Tonight we had two tasks in H&F - a short run back to finish the job of laying artificial turf at Hestia Housing and Support and a longer run down to Ray's Playhouse to help with some painting. It was lovely to be met with 12 other smiling GoodGymers to help tackle 'two task Tuesday' and I was very grateful one of these was newly qualified Run Leader, Danny from GG Brent (aka Mr Good Deeds) who'd kindly agreed to come along to lend a helping with one of the tasks. It was also great to have Jonny along for his first H&F group run, and to have Charley back for her second H&F group run.

Despite the noticeably cooler temperature we all headed outside and huddled together as both Danny and I ran through the quick intros and a round of the week's news:

1. Adidas City Runs Fulham 10K (18th November) - If you're running the Fulham 10K next month, sign up here. If you'd like to volunteer and earn a 50% discount on the entry price of another Adidas City Run event, sign up here. Email Danny (daniel@goodgym.org) if you have any questions.
2. Goals - GoodGym's October comms theme is Goals. GoodGym HQ are asking Task Force/Runners to create short video clips of GoodGym members sharing their best advice for how to achieve a goal.
3. The big C word......GoodGym London Christmas Party! (1st December). Hosted by GoodGym Southwark. Fancy dress theme - the first letter of your GoodGym area. £4 donation. Lots of killer tunes and dodgy dancing! Sign up here.
4. GoodGym H&F Christmas Party - will be on Monday 10th December. Location TBC.

With the group in a nicely formed circle we did a quick name and number count as we began our warm-up to quite literally warm-up and raise our pulse rates. Following some dynamic side-to-sides, lunges, high kicks and the classic 'shooing of the chickens' hamstring stretch, and most importantly the check that Stravas were set, we all headed off on our short 1km run down Talgarth Road towards Hestia Housing and Support.

It wasn't long before we all arrived and the group split into two smaller groups. Danny led his group into the Hestia Housing & Support garden while my group continued on our 3km run down to Ray's Playhouse in Fulham running in what felt like zig-zags as we dodged all the pedestrians en-route down.

Step up to the pla(y)te

When we arrived at Ray's Playhouse we were met by Caroline who had kindly provided refreshments, as we quenched our thirst she explained that the centre offered a safe play space which allows parents and carers to bring their children for stay and play sessions and other child-centred activities. Tonight's task for my six fantastic GoodGymers was to paint the walls of the childrens toilets yellow and green as instructed by some very simple but handy pieces of paper that stated either 'Yellow' or 'Green'.

Moulden yellow

Caroline helped us get set-up in the toilets with all the dust sheets, sandpaper, brushes, trays and paint pots. The first challenge that faced the group was the opening of the paint pots, Caroline and Jason tracked down a knife from the kitchen which proved just the tool to open the paint pots. However, upon the opening of the yellow paint, despite a hearty stir, we had to declare it unusable due to the excessive floating mould. With the yellow paint pot condemned to the bin the team focused on the green (rather slime coloured) wall painting.

A different kind of green fingered!

Jason gave the walls a quick sand down as the others prepared the paint trays and brushes. Tom, Jonny and Karen set to work painting and rolling the far wall, making handy use of a stool that was perched above the toilets while Johnny and Jason started painted the side wall. Half an hour flew by and we made the decision to finish the walls we had started as best we could with the small stool and chairs used to gain a couple of extra inches. With three of the walls transformed from a pale yellow to a vibrant slime green colour and with everyone's hands, and in some cases red t-shirts covered in the green paint we called it a night and began the tidy-up and clean of the paint brushes and trays.

Play can't take that away from us

Before we set off on our 4km run to base the group quickly posed for a group photo in the doorway of the centre underneath the 'Ray's Playhouse' sign before saying our goodbyes to Caroline. In an attempt to avoid the pedestrians on our run back we took a less direct through some back streets and Normand Park, expertly guided by Jason - I decided it was best to let him lead the way to save time and to maintain the 'we haven't got lost on a H&F group run for a month!'. When we arrived back at base we had a quick cool down and stretch before we all parted our ways back home.

Danny's report from Hestia Housing and Support...

Hestia Housing & Support was blessed tonight to have five fab GoodGymers come down to finish-off the turfing in their back garden. Hestia supports adults and children in times of crisis. The area we were working in was the back garden of one of their properties near Baron’s Court, a shared outdoor seating area under a large tree. It was looking rather autumnal tonight, but in the Summer it would make a great place for the service users to come out and relax together.

Turf wars

GoodGym had been before and made a start, so we were there tonight to get things sewn-up. With an island of decking, and the base of a large tree to work around, we'd definitely been left the awkward bit, so thank goodness we had such an expert team along this time. Our task owner Sophie had everything laid-out ready for us on arrival including crucially, lamps! Martynas was here last time GoodGym visited so he was able to brief us on how all the pieces were intended to come together: the membrane, the turf, the tape and the pins.

Sweep it up

After sweeping away the latest fall of leaves, the team got the membrane down and trimmed and pinned it in place. Perhaps the hardest part of which was deciphering how to find the dangerous bit of the Stanley knives. With the membrane in place now the real job, the turf!

