It’s Valentine’s Day this week and love is truly in the air….for running, for community and for GoodGym(ers)!

Hot to Trot!

If you fancy marshalling this Sunday at the Richmond Half in exchange for a free place at any of their future events, just drop me a line and I’ll pass on the details. Be warned though, it’s an early start!

Congratulations to Luis who went on his first coach run this week, and to Jamie and Lindsay who both got P Bs at parkrun last weekend. Way to go gentlemen.

Friends with benechips

In honour of Valentine’s Day we had a love themed pre-run poll tonight, discussing how much we like sushi, wine, our fam, running and eating. So romantic. So with a flutter in our hearts off we went to our task tonight at Strand-on-the-Green school.

We decided to mix it up with a slightly different route – oooh – and after 3km of running arrived to find tools and instructions waiting for us.

The school has been struggling with a serious box hedge problem, which we have been helping out with, so tonight we pulled on our working gloves and got stuck straight back in again.

Tackling various areas around the school we tugged, pulled and coerced the prickly little pests out, and then covered the bare ground with woodchips. To top off our upper body work out we then shifted some soil. Phew!

Two Fast, Two Furious

After a steady run back to base it was timed for partnered-up circuits, and this one was tough. In pairs, we took turns working our way around the circuits while our partners sprinted, and it was the first pair to complete all bases that won this week’s special Valentine’s spectacular* prize. So well done to..drum roll...Amber and Jamie!

All that was left was to stretch it out, and to look forward to next week’s task when we’ll be back at Waterman’s Arts Centre for the first time in ages. Until then, happy loving running everybody!

• It was not spectacular.

The nights are drawing in and it was ominously windy, but that didn't stop 13 brilliant GoodGymers getting down and dirty all in the name of doing good!

More on that in a bit, but first please give a huge GG welcome to Lizzie who came along for her first group run last night! Lovely to have you run with us.

A bit of an advance heads up, but on October 6th we have the GoodGym monthly social in Islington. This is a great chance for GoodGymers new and old to get together, have afew drinks, and hear about all the amazing things you've been doing. Plus there is the all important pun of the month vote, and lots of cheering to be done. Hope to see you there!

Bags of Fun

Tonight we had a shortish run to our task, and as usual we kicked off with a warm up and a very important sandwich-related poll before heading off on the 2k run ahead.

Cultivate London is a brilliant organisation based across multiple derelict sites in West London. They train unemployed young people in landscape gardening and horticulture, and work to engage the community in food growing. They aim to have a long term impact on the lives of young people and change the way Londoners think about their fresh produce and where it comes from. We've been a few times before and are always to lend our muscle power to help them in their amazing mission!

We were met by Rosie and Flo who pointed us towards a mountainous bag of soil and several spades. The perfect upper body workout! Most of the team got stuck into that, while Will and Emily began moving the enormous bags of pots (they looked as though they would be light. They weren't).

45 minutes later, the soil was all bagged up, the massive bags were moved into their place, and we brushed ourselves off after a job well done.

After a nice steady run back to our starting point which we managed to time perfectly with the trains crossing (for once), we got stuck into our exercise pyramid, which saw us upping the reps of given drills until we reached ten, and then back down again. A nice minute plank challenge finished the night off, before we stretched out those miles (and extra burpees).

Next week we're back for more jobs at Cultivate, so (sign up here) [https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/lend-a-hand] for more soil-based getting fit and doing good!

There leaves are starting to turn, the evenings are getting darker. Autumn might be round the corner, but GoodGym Hounslow definitely still have a Spring in their step!

Please give a massive welcome to Amber, Jamie, and Lindsay who all joined us for their very first GoodGym run last night - great to have you with us!

First a little bit of news to think about. Midnight Runners have been in contact about their Midnight2Midnight event on 29th September in London. It's a 24 hour run consisting of 24 loops of a 10k course around the centre of London. Each loop starts on the hour at the Scoop outside City Hall, with all money raised going to charity. There's potential to have an official GoodGym loop so if you're up for either running yourself or helping with the GG loop, then let me know!

We headed outside for a brief warm up before our task, and had a chat about our fav childhood games. Lego topped the poll with two votes, but there were also happy memories in the shape of Operation, the sandpit, Mousetrap, possessed Furbies and red plastic monkeys.

Our job last night was for the amazing Honeypot charity, an organisation which enhances the lives of young carers and vulnerable children by providing respite breaks and ongoing outreach support. It gives young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home and provides a safe environment for them. They wanted to spread the word in Chiswick about the vital work they're doing, but didn't want to waste resources on a door to door drop, so asked us if we could help by delivering leaflets to community shops and other hubs in the area.

Clutching our leaflets - all 140 of them - we set off in groups to target the most community-minded of places down Chiswick High Road and Turnham Green and half an hour and a few wrong turns later, we had managed to distribute them all over the area. Nice one team!

Next it was time for our fitness session, and this one was a toughie. We started off with sprints and conditioning, before moving onto a mean little drill which saw us doing two burpees every 15 seconds for a total of three minutes. Not easy. We then saw off the session with strength exercises for our arms, abs and legs. All that was left was to run back to the starting point for stretches, and some gorgeous honey cake made by Remy to wish everybody a very Shana Tova!

Next week we are off to the brilliant Cultivate London - sign up [here] to help out a charity that turns disused land into nurseries where young people can learn to grow plants and gain skills.