23 GoodGymers were out in the freezing cold doing good around Camden last night.

We had two newbies join the herd; welcome Dee and Hazel. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and will be back with us next week.

While you're here, why not get your name down for Scope and C4WS next week?

After a quick intro, we headed off along the streets to Jonathan and the team at the American International Church with bed-making on our minds.

Tonight there were 9 men's beds and 3 women's beds to be made, and with so many of us to hand, we got the task done in 20 minutes flat! The work we do by coming every week to make the beds over the winter literally means the difference between someone being on the street and being able to have the energy to apply for universal credit, book onto interview and English lessons, so thank you from me and thanks from Jonathan for turning up every week over what has been a cold winter to help out. I hope you think it's as meaningful a task as I do.

But once the beds were made, it was time for us to get moving again; our night wasn't over yet! Next was a run along the backstreets to Granary Square for some good old-fashioned laps with a time-trial of sorts underway; everyone had to run at least 2 laps and make a few seconds difference on their first lap's time.

With everyone back in one piece - and suitably warmed back up - we jogged back to the Community Centre for a cool down stretch. Although he didn't want it shouted from the hilltops, Suraj reached 50 Good Deeds on the run and I think that's worth celebrating! Liz was a very good egg and - as she was Walk Leader to C4WS and back - she bought some treats on the way back for us all to share.

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSIONS: Caledonian Junior Parkrun needs your help and Abi's organising the troops from Camden. 08:30-10:00 on Sunday 1st March.. They need 8 more volunteers - can you be one of them? There's also a Story Garden community mission next Wednesday before the Scope run from 5:30-6:30.

BIG HALF: There are a few of us Camdeners running the Big Half this Sunday! If you want to go along and cheer the team (and everyone else running!) please do - there are plans afoot on the GoodGym Camden Social WhatsApp group. A link to sign up to that group will be coming in an email from me on Thursday morning. And lastly but not least-ly, here's the info for the Big Half after-party. Runners, supporters, friends, family etc all welcome!

NEXT WEEK'S RUN: We're going to be heading back to Camden High Street to help out at Scope charity shop next week. The usual smaller group will be back at C4WS making beds. It'll be two indoor tasks, so not much chilly outside time for you - what a treat.

See you next time!

P.S. Huge thank you to Liz for saving my bacon with this quick and genius pun. I really need to go on a pun training course - any suggestions?*

35 runners came out in style for GoodGym Camden this week, as we come to the end of a really strong month for attendance!

We had not one, not two but THREE new runners with us tonight - welcome Charley, Michelle and Emily! Hope to see you all back with us very soon!

There was also another cause for celebration (even this was the third time actually celebrating it!); Camden's Sally hit 200 GOOD DEEDS! A huuuuge achievement and one to really cheer her about here! All those hours put to great use for the community; very well done indeed.

Liz had spent a lot time on putting together the most amazing red cape (from scratch!), complete with the GG logo and VELCRO Good Deed numbers (so they can be interchangeable) and the exact same font GoodGym Camden as is found on the website. Photos just don't do it justice and you'll have to come to one of our runs to see it for yourself.

Talking of our next run: Alara has had to postpone by a week so one half of the run is now TBA. We'll still be going to C4WS to make beds again though. Sign up here and I'll confirm that second bigger task when I have it.

C4WS Report (written by Beth)

After a short warm up, 13 runners ran to the American International Church to make beds for their homeless shelter. We got to work quickly and set up 12 beds, then headed to Granary Square for a fitness session. After a couple of laps of the square interspersed with star jumps/squats, we jogged gently back to the Living Centre for cake.

Cecil Sharp House

The rest of us headed north to the Home of English Folk and Dance that is Cecil Sharp House. Susannah was there to greet us and give us the rundown of what needed doing this week. There was branch-snapping, path-sweeping, dirt-collecting and leaf-clearing to be getting on with and the rain luckily held off just long enough for us. We managed to fill 9 bags of branches, twigs and leaves before having to put down our gloves and tools for the night.

