37 Goodgymers ran 7km and helped Grounded Ecotherapy at the Southbank Centre

Spring has sprung and last night was set to be a task to remember, our second visit to the Southbank Centre this month!

Welcome along to newbies Simeon and Alysson - lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Next Wednesday we are meeting at the Somers Town Coffee House instead of the Living Centre as it's closed for Easter.
2. The date for the GoodGym Olympics has been announced - 30th June. Camden won last year and we'll be looking to retain the trophy - get signed up!
3. Don't forget we are having our 5th birthday party at Skip Garden on 12th April - pizza, bake off and BYOB. Sign up ASAP please :)

Onto to what we actually did last night, after a quick warm up we headed south - through Russell Square, Holborn, passed Somerset House and across Waterloo Bridge to the Southbank Centre. The Thames looked beautiful as the sun was setting over it.

We were helping the fantastic charity Grounded Ecotherapy who say this about themselves: We offer recovery for people and places. We create thriving green spaces from neglected urban environments. Our members have extensive knowledge and skills in horticulture. Joining Grounded Ecotherapy helps members who have suffered mental health, substance misuse issues or experience of homelessness, to get back on their feet.

Once we'd all arrived, we climbed the yellow stairs of the Southbank Centre and got the task going, splitting into groups we covered the following:

• Moved a big and small spikey ball!
• We laid top soil over the ground where turf will be rolled out later this week.
• A team of four raked the laid out soil - smoothing it over
• Pickers collected up rocks, sticks and debris from the laid soil.
• Over the other side of the rooftop a team laid a base of pebbles and covering in some planters before filling them with soil

Tough Mudder

As the sun set our paced quickened and we got tons done. Finishing off with a rush to fill the planters all hands were on it!

After a group picture and a thanks to the Grounded Ecotherapy team we headed into the night back home. Check out Grounded's thank you message for last night's work to us here

Sign up for next week here when we'll be off to help Scope Charity Shop in Camden for a NEW TASK!

PB out.

19 of Westminsters finest GoodGymers ran 6.5k to One Big Family homeless charity and prepared all their food for the evenings food run for the homeless.

Great to have some GoodGym Newbies, our regulars and a number of returning GoodGym heroes!!

A super busy evening on Oxford Street was no match for our weaving skills as we ran south through Mayfair, Green Park, Victoria and on to the Ebury Estate youth centre where we met Mike who is the heart and soul of One Big Family Victoria.

Splitting up into Team Jam, Team Cheese, Team Ham and Team Cake we set up our precise production line for some speedy food creation!! We got into a brilliant rhythm cutting, buttering, filling and bagging and smashed out 300 sandwiches and rolls eking out every last drop of jam by the end!

A quick fill of the industrial sized tea urns and a swift clear up rounded off 35 minutes of productive, speedy and so very important work out the areas homeless community.

Like a flash we were off in unaccustomed darkness powering back towards base. Covering the first mile in no time before we took stock outside Liz's house. With one last big push up the Green Park drag we had worked hard!!

A quick stretch out and round of applause in the New Balance store for a Great GoodGym effort!

See you next week for some more fun on the run!

Smooth Running

Joel

14 sunshine drenched GoodGymers ran 7k to One Big Family homeless charity to prepare the food for the evenings homeless food run.

A glorious sunny evening caught many of us out with our running clothing so very handy to have the New Balance sale in full swing and many of the squad to full advantage!!

Heading out on out sight seeing tour of central London taking in Oxford Street, Mayfair, Green Park, Liz's house, Victoria and finally 3.5k later Ebury Youth Club!

Splitting up into groups we had the strong guns collecting water, while the sweet toothers tested their will power by bagging countless pastry's, doughnuts, apple pies, rhubarb pies, muffins and my favourite Cinnamon (don't) share buns.

While the cake slicers got sensory overload as the chopped up the most amazing smelling cakes in manageable pieces.

Great to see this tiny charity doing so well!! When we fist started visiting them there was minimal food and now the donations are huge allowing them to reach a much greater number of Westminsters homeless community!!

35 minutes of bagging action and we had cake mountains on the table tennis table to go with some pre packaged sandwiches and water.

Great team effort and even finishing in enough time to clean up our work stations!

With a job well done we headed off at a quicker pace flying up to Liz's house at a great pace really working at a speedy rhythm!

After a huge royal flyby with any number of dignitaries driving into the palace delaying our progress we decided to feed our legs some speed!! Hammering up the 600m Green Park drag we everyone feeling the satisfaction of the legendary gate touch!

A short jog back to base and stretch out had us done for the evening!

Thank you all for coming along and home to see you again next week when we visit Oasis Community garden to help keep the fruit, vegetables and herbs going. Sign up and come along!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

10 sizzling Westminster GoodGymers ran 5k to the Oasis growers garden to rehydrate some very thirsty herbs, vegetables and plants.

On a scorching Wednesday in Central London we met at the perfectly air conditioned New Balance store. After a few DBS checks and a briefing we headed off in totally the wrong direction seeking the clearest possible run to the Oasis leisure centre. A strong and sweaty 2.5k run got us to the centre in good time where we were met by a sea of sunbathers in the garden. Undeterred we unleashed the watering cans and brooms to get stuck in. Some very thirsty growing beds required a huge number of watering trips. Working hard carrying the 8kg full watering cans up and down stairs and carefully distributing the water all over the garden.

35 minutes of watering, sweeping, rubbish clearing had the community garden looking in top prefer and gave us a strong workout!!

Heading off avoiding the temptation of a dip in the outside pool or the sadistic sauna we headed up to the Squared circle of Bedford square where we hammered out a combo circuit!! Alternating a 300m running lap with 90 seconds of strength exercises we pushed the fitness adaptations before a calm 2k jog back to base where we stretched out.

Great work everyone this evening! Lovely to have you along! Hope to see you all next week when we run to St Andrews Youth Club the oldest youth club in the world to help them with a physical task up keeping the super busy building!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel