Just two of us on this one, but we got straight into helping the centre tidy up their art materials. Taking each shelf in 'sequins' we moved everything into a very organised new storage area, making the space usable again for the kids who'd been waiting to get their art room back for some time. The space had been converted into a foodbank store during the pandemic. A quick tour of their recording studios and music room, a girl-power group picture and we were coming home. Look forward to the next one.

We helped pack 100 arts and crafts packs with instructions to make face masks with sequins and glitter as well as packing goodie bags for the kids with sweet treats.

Thursday evening’s good deed came courtesy of GoodGym Richmond, although it seemed to be more GoodGym Hounslow on tour and taking over, with a smattering of other West Londoners.

The task in ask was at Mortlake Youth Club; a community hub of activities and events for young people in the local area. We were met by Danielle, one of the youth workers, who gave us the rundown of the jobs for the evening. The hall doors needed a fresh lick of paint, food donations needed to be sorted and there was a general clean up and tidy to be done in the gym, the cupboards and the art room.

Masks already on, and gloves donned, the girls got going on the tidying up. Marieke and Petra had cone on to cupboard duty, and at the opposite end of the hall, Alanna, Tish, Michelle and Lucy were in the gym. We couldn’t weight to tidy up the barbells and had a ball making sure all the equipment was good(gym) to go. We even managed to fitness in a few squats and lunges...

Elsewhere, Jack and Luis had made their way to the paint station, and searched in vain for a tin of suitable white paint. This was a trickier task that anticipated, as most of the paints had separated out, and had the emulsion was no longer in motion. Tish and Michelle stepped in and using makeshift stirrers from various bits of wood, managed to salvage a magnolia, and a pale blue (‘We wondered where that went - we used that on the toilets!’ Danielle said). The only white that was salvageable was probably not the type of paint we wanted for the doors. But hey, we were on a roller and Jack took the important roll of applying the first coat... ‘Is it me, or is this blue?’ He asked, as the first lick of paint turned a pale shade of duck egg. We squinted, ‘It’ll be fine... Sure it will dry white’. Paint no point in stopping now we’ve started eh?

We split again (like the tins of Dulux), and some of us went to the former arts room, now the food donations storage area. We pen-t a bit of time tidying up the felt tips and the drawings that were scattered about, before Danielle set us a task of organising all the donations into stacking trays of similar items.

Although there was a lot of food, it was a peasible job. We got down to beans-ness; Alanna and Marieke had us organised - meaty things in one tray, the plethora of peas into another, a basket of beans and a platter of pasta. All the trays were filled, and there wasn’t mushroom left at all (in fact the tower was almost as tall as our resident giant, Luis). Off they went, a stack attack onto the slightly questionable transportation mode of a wheely board, and the donations left the arts room for the pantry.

Back in the entrance area, the guys who were on paint patrol were packing up. It didn’t look like they had made much of an impact, but Jack was convinced the paint would dry white, rather than the subtle blue sheen it was currently giving off, and not really covering the chipped bits of door! Guess we will have to see what happens, but we are always happy to come back and try painting part 2!

The tasks were completed (as much as possible), and Danielle was very peas-ed with the hard work we had done for her. While she got Henry Hoover out for a final flourish, the rest of us were ‘hanging out’ in the hall. Michelle proved to us she wasn’t the best footballer to come from Leicester, Alanna discovered a new talent for shooting hoops, and Luis learnt the rules of netball. After a quick team photo, we head off. Another good deed done. Hoop hoop hooray!

For the first Monday night Richmond group run of 2020 there were a multitude of good deeds to be done.

So without further ado 15 Goodgymmers warmed up , trying not to kiss while supporting one another as we performed press ups ....it may be a New Year but its no longer midnight on New Year's Eve! And after some speed running drills on the spot our energy levels which had been subdued from the festive season indulgences returned and we were ready to press start on Strava and start clocking those January miles!

We definitely got reacquainted with our much loved borough this evening as we spent about 3.5km each way weaving in and out of streets, dodging pedestrians and keeping an eye out for rogue Christmas decorations.

