17 Great Westminster GoodGymers ran 8k to Little Venice to clear 26 buckets of plastics and rubbish out of the canal and tow path with the Canal & River Trust.

Amazing to have such a strong group this evening!! Awesome running from everyone smashing out some of our longest runs of the year/ever!

Working our way nearly 4k up to Little Venice where we grabbed our grabbers and buckets and headed off to rid our waterways of as many contaminates especially plastics as possible!!

The canal was really bad this week and there was so much to pick that the buckets filled at a great pace!! Picking up random items like an onion!! To the oh too common cigarette butts we did a great job in the 30 minutes of picking.

Tipping all the rubbish away into the bins and getting running again, zipping our way back to Oxford Street at an excellent clip we were back dead in time with a whole lot of aerobic fitness and Good complete!!

Next week we WILL be meeting at New Balance one last time for our run to St Andrews Youth Club!!

Tom who ran with us this evening is completing his first ever Half marathon this September. Here is his fundraising page if you would like to donate.

This September I will take part in the Great North Run to raise funds for the National Autistic Society (NAS). In 2015 I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome: a form of autism. On 13th September I will be running for The National Autistic Society, so that children with autism get the support they need to fulfil their potential. Follow the link for my fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tom-mccann3

Have a great week

Joel

11 Westminster GoodGymers ran 7k to help Homeless Britain sort and order their massive container full of donations for those in need in the local community.

Setting off on the busy weave through the bright lights of Oxford Street and Mayfair before we go a good pace rolling through Green Park and some perfectly timed pedestrian crossing had us down to the a Ebury Estate lodge in no time!

Meeting up with Mike and the team we set to work getting all the Winter Coats, jumpers, sleeping bags and shoes out of the massive container which were then taken out to give to Westminster’s Homeless on the evenings missions.

A quick trolly run around to the Neighbouring estate to some extra supplies helped to spread the donations out even further.

We then got to grips with a magical ordering of the most random collection of donations imaginable!! Skeletons to manikins to cookers, microwaves and even a single shoe or two!

Was great to help out one of the smallest but most impactful charities around especially as they go through a time of transition.

With what seemed like an impossible ordering task the great minds (not mine) hatched a plan to really get to form a walk way and get everything accessible!! Leaving a super tidy container ready to help the volunteers more easily provide support to Westminster’s homeless.

As we left we wished Mike a massive good luck for his upcoming operation and headed off into the night speeding back to base with a little speedy weaving for fun!!

Thanks for coming along and hope to see you on Sunday for the Westminster starter session meeting at Little Venice or next week at the New Balance Store.

Joel

23 GoodGymers ran 5k to St Andrews Youth Club to paint the performance theatre and clear out and organise the overflowing store cupboard.

Thank you all so much for coming along on the run!! Big shout out to all the first timers who made last night their maiden GG voyage!!

We got underway with a big shout out from the always energetic Chi who let us know about a great beginner obstacle course weekend coming up in Finsbury Park. Click here for all the information on how to get involved!!

We then danced out way South the the St James’s Park area with a lovely 2.5k run to St Andrews Youth Club. It felt very weird to be there with non of the bright, bold and bubbly kids enjoying their evenings activities as they were on School holidays. But it allowed us more space to get working!

We split into 2 groups the painters went upstairs to get cracking with bringing the theatre some brightness for the new term while the sorters had a mountain of a task emptying, clearing and organising an overflowing store room.

With the painters off to a cracking start, with rollers rolling and brushes brushing the main parts and the fine detail of the walls were expertly taken care of with speed, efficiency and precision!!

With the room sparkling we cleared up the the minor paint drops on the floor, washed up and headed off.

The sorters produced an epic organisational performance!! Removing everything from the store cupboard, cleaning it so it gleamed, sorted all the contents into like for like boxes then in perfect order up the stuff back so it was so easy to use and view. A monumental improvement in 40 minutes of action!!

All that was left was the run back, basking in the glory of a brilliantly completed task we chatted and run up to in famous Green Park Drag where we tested our fitness with a 2 minute, 400 metre up slope effort from the bottom to the top of the park!!

With the drag dominated lead by Rhys we finished off the Sexy Fish way back to base to complete a fun filled evening!!

Next week we will be helping Open Age to for fill the mission to get Westminster’s senior community more connected and active!! Sign up and see you there!!

Joel