There happened to be a lecture on MAGIC happening (ooooooooooooooo) in the room that the choir usually rehearses in at the back of Cecil Sharp. I'm sure it was just a fast-track Hogwarts scheme in disguise (hence the Potter-related pun), but we'll never know. Susannah was certainly keeping her cards close to her chest on this one.

With everything cleared, swept and snapped, it was time to head back for stretches and the MOUNTAINS of cake that awaited us at base, in honour of Sally's 200th.

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSIONS HERE: There's some plogging in Russell Square Gardens on Friday lunchtime between 12:30-13:10 coming up, as well as some lifting and shifting at Story Garden 14:00-15:30. NEXT WEEK'S RUN: Next week, we'll be back at C4WS as usual and the second task is TBA because of Alara having to shift back by a week. Sign up to stay in the loop.

Make sure to sign up for the NEW Alara run here if you'd like to come along and see the permaculture garden and orchards (plus, who's going to turn down a box of lovely granola?)!

Happy running and see you soon,

34 GoodGymers hit the ground running in Camden last night as the final of the Christmas Tree Run loomed large.

We tried an slightly-earlier-than-normal intro speech so we could set the American International Church team off to avoid a crossover. From the good feedback we got from it, I'm going to keep doing this until our runs to C4WS finish at the end of next month.

N.B. If you can, try and get to us at St Pancras & Somers Town Living Centre for a 6:55 start (not the normal 7pm) for the next 6 weeks, it would be really appreciated. This is to minimise the crossover with the homeless shelter users and us. I'll keep reminding you about it in the GoodGym Camden weekly email on Mondays, just in case.

Tonight was also a special night for me as I - finally - hit 50 Good Deeds! Dear runner, you'll be pleased to know that I have - with all the haste of a thousand winds - ordered my black t-shirt and will be wearing it at least once before going back to the Trainer Red t-shirt. Thanks Abi for the shout-out and Liz for baking two of the most delicious cakes I've had in a long time. That chocolate one just melted in my mouth. Delicious. Go and give her a cheer if you had a slice.

C4WS Report (written by Beth)

10 of us ran 3km to help the American International Church with their winter homeless shelter. We made up 10 beds very quickly and then had a chat with Jonathan, the Minister. He said that they have had over 30 guests so far this season, the majority of whom have since gone on to more permanent living arrangements - a real testimony to the dedication of the team’s holistic approach to caring for the local homeless population.

Jonathan invited GoodGym to their Volunteer Appreciation Supper on 6th May - it would be great to have some representatives from GoodGym there, so do put the date in your diary and go along. We'll pass on more info closer to the time.

Christmas Tree Run (Part 2)

Tonight was the final outing of the Second-Annual Camden Christmas Tree Run and boy did we get some miles in! Collecting 23 trees this late in January was a great effort and well done all who took part.

Without further ado, the results you've all been waiting for:

WINNERS! Team Breaking and Entreeing - 8!

Team Cirque de Pine - 6 (with a whopping 9.23km run!)

Treem Tree - 6 (2.5km)

Team Januar-Tree - 4

Team Weren't We-Supposed-To-Be-Running-The-Short-Route?! - 4

It was lovely to see a mix of old and new-ish Camden runners running together in last night's teams. I was out on a Sadiq Bike (they change name with each new Mayor, right?!) checking in on a few teams as the competition was going and seeing you all sprint around, plan your attacks and lug trees to the various collection points all in the spirit of GoodGym was brill. Keep coming back - you're what makes good GoodGym so well... great!

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS, AHOY! As the January Challenge approaches week three, we're cracking on with missions. Fancy volunteering at the Ally Pally Parkrun this Saturday 8:30-10? A few of us are heading up there and you're more than welcome to come along. Community missions are a good way to get a feel for what GoodGym's about without the numbers we usually get on Wednesdays, especially so if you're really busy in the weekdays as a lot of us are.

