GoodGym Richmond celebrated eight years of keeping fit while doing good this evening with an epically wet run to AFC Heatham House!

This great youth club welcomed us for a special task before our social, only heavy rain meant the planner task was impossible so it was all play and no task!

Brilliant host Danielle spoiled us with a pasta dish, fruit, brownies and dips in the games room - perfect for table football, table tennis and pool.

Before an equally soggy run back to the start point at Tap Tavern, Liz shared some smashing stats for GoodGym Richmond tasks (1154 in the last year 🥳), so much to celebrate!

A happy return to Achieving For Children's Heatham House in Twickenham this evening. They asked for our help to repeat a task we had undertaken this time last year to take out the greenery that was encroaching on the AstroTurf football cage to prevent the ball getting burst on it and the kids getting scratched.

The evening started with a run that took us along the river and into Twickenham with a little trot through Moormead park too. 3km there was just right to shake off the cobwebs before getting stuck into the task. Previous learnings meant better preparation with bug repellent and an extra caution to look out for each other as rogue vines shed a lot of debris that makes for itchy work!

Many massive bin bags later, we took them to the wheelie bins before heading back off into the sunset over Richmond Bridge to complete a 6km total run.

We were back at AFC Heatham House on Monday night. One of our regular group tasks, we would often visit to help do all sorts for the local youth club, which supports children and young people in the Twickenham area. Danielle the youth leader often gets us doing all sorts, from attacking bindweed to clearing cupboards and tonight we waited to see what mystery mission we had in store!

The kitchen had been donated a load of food, including lots of fresh fruit and veg. Sadly, fresh fruit goes off quickly and our job for the night was to prepare the pickings so they could be frozen and then easily used for meals in the future - tasty curries, apple crumbles, banana cake…

We set up a production line, with T, Kate and Rebecca doing a peely great job at taking the skins off the orchard fruits; followed by a right pair with the pears of Sam and Liz, who were on chopping and bagging duties. Elsewhere, Adam and Pippa had a ketchup as they sliced juicy tomatoes. All of this was pear-fully overseen by Lucy, who as always had gone a bit bananas with the puns and then punny with the bananas.

Meanwhile, Steph, Chris and Suze were helping clean a serving station which had been living in a cupboard downstairs for some time. They apple-y got their hands dirty scrubbing down the metal and glasswork, til it was almost good as new.

Another grape job done by GoodGym Richmond at Heatham House, and doesn’t it peel good! Danielle thanked us for our ripe food work, and we left down the apple and pears to head off back home!

Speedy Sam led the group on the run tonight, across Richmond Bridge, along the river and around Marble Hill towards Twickenham where we headed to one of our favourite beneficiaries, Achieving for Children.

There was a lot of activity in motion when we arrived as the youths who use the centred headed in from skating for tea and groups gathered their instruments to head to the practice rooms. We get up to all kinds of tasks at Heatham House and it was great to see it in use.

Tonight's tasks were very different: one group got a real workout moving the large hoarding boards from the skate area, ready for a revamp, while another group did a bit sort out in the art room making systems, getting rid of broken bits and getting it all in order. Both groups shared a sense of achievement with big smiles around the piano for the group shot!

A final run back to Richmond town centre rounded off a satisfying 7km for a Monday Run Day!

This week's group run saw us get truly down and dirty as we descended to the basement at AFC Heatham House to tidy out the cellar!

Starting with a welcome for first-timer Ellen, and a 3km run from the Tap, we arrived at the impressive Heatham House front door to find out what the evening held in store. Heading down to the cellar we discovered others who had arrived just before already hard at work pulling crates, equipment and a myriad of different objects out of the cavernous rooms to the corridor. The room has been used as a dumping ground for a long time, with the best of intentions, and was too much of a job for anyone to get done alongside working with the kids who make the most of the AFC facilities.

Objects found included a banana pen, disco balls, a dead mouse, an old sports quiz and two crates of collapsible cups!

In an excellent example of how GoodGym can work at its best, just 50mins later our work amounted to nearly 11 hours of combined manpower and the room had a lot more order and space by the time we left to run back to the Tap.

In honour of our Lionesses, we headed to AFC Heathham House Youth Centre this evening with one goal in mind: to beat the brambles and win the day for scratch-free training and ball retrieval!

This was the second half replay for our match against the weeds after our visit at the beginning of the month. We had made the most of the half time chat and came out prepared with long sleeves this time so that noone would fall foul of the scratches.

Following a classic 4-4-2 formation (four runners, four meeting at the task and unfortunately two who could no longer make it), the task started with some exciting news as the Manager revealed the latest club signings: new gardening tools. The crowd roared!

Loaded with the new tools to strike down the brambles, half the team headed straight to defend the goal area from vines and bushes while the other half hit the left wing to cut the opposition brambles down to size.

Nothing can be substituted for hard work and an energetic 45 minutes of action ensued with the undergrowth beaten to the ground and a five bin bag lead at full time.

Highlights of the match can be seen above. Golden Boot went to Chris who went on to celebrate his birthday after the task, another year in the net!