26 brilliant runners explore parliament, Green Park, Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen of Spain!

It was a bit of a bonkers evening to be heading for a run around central London. Not only was the LSE campus buzzing with graduations, the King and Queen of Spain were on a state visit and so much of central London was blocked off. This made the usually busy rush hour areas EVEN BUSIER!

We nipped down to the river and headed along to Big Ben, sadly with a bit of scaffolding round him at the moment, but looking grand nonetheless. After a very busy cross over Parliament square, we celebrated as we reached St. James's park and a bit of space. Hooray!

A nice run around the lake led us to Buckingham Palace and a nice team photo. With that it was over the road into Green Park and a nice lap around. On coming back through Horseguard's Parade, it was clear that much of town was blocked off so run leader / not the best tour guide Katie led the group up and round, with a return stretch scooping below Covent Garden and the busy London streets.

Thanks to everyone who came along and you sure got quite a lot of London experiences in one run there!

10 ran to Writtle to work on the Mencap allotments

On a scorching hot run 10 Goodgym runners braved the heat for a good cause. A long run of just over 5k each way ment we were a little short on time for the task but we summoned all our usual enthusiasm to get loads done in difficult circumstances.

After being greeted by the Mencap team and given much needed water we divided the tasks and got stuck in removing grass, strimming and mowing. The leveling of the earth for the new shed was somewhat hampered by the lack of rain and the sun-baked was super hard, but we dug in and made an impression. Whilst not entirely completing the job we did some great work clearing weeds and grass to make the area more accessible and made a good start in breaking up the ground for more work to be done.

The plot is reasonable large and much of it is overgrown, but we made sure that the fruit plants were more accessible and focused on the area where the new shed will go, and it's surroundings. The Guys from Mencap work hard on this area and it is good that they are able to see things growing and hopefully will get to enjoy the fruits of their (and our) labor, quite literally.

The run back seemed to be a little cooler and everyone made it back to base in one piece for more liquid refreshment. really pleased with the effort put in by the team in both the run and the task. I promise next weeks run will be shorter! I suspect it will also be a little cooler too!

17 ran to tackle a hedge for someone who couldn't manage it.

It was a double task day for Goodgym Chelmsford this Global running day, and we got stuck into the first task by helping the Ideas Hub to sort out a room in a nearby office ready for an event the next day. Tables were put together and chairs were moved and arranged, all after 6 flights of stairs! Great to see the return of Charlotte who is back from Uni and John who has not been for a while.

After our warm up task we set off on the run towards the main task, with a run through the high street and along the riverside path. We added an extra loop for those pushing the pace at the front and soon arrived at the hedge which had been enjoying the weather recently and was covering one window and working on the next. After retrieving the tools from the church we began chopping, lopping and clearing the hedge and surrounding vegetation to restore light to the flat. A good example of the sort of work we could do on missions for those who have been DBS checked, and something that can make so much difference to someone's quality of life.

Once the task was complete we set off back to the wooden bridge, and split into groups, one group running the three bridges and chasing group two who set off back to the hub! A great effort from both groups and we had a brief stretch in the rain!

I have posted the details of the Parkinsons event on Sunday on the facebook page here

and will add a discussion on our birthday party later today! see you this weekend or on next weeks run!

15 awesome goodgym athletes went litter picking on the parkrun route.

Yet another hot evening in Chelmsford saw 15 of us, including first timers Catherin, Rachel, and Mark, set off on a task with a difference. As we are heading to Parkrun Chelmsford this week to celebrate our historic partnership sign up here we decided to make sure Chelmsford looked at it's best for the occasion.

After a brief introduction we set off to the start finish area for our warm ups. some running drills and sprints got us all going and ready for the task. We then split the route into sections and in small groups spread across the park to clear the park. After 10 minutes we regrouped for some exercises and a short relay, before setting off to the next section.

Some great arm exercises got us ready for the second relay on the "short ascent" in Admirals park. We put those arms to good use driving them up the hill and the relay did get a little competitive!

More litter picking around admirals park and we set off back to base with a fun sprint through the arches to practice our sprint finish for Saturday.

A quick stretch and a reminder that members can cheer and support each other on the website, and we were done for another group run.

Don't forget if you haven't done a Parkrun before you need to sign up on https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register so you can get your barcode and bring this with you. You can run without it but you won't be recorded. those not up for a run at 9am on a saturday there are plenty of volunteer activities you can do, or just join us for breakfast around 10.

We will be heading back to the ideas hub after parkrun to have some breakfast and chat all things Goodgym! see you next week!

Good Ditch, bad jokes

7 runners headed the 3.5k back to the Broomfield allotments to complete the ditch digging.

On another warm sunny night 7 runners including newbie Richard set off on one of our longer runs to Broomfield allotments to complete the ditch we began 2 weeks ago.

After a short warm up including our exercise of the week new feature which may continue Mountain climbers which were enjoyed by all, we set off on our run. this scenic route past the Cathedral, the University and alongside the river we arrived at the allotments raring to go. Tim was there to meet us and set out the task, which all of the team opted to get stuck in to the digging with great effect. Tim also entertained us with some jokes, although some of the team have suggested they may be busy should he chose to perform a stand up set. We maintained high spirits and worked hard to complete the task bang on time, celebrating with cold lemon squash! One the way back we added some exercises instead of adding more kilometers, and completed sets of Mountain climbers, press ups, squats and a plank, weaved into the run home. Some stretches completed the session and we all look forward to next weeks session. hope to see you there!