We arrived at Mortlake Youth Station where we got stuck in to a myriad of tasks - clearing away the Christmas decorations, cleaning the kitchen and boxes for pots and pans, sorting and sweeping the gym and storage cupboard, taking out the rubbish and helping to create messages in bottles for International Women's Day on the 8th March.

This Youth Centre runs a whole array of activities and support services for young people in the borough, check out their website for more information - https://kr.afcinfo.org.uk/pages/young-people/information-and-advice/activities-and-fun/youth-clubs/powerstation-youth-centre.

We were high on tasks, the run and maybe slightly on the resin that was used to make pretty bottles decorated with pink stones and white sea shells for the positive affirmations to go in to be given to the young women who attend the Youth Centre. Precautions were of course taken, one of which included a new running bandana/snood (celtic style) being used as protective wear against the potency of the glue.

All that was left was to strike a pose infront of the impressive graffiti wall and we were off, 3.5km back to Wholefoods for a cool down !

Great to be back in action and with such good company too!

See you on the next run

17 of us fully charged and raring to go met at Wholefoods this evening. In the awesome pack was Sam from Liverpool, Rosanna from Southwark and Matt from Kingston – All on a first tourist trip with Richmond and most welcome, as was Christina on her first ever GG adventure and welcome back Naveed, Ciara and Emily on your 2nd run out too!

The brief was kept as short as we could to allow for time on the road this evening but it included heaps from a task vote of action, a shout out for the Richmond run festival this coming weekend and then a huge congrats to Anita on achieving a first place in her category in the Richmond Duathlon this weekend – Very Proud of you!!

Jack delivered a super warm up on the green, squeezing in a mini circuit and even BURPEES!!!! To which all performed remarkably well (some did just seem to stand with hand on hips but assured me they were just doing the drills VERY FAST – I believed them of course!) We were POWERED UP so time to get our stride on.

Fast feet make light work! #community #tasks #doinggood #getfit #running #charity #volunteering #warmup #goodgym #richmond pic.twitter.com/hRYPjKBe1n

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2019

The run was long and straight for the most part with no hills. It was referred to as a little boring in fact but we decided it was made all the lighter for the great company we ran with and of course it cheered me up to hear that hills are more interesting. So, the way forward is to the hills – we have seen the light ; - )

Warm up time! Thanks to Run Leader Jack for putting us through our paces! #goodgym #runninggroup #richmond #warmup #fitness #volunteering #community pic.twitter.com/Mm3umyACg8

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2019

The task tonight was a NEW one for us, so super excited to be helping at THE MORTLAKE OLD POWER STATION which now houses the venue for Mortlake Youth Centre and what a great place it is. Danielle, our task owner was ready with all tasks in place; so after some quick hydration and some explanation we powered through as much tidying and cleaning as we could in the art room and kitchen, prepped as many bottles as we could for the youths who attend to creatively upcycle, cut as many SPOOKY labels as we could to be used for Halloween craft and then lifted huge items (SOFA included) to make space and allow better use of the areas available.

Powering up our cleaning skills at the Old Power Station Youth Centre #richmond #barnes #goodgym #volunteering #fun #runninggroup pic.twitter.com/AffQB0E3Yg

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2019

Phew…what a lot to do mid 7/8km run. We loved it though and made as much use of the time as we could.

The Youth Centre is a great space in our community for the youths to have access to and Danielle was super to welcome us so that we could help contribute to this facility.

As ever time goes to short and now head torches a glow, we bobbed our way back in and out of some smaller darker alleys and walks until the road was a straight stretch back to Wholefoods for some stretching and a chance to refuel.

Next week we celebrate GoodGym turning 10 years old. To celebrate we will be having drinks and food at One Kew Road in Richmond after the run. The theme of our party is "What I wanted to be when I was 10" - you can come in fancy dress to either the run, the pub or both!! Sign up here - https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-runs

Oh and not forgetting...a GG tourist had a great idea tonight regarding who write's the run report. From now on if no one volunteers then I will nominate a Task Force member...it could be you! (Insert evil laugh here)