Puzzle dutch

With this rather awkwardly shaped area to cover and turf pieces only of a certain shape and size, there was some doubt and deliberation on how to puzzle pieces would best come together, but once a decision had been made, the team flew through it and it was a really satisfying sight for Sophie and myself (as mere spectators) seeing it all coming together. With 8.30 creeping up on us and a patch still remaining, the team dutifully decided they'd stay overtime and see the job got finished tonight, amazing!!

Journey to the center of the Turf!

With mallets and knives going ten to the dozen, the team converged from several directions on a single last patch in the middle of the garden. With that as the centre piece of their efforts we got a quick photo around it, bade farewell to Sophie and trotted the short distance back to the gym. With the other team coming from Ray’s Playhouse later still than us, we were able to do a thorough set of stretches including some of the slightly more esoteric ones like ITB and hip flexor.

Thanks so much for having me H&F, hope to see you again soon!

Many thanks to Danny for leading one of tonight's tasks and to Charley for the additional photos! Thank you for all staying a late to finish of the respective tasks too, hope you all had a fun evening! Next week we've got a short 3-4km run to help Age UK H&F - a nice indoor task for our Halloween run. Sign up here.

One way to cure post-holiday blues...GoodGym H&F Tuesday's! It was lovely to be back and to be joined by 16 wonderful GoodGym runners despite the cooler and darker conditions. Welcome along to Freddie on his first GoodGym run, welcome back to Serena and a Haringey 'high five' welcome to Dave doing some GoodGym tourism! And a big thank you to Alyx who covered the run last week, it sounded like a fun run.

With everyone gathered at base we headed outside and had a quick penguin-esk group huddle of introductions and the weekly news round-up...

1. Community Mission this Saturday! We will be following-up our August group run visit and lending a hand at Springvale Estate Residents Hall. No DBS check is required. Sign up here.
2. It's the London-wide GoodGym monthly social this Thursday in Angel at the Islington Townhouse! Full details here.
3. Next Tuesday is the GoodGym H&F monthly social - come along post-run for food & drinks. Location TBC.

Well done to Tom for completing the Tough Mudder Half (the mud may be gone by next week!...) and to Dave for completing the Spartan Race at the weekend.

With the intros and news done we did a quick name and number count and warm-up before setting off on the short 1km run along to the task, a GoodGym H&F first, toil and lay an artificial lawn for Hestia Housing and Support. At their Talgarth Road home, Hestia Housing & Support provide personal care and accommodation to those with complex and mental health support needs.

Always Look on the Bright Guide of Life

It wasn't long before we arrived and we were met at the door by Debo who led us inside and out to the garden area. A large cardboard box of fresh tools and equipment had been provided along with some step-by-step instructions of how to lay the artificial lawn. However, with Autumn well and truly upon us there was a large amount of leaves that first needed to be cleared from the area before the existing grass could be removed. Sarah was of course the first to excitedly grab the bin bags and hold them open as others swept and tidied the area.

Step 1 - clear the area & remove the leaves and exisiting grass...nice and simple, quickly & easily done! 8 full green bin bags filled within minutes

Step 2 - keep the weeds out, roll out the black weed membrane...focusing on half of the garden area the group cut the membrane to size and fixed them in place using the pins

Step 3 - roll out the artificial lawn...

At this point everything become a touch more complicated...what way should the sheets go? how do we fix them in place? Despite some lingering uncertainty of how this was to be done the group rolled out 4 sheets of the artificial lawn and began laying them as described in the guide. However, with only half of the membrane down on the whole area, and a lack of light and hammer, as well as no prior knowledge or experience of how to join and fix artificial lawn sheets together, everyone decided to just pin down a few of the sheets and fluff up the artificial lawn to make it look more realistic - while most used their hands, Freddie had the genius idea of using a broom to speed up the process! With time now also against us we decided to call it a night and used some of the green bin bags to help temporary secure the sheets of artificial lawn.

A Green Streak

We said a quick goodbye to Debo and set off on the short run over to Brook Green to complete a quick 1km time trial lap around the outer perimeter of the Green; to ensure the group got some extra few metres of running I of course 'purposefully' took a wrong turn en route that required a nice semi-synchronised U-turn. Building on the running technique work done with Alyx last week the group all set off on their sprint behind leader, Tom and it wasn't long before everyone was back at the start having completed the lap of the Green in super quick time. There was some excellent 'pockets to sockets' technique and good postures displayed, and post-lap everyone had significantly raised pulse rates, and redder and sweatier faces. Brilliant effort all! Thank you very much to Jason & Bex for being the time-keepers and bag holders.

With the group nicely congregated we did some squats and lunges before heading back to base for a quick cool down and final stretch with some Slovenian biscuit treats.

Lovely to see you all last night, a big welcome to Freddie and Serena, and thank you for your help with the 'rather complex' task! Good luck to Tom this weekend in the Royal Parks Half and to anyone else that is racing or parkrunning (It's National parkrun day on Saturday so why not go along to one and join the fun!).

Next week we have a slightly longer run to help Family Friends move and dismantle their office furniture. Sign up here. Have a great week!