It was an eager team that set out for the Royal London tonight. After being very patient with tonight's extensive task-briefing, the Tower Hamlets crew flew down the mile-long route to the hospital where our delighted and excited task owner, Nancy, was meeting us, along with colleagues Richard and Marufa.

Numerous tasks

This was our first time at the Royal London Hospital where we were booked in for a variety of different tasks.

David headed up the postering team, tasked with putting up information posters on as many of the hospital's 14 floors as the team could manage in the short time available.

Becky headed up the gardening team, whose job it was to weed, litter-pick, and generally tidy up as much of the hospital's designated green space as possible.

Issmaeel had the job of leading the walking-route-planning team, a key task that involved planning a hospital-based walking route as part of the End PJ Paralysis campaign ("For patients over the age of 80, a week in bed can lead to 10 years of muscle ageing, 1.5 kg of muscle loss, and may lead to increased dependency and demotivation. Mobilising (moving) has been shown to reduce falls, improve patient experience and reduce length of stay by up to 1.5 days.")

Leanne and Miranda has the task of spray-painting wheelchairs for the trauma ward, which proved to be one of the trickier tasks...

Our 45 minutes in the hospital flew by, and before we knew it we were congregating for our goodbye pics. It seemed no sooner had we arrived, than we were heading back through the revolving doors, returning to the hustle and bustle of Whitechapel Road, where we soon picked up the pace following tonight's speedy pacer Danny as fast as we could manage back to base.

New faces!

We were a group of 26 tonight = it was a joy to have both new and familiar faces in the team. Hello, and welcome, to new GG Stockport trainer, Lisa , who joined us on a busy night, and who stayed smiling, and unfazed throughout the whole evening, and lent a hand continually to all the teams.

Hello and welcome too, to Christie and Clare, not new to GG, but new to Tower Hamlets. Thanks for the hard work, so many smiles, and really hope to see you again soon. And welcome too to Insiyah who joined us for her first GG run - it was lovely to have you on board, thanks for all that hard work, and please come and run with us again soon.

And a big UK GG welcome to Colin , who was visiting us from Canada! What a treat for us, and well done for all your work.

...And to the thank-you's

And so to the thankyou's which seem to grow each week. Thank you to David , for being on board with last minute planning and for heading up the postering team. Thank you to task force member Becky for tonight's stats, heading up the gardening team, and for welcoming new runners and Lisa, and being such a warm and welcoming face of GG.

Thanks toDannyfor being our speedy pacer back to the hotel.

Thank you to task force member Leanne, for brilliant backmarking as usual, and more behind-the-scenes planning with me, and a massive thank you to Issmaeel, for bundles of behind-the-scenes planning (this started middle of last week for poor Issmaeel) with his insider knowledge, and for heading up the walking route team.

Thank you to Polly and Si, who we left in the hospital briefing Nancy on the team's brilliant walking work. That's above and beyond, and I was very proud of what you achieved. And I can't WAIT to do it all again next week...

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK...

...Moving on to next week, come and work off Royal-Wedding-party-calories on Monday! We’re staying local at Cranbrook Community Garden to help the team get ready for their big Open Day, before heading to beautiful Meath Gardens for a special Ab Attack workout. Sign-up is here.

...And don't forget the GoodGym Olympics on June 30th!

…And don’t forget the GoodGym Olympics on June 30th. A description of the events you can enter is here, while event info and sign-up is here. The deadline for signing up for an event is June 3rd.

Do come and join in the Olympic fun - whether you fancy a speedy Summertime sprint or just spectating & sandwich-eating, there’ll be something for everyone. And I’d love to hear from anyone interested in designing our flag and torch!

Let's hear it for warmer, lighter Monday evenings

It was a very enthusiastic group of 31 runners that headed out to popular task location, Weavers Adventure Playground, this evening, where task owner Alex was well prepared for a large group with a total of 4 different tasks. We had a lovely run to the task, with a quieter, more scenic route planned and led by Bryon.

Something for everyone...

On arrival, the team were divided up into: the heavy lifters (as it sounds); the saw-ers (is that a term?) for those fancying their hand at chopping up large planters; the soil crew (or 'the dirt group', as they became affectionately known during the evening) for shifting large amounts of soil, and the creative-thinking group for designing and building steps around the new slide. With team leaders appointed for each micro-task, Alex divided his time between all teams, project-managing and working with the lifters to shift heavy white goods from 'out back'.

The return of the Tower Hamlets signature snack

Half time means Lucky Dip Pick'n'Mix time here in Tower Hamlets - this week, most runners made a beeline for the HobNob bars, with the more health conscious snapping up raisins and - get this - oatcakes.

Pl-anks to Alex, for the use of the hopscotch area

...And so, freshly-fueled, we moved to our fitness session, where, as usual, abs proved to be a particular favourite area to focus on, so well done for putting up with the side-plank crunch and tuck'n'roll demands that were made on your abs, all on the slightly-softer-surface of the playground's hopscotch area. A particular well done to Rhys who, on his first GoodGym run, ended up planking on a hill (albeit accidentally in an attempt to stay at the back of the class), thereby giving his abs a double workout...

Happy customers

We headed back to base, both runners and task owner very much the very satisfied customer. A massive well done to you all, your efforts were clearly very much appreciated by Alex - as he explained, you really helped lighten the load this evening. Thank you for being such fun, so creative, and for persevering with all the tricky tasks, and for not stopping for a second for nearly 45 minutes.

Thank you shout-outs to Bryon for navigating and leading runs to and from the task; Dave for stats; Isha for being co-photographer and for some really fabulous pics, Leanne for brilliant backmarking, for always staying in sight, even with some last minute twists and turns!

...And a very warm welcome

...to our first time runners tonight, Savina, Rhys, Nick, Brian, Yesh, Georgina and to Mi (whose first time it was with the Tower Hamlets crew). You lifted, you lugged; you shovelled, you dug…You were amazing.

...and a very Happy 6th GG Birthday to Pete

Thank you to Pete who joined us for his sixth GG anniversary - was really lovely to see you on your GoodGym birthday.

Well done again Team Tower Hamlets - what a thoroughly upbeat, lively, satisfying and productive Monday night out that was, and I can't WAIT to do it all again next week!