28 Goodgymers ran 3-5km to help the American International Church and Age UK Camden

Welcome along to newbies Beth, Rachel, Asher, Stephen, Amanda and Ian - thanks for coming along. We also had tourists from Stockport and Lewisham - amazing!

In the news this week:

1. There will be a GoodGym Social next Thursday, sign up here.
2. The GoodGym Olympics is going to be on Saturday 3rd August this year at Parliament Hill Track. Sign up here and represent Camden.

What a good night! We had two wonderful tasks help older people and the homeless in our community. Both tasks involved beds!

Age UK Camden:

15 of us headed around 1km away to help Age UK Camden, a fantastic charity. Our biggest challenge on the way there was crossing Euston Road, I have no idea where all those people are going!!

Upon our arrival Abul tasked us with emptying five planters of soil and dismantling the wooden containers which kept the soil in. It was a great task, our only issue was the lack of tools. We used forks, spades, plastic containers and even our hands to collect soil to pile up on one side of the garden.

Let's Get Physical

Working on three of the planters at once we got tons done over the 45 minutes we were there, taking apart and piling up lots of old wood but also emptying the planters we worked on. Talk about physical!

After finishing up we headed for an extended run home taking in Coram Fields and Russell Square.

American International Church by Pritesh:

13 of us headed off to the American International Church for our weekly trip to make beds for their homeless shelter. Kat was leading and we weaved our way through the streets to get to the church as fast as we could.

Once there we had a stirring speech from one of the organisers explaining the impact our 15 minutes of volunteering really makes – the stories really brought to life the hardships of those that have to use the shelter but also how much good can come from giving up our time and effort to help. With not much time, as ever, we worked quickly to get duvets covered, pillows stuffed in cases and hospital corners fixed on all the sheets!

Impact

With everything done we posed for a group photo and then Kat led us for a high intensity fitness session in Russell Square before we headed back to base, stretched and some headed for a well deserved drink.

Sign up for next week here, we'll be helping Alara and the homeless shelter.

PB out

Southwark News

• Tonight is the first GoodGym London social of the year - be there for January Challenge results, International Pun of the Year, International Pun of the Month and loads of GoodGym goodness. It's at the Prince Arthur in Shoreditchy area from 6.30pm til late - find out more and sign up here.

• This Saturday it's the last cross country fixture of the season. If you like mud, hills and beer (and are part of the GoodGym RaceTeam) come and run with us at Ally Pally from 1.00pm ish. Find out more and sign up here.

• Sunday 24th Feb is the GoodGym February long run led by yours truly and Dom. We're meeting at Brixton station at 10.30am and running 15 social kilometres to finish in Forest Hill for food. Find out more and sign up here.

• Tuesday 26th Feb Emily is hosting a fundraising pub quiz night in Westminster - help them in their amazing aim to raise £2500 for three fantastic charities. Find out more here.

• Thursday 28th Feb Matt Guy is holding a fundraiser for Westminster House at Batch. It's an evening of short films on running (called 'Running Shorts' oh the pun joy!) - tickets come with a free drink get them here.

• Next week we're shifting 2 tonnes of soil for Barnaby at Camberwell Subterranea. It's a 7km run overall. Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night we ran 6km to do a whole bunch of good for ourselves!

We set off into the night and up the hill to Grove Park Allotments to find the gates closed and Liz not there. Never fear, we thought, we'll do some hill repeats whilst we wait! Focusing on powering uphill with our arms at 90 degrees, taking shorter steps up the hill and leaning slightly into it, we pushed ourselves up and did a recovery jog back down. After some hill repeats and some texts back and forth it became evident that Liz wasn't available and was at a meeting. A bit of miscommunication! Ah well no worries, plenty of time for some more fitness fun!

A big hello and welcome to Aine and Albinia who joined us for the first time last night!

We left the allotment gates and went back down the hill to our favourite corner of Peckham Rye. By now it had started raining, but nothing could dampen our spirits! We did the Sally squat challenge to Moby's 'Flower' and then two triangle shaped loops of Indian file running. In Indian file running you run in a line of pairs at an easy pace until the front pair shouts 'Now!' and then the pair at the back have to sprint to the front of the group and so on and so forth. The squats combined with the extra long wall-sit on the way to the allotments certainly got our quads and glutes going!

We're squatting in the rain, just squatting in the rain, what a glorious feeling, we're aching again!

I'm very sorry there was no volunteering to be done - sometimes these things happen - but we had a great workout and left Old Spike with lots of (slightly soggy) smiles.

Great work team see you next week!

Lucy J

23 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Scope Charity Shop on Camden High Street

Welcome along to newbies Laura and Ana - lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Beth Anton who hit her 50th Good Deed this week, amazing work!
2. Well done to those runners at the weekend: Hayley who completed Royal Parks Half Marathon and John, Kat, Pritesh, Steve, Frances and loads more doing York Marathon and 10 miler!
3. Join James Gilbert and others on Sunday when there is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Spaces lay some woodchip paths - sign up here.
4. The October Long Run is this Sunday as well, led by Simon Fitzmaurice - starting in East Finchley and finishing in Hackney Wick - sign up here.

After we were thoroughly warmed up we headed the 1.5km to help Scope Charity Shop, this fantastic shop is a centre point on Camden High Street and always needs our help! Helen and her volunteers were grateful to see us and had lots for us to do:

• Rosie and Katherine wore Scope t-shirts with pride to collect money on the street - raising over £13!
• Liz, Abi and Sally sorted shoes, calendars and Christmas cards!
• Liz and Grace measured and labelled various trousers around the store.
• Thomas and Laura dressed four mannequins in very fashionable wear!
• Alex, Beth, Meredith and Alex cleaned the stairs, scriting boards, windows, doors, shelves, toilet and kitchen!
• Chris, Laura and Julie sorted accessories, ties and more.
• Jonathan, Hanry, Chris, Alba and Ana hung, labelled and ironed clothes that have recently been donated.

Over 40 minutes we got tons done and the shop is now a lot more sorted, clean and beautiful than when we arrived.

After a group picture we headed to Granary Square along the canal for a time trial - fun!

Good work everyone, next week we are off to Kentish Town City Farm - sign up here.

PB out