Sally's leading another community mission down in SE15 with Plastic Free Peckham from 2-4pm on Sunday. If you're feeling extra good, why not try both?

It's also the first Crouch End Open Space (CREOS) community mission of 2020 this Sunday 11-1pm. There was also talk of an after-task picnic, potentially with some cider in the sunshine. They're a lovely bunch up there and I'm sure they'd love to see even more people come along.

NEXT WEEK Normal Christmas-tree-less service resumes next Wednesday as we run back to C4WS (homeless shelter). A bigger group of us are running to Cecil Sharp House for the first time in 2020 for some weeding, clearing and tidying up of their garden spaces. Come one, come all.

Have a great week (and don't forget to get those Strava profiles linked to add your miles to the Camden January Challenge)!

Ben

LET’S EAT PIZZA! So, GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come!

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37 (!!!) brave and intrepid GoodGymers made it out to GoodGym Camden on a drizzly Wednesday night for another two-task night. We welcomed a shiny new person to the Camden herd - hello Hanna, I hope you enjoyed yourselves tonight.

Next week's run will be to C4WS again as well as back to Cecil Sharp House - sign up here if you want to get ahead of the game!

After a quick intro, we stretched and split up into two groups - C4WS (the Homeless Shelter) was led by our trusty light provider Hanry, the Scope group by me.

Arriving at Scope just before 7:30, we stormed the shop, met Helen and her incredibly organised list of activities for us to get stuck into before we split into teams:

• Team Jewellery
• Team Shoes
• Team Rag or Bag
• Team Shirley
• And finally, what can only be described as Team Fancy Dress.

A monster task - and one that we’ll definitely have to come back to - was to sort and price jewellery for the shop. No special marks for correctly identifying that this was Team Jewellery’s domain!

Also down on the shop floor there was some dusting, cleaning and organising of a shoe rack to be done, efficiently tackled by Team Shoes.

In the back we had Team Rag og Bag running a tight ship, leading the sort through of donations into bags that the shop will keep and sell and one they’ll recycle. Like a little production line of elves, they worked away right until the final minute we were there.

Upstairs were both Team Shirley (the brilliant husband and wife team of John and Jackie and Team Fancy Dress. Team Shirley were in charge with cleaning the upstairs bannisters, kitchen and floors which they did magnificently if I say so myself.

Finally, Team Fancy Dress! De-facto led by Rosie in a jumpsuit/Oompa Loompa dual-purpose item, there was steaming, sorting through, pricing and tagging clothes to go out onto the shop floor. See the photos for some particularly sharp Christmas suits, great wigs and strong Christmas jumpers!

Just gone 8pm, we waved goodbye to Helen and headed back to the Living Centre to meet back up with Hanry’s homeless shelter team for a final stretch and cool down.

Over at C4WS, the team did a fantastic job of making up 16 male beds and 4 female beds for the homeless users of the church. Jonathan was very impressed with what you achieved, so well done everyone! After the task was done there, it was a run over to Granary Square for some laps and fitness before heading back and regrouping.

We had a particularly good turnout at the pub after the run tonight. Everyone is welcome and it’s a great way to carry on chatting to GoodGym folks over a drink. Abi is the de-facto pub leader, and I know she’d love to see you there if you fancy coming along next time.

COMMUNITY MISSION ALERT: David from Russell Square Garden got in touch to say how impressed he was with our work a few weeks ago in the bulb-planting and fence-post-putting-up and asked if we might be able to come and [clear some leaves this Saturday 2:30-4:30.] Please do come along and help out - Liz is bringing cake!

NEXT WEEK: We’re going to be running back to the Home of Folk (Cecil Sharp) and C4WS again next week for some more leaf-clearing and bed-making. Would be great to see you there and you should definitely sign up now!

LET’S EAT PIZZA: So GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come.

Happy running,

Ben