm-up and the loser of the bus vs walk judgment tonight, Sophie we all headed north on the short 1.5km run to the first task at St Mungo’s Reconnection Post. Despite the group throwing me a ‘red herring’ as to where the actual entrance was (I of course 100% knew where it was…honest!), we arrived at St Mungo’s and were greeted by Philippa, the Deputy Manager who explained to the group the services they provide to vulnerable and homeless adults in the community – as well as providing housing, they work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community.

Need for weed

The task tonight was simple, tackle their garden – tidy as much as we could in the half an hour we had with them. Everyone gloved up, tooled up, and prepared the 3 large garden waste bags for the filling of weeds and cuttings. The group got to work tackling the garden as briefed and with all hands either on deck or on the tools providing a much needed weed and/or prune to the plants around the garden. In what is becoming a weekly tradition, Sarah posed with a bag and Sophie posed in various stances on demand. Chris, Michelle and Jason also got involved in the fun too…check out the photos! Amongst the photo opps the group put in a hard gardening shift and quickly filled the 3 large garden waste bags. The time flew by, as it always does when you’re having fun…as Fiona wonderfully exclaimed, “that’s been half an hour already?!” and it was time to down-tool, tidy-up, empty the bags, and pose for a couple of group photos along with Philippa. Task one complete! We said our thankyous and goodbyes and headed off on what was meant to be a short 1.2k run up to our second task at White City Adventure Playground.

Lost-term memory

In a nice trip down memory lane back to the first couple of weeks when I got the group lost and lead on a ‘magical mystery tour of H&F’ I managed to lead the group down not one, but two blind (well closed) alleys…

Following the minor detours and bonus running up to our second task we eventually arrived at the wonderful White City Adventure Playground and were met by Rob from the Play Assocation. He explained to the group that the Play Association were a non-profit charity based in Hammersmith & Fulham that deliver after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years and specialise in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and children with complex needs. Unfortunately with the summer nights well and truly drawing in it was too dark for the group to admire the outdoor adventure playground in all its glory but I can vouch for the fact it is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! A kids dream!

Skip to it

Our second task of the night was another simple one, load the skip they had ordered in which was currently sat empty and being collected Wednesday at 7am with bricks, old timber, and everything both to the side of the skip and in the outdoor storage unit. The group split off into different groups and began to fill the skip in double-quick time! A human chain was formed to get the old timber and storage unit completely emptied, much to Rob’s amazement! One final sweep by Lucy and pick-up by Michelle, Joyce, Johnny and Sarah ensured no scraps or Uno cards were left behind. Answering the old age question of “How many GoodGym-ers can you fit into an empty storage unit?” everyone piled into the unit for a brilliant group photo, party hats still mostly in-tact!

With the skip completely filled and the darkness upon us it was finally time to say goodbye to Rob and head back on the 3km run back to base. Once back at base Rachael waved everyone in with the tall feather-like plant she had very usefully run with from the first task – a very handy beacon throughout! After a quick stretch out and round-up of the night there was only one thing left to do…eat the delicious homemade banana cake and all the sweets! (….obviously in moderation!)

Hat's all folks!

Part I of the H&F 2nd birthday celebrations completed! What a great and fun double-task night. One skip that would’ve otherwise gone back empty filled to the brim and a garden a lot less weedy and overgrown. Apologies for getting you back a ‘touch late’ but I hope you all enjoyed it! Great running and a big welcome to the ladies from FOX and the National Geographic: Alice, Imogen and Mitzi – 6km run, 2 tasks completed, awesome stuff! And thank you very much to Jason for as ever being my trusty back-marker and to Ana for leading one group back and Jo for providing the navigational expertise back from the second task. Have a lovely week and hopefully see you on the group run next week!

Next week we’re back to Askham Court to help out in the residents community gardens – sign-up here.