A group of eight of us met at our usual spot at Tap Tavern in Richmond town centre to collect leaflets, get briefed and get going! A huge welcome to Rob who joined us for the first time.

We headed across the river into beautiful St Margaret's, home of beautiful front doors and immaculate paths! Lovely scenery for leaflet posting in the area. Working in pairs we efficiently covered a large area, being careful not to post into the houses where SPEAR had told us they already receive support from.

To keep ourselves warm, get the heart rate up and generally add to the fun, there were some added movements: Five squats at any house that ended in a 5. Ten lunges at any house that ended in a 0. Ten jumping jacks at any house with a double number (11,22,33,44 etc.)!

Lucy got lucky with a pair of doors called 33a and 33b for 20 jumping jacks and Liz had squats and jacks to do at 55! Intrigued to know if any Ring doorbells picked up some fitness action last night!

A good hour of delivering before heading back over the bridge into Richmond led to more than 6km walked, truly a great way to get fit while doing good.

This week's group task involved pounding the pavements of Richmond in a different way: dropping leaflets for SPEAR homelessness charity. The leaflets are to raise awareness of SPEAR, one branch of which is right in the centre of Richmond. They also have a donation form and information on how to contact them for help if you need help finding accommodation for a rough sleeper.

It was a busy session with a route map provided by Bruce to ensure that we targeted the right areas without duplicating previous drops. On top of the normal task logistics, we were also joined by two lovely people on behalf of Richmond Council, Rob and Erin, who were taking videos, interviews and photos of us all at work as part of a campaign to encourage people in the borough to be more active.

New starter Rochelle joined us for her first session and got stuck straight in! To make sure we all got a good workout for body and mind too, there were some added elements: 2 squats at every house with a '2' in the number, 5 heel raises or lunges at every house with a '5' at the end and a moment to think of something that we were grateful for at every house ending in a '0'!

We all can't wait to see the results and hope that both Richmond Council and SPEAR got a lot out of our actions.

Cathy topped her collections target within the first hour of this near four-hour GoodGym Community Mission, such was the marvellous response it received.

Richmond borough residents were asked if they could bring vital toiletries so we could pass them on to the charity SPEAR, who'll distribute them on November 24th at the NHS-designated Health & Wellbeing Day for Homeless People and Asylum Seekers in Twickenham.

GoodGymmers Stella, Sam, JP, Monika and Jenny joined Cathy at the ETNA Centre in St Margarets to greet arrivals, process their kind donations and hand out slices of cake.

Among them was a young mother with her toddler who had recently moved to the neighbourhood and wanted to contribute; a young man who hauled in two huge bags overflowing with a wonderful array of toiletries and sheepishly said: “I don’t take any credit, this is from my mum”; Diran who runs an over 50s table tennis classes at ETNA on Thursdays; plus new GoodGym members Michelle who dropped off a bag with her husband and Stella who brought a haul of items which her church in Twickenham had gathered.

While two retired couples happily stayed on for a sweet treat (banana and coconut raspberry cakes and double choc chip cookies) and coffee, Jenny ran full speed ahead with a great idea of separating out the items into categories: shampoo, soaps, toothbrushes and paste, deodorants, sanitary products, combs and brushes, wipes, and several luxury brands as well as mini samples which will make each kit assembled by homeless charity SPEAR that extra special. The goal was to collect enough toiletries for 24 mini wellbeing kits but such was the generosity we ended up with around 100 to be distributed to those in need next Wednesday.

This was the first time we held a collection for this cause so keep an eye peeled for a repeat in the future.

We met Bruce in Richmond to collect leaflets for the charity SPEAR.

SPEAR is a charity helping people experiencing homelessness and assist people that need accommodation and support services.

Thankfully the sun showed itself and there was no panic for rain on this lovely Monday evening. Kate and I navigated the map provided and zigzagged through Richmond to do leaflet drops. Thanks also to Cathy who collected leaflets, which will be distributed during the week.

Today 6 runners went the extra mile for local charity SPEAR to help man (& wo-man) their annual fund raising event.

SPEAR do an incredible job helping people experiencing homelessness in SW London including Richmond, Merton, Sutton, Kingston and Wandsworth but without essential funding and donations they would be unable to continue their good work. So tonight they hosted a comedy night with raffle, food and bar, where all proceeds were going towards their work.

Goodgymers turned up at 5pm and carried out a plethora of tasks, including:

• Transporting food, drinks and musical equipment from SPEAR staffs cars to the venue

•Carrying in & helping to assemble the stage

• Setting out & arranging 88, no 105... not wait, was it 125 in the end? ...chairs for the coming crowds

• Chopping toppings for the pizza's, then assembling, cooking & plating them up

• Setting up the bar & serving people their drinks

• Taking food orders for the interval & serving people their food (which involved a fair bit of wandering around question individuals of appropriate gender as to wether or not they were 'insert order name here')

• Eating up over cooked pizzas & left over ben & jerry's ice cream... ok so it wasn't all hard work!

• Having a really good laugh at the comedy :)

• Clearing away the stage, chairs, food & drinks

• Washing, drying & putting away all the glasses & plates used

Well done everyone, for staying calm under pressure & getting the job done! Hears hoping SPEAR successfully raised a bundle & can continue their very important work through this next year.

Tired but satisfied we headed off at 11pm to find our beds, could this have been the longest community mission yet?! Possibly, but I'm sure we'd be back next year if they need us!

How lucky were we!!!

GG Richmond really have managed some near misses when it comes to the weather in recent months and tonight was no exception...there were rumours of another lightning storm and it did eventually make an appearance in Richmond town but not until the Goodgym runners had tackled almost 5km , part of which was on very "undulating" terrain, aka "one of Mark's very steep hills!" Which i have to admit felt AWESOME to have a go at with the final hour of sunlight beaming down on us.

It was hot….very HOT!

We were still rain free as we flew down the hill, along church road and ending up at the front door of Penny Wade House, home to charity SPEAR who do amazing work with those who are homeless. Tonight, we met Steve and Damien and were given instructions to clean and bleach all the doors as well as the skirting boards. We were well supplied with all the cleaning materials and good wishes from staff and residents. It was really satisfying work and many of us just wanted to do more so we hope to be back again soon.

As we worked the heavens opened and once again we were greeted with a heavy downpour. But to our delight after we had lifted the grease and grime from the walls of Penny Wade House the weather had turned again and we were left stretching on Richmond Green under a glorious sunset.

During our stretching, new GG Richmond runner Chi tried to coaxed us into joining him in beating a Strava Segment , there were no takers but we did give him a well-deserved Cheer as he ran around the Green beating the strava time. Well done Chi and great to have you join us this evening!

If you wish to know more about the Vocal Tonix events Mark spoke of tonight please let him know.

Dont forget Tug of War is on 8th June and there are still spaces to be part of the team. Sign up here, we need 8 game players and 2 substitutes and LOTS of cheerleaders!

Mission in Richmond if you are verified is listed here. If you want to get on board with these missions just sign up and have a quick DBS – Chat to Mark next time too if you wish!

Thank you Chris for your first time back marking and thank you Samia for the pun. Also welcome to Samia and Kate to the GG Richmond taskforce team – We are a strong bunch now (all ladies of course – C’mon gents man up!)

David we hope your knee gets better...impressive puddle jump, just don’t tell your phyiso!

Check out our warm up from tonight...

Check out our warm up from tonight.....magnets in our feet or a spring in our step, you choose pic.twitter.com/XUYDejG0O6

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) May 28, 2018