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Don't forget that the very last monthly social of 2018 takes place tonight! We do have the Christmas party to look forward to on the 1st December of course, but don't wait until then to get your fix of all the GoodGym news - sign up here for all the details on tonight's fun.

Please come and help out at the Tooting Parkrun takeover if you're free on the 17th November! We need all sorts of help, from marshalls to token scanners - and you can even sign up to pace if you fancy a run. Whack your name down here to let us know you're coming to help!

Hooray for Remy who last night reached that magic milestone - 100 good deeds! It takes something special to dedicate all those hours and miles to helping others so give her a cheer.

Paint it Back

A few weeks ago we started off a huge job at Ealing Road Church - a community centre, foodbank, clothesbank and shelter. The railings around the church needed a good sand down and painting to tidy up the outside of the building.

So after a quick warm up, and a very important poll to decide which biscuit is the best (general consensus was either hobnobs or digestives), we set off on the 3k run to the church.

Just under 20 minutes later we were there, and greeted by Pawel who had set up cups of paint, brushes and plastic sheeting ready for us to get stuck straight in. After 40 minutes of solid painting we had got over half way through the job - I reckon just two more sessions and we'll have nailed it, team!

As a special treat (!) we were allowed to use the inside area to do our abs blast. We went through 6 different exercises all aimed at strengthening our core - thereby helping to prevent injury and improve our running form - and finished with our weekly minute plank. Nice effort everybody.

With a steady 3k ahead of us we headed back to the Town Hall with the thought of double cake week driving us to get there in a quicker time than the first leg. It's amazing what pub/cake can do as an incentive!

Next week we have a task at a local school - we've got a whole load of box hedges to pull up. So get your headtorch out, grab your thermals and sign up here!

With the nights drawing in, it was great to see so many of you with headtorches last night - well done team. Don't let the darker evenings and chill in the air put you off - there's nothing better to warm you up but it's easy to lose motivation. Don't forget you will always have a group of mates ready to run with you on a Wednesday!

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Give a cheer for Charlotte who came along to her first ever GoodGym group run last night!

Don't forget about our big parkrun takeover on the 17th November - we need YOU! Loads of roles available, sign up here.

Paint it Black

A few weeks ago we had gone down to Ealing Road Church, a community space which is also used as a homeless shelter, foodbank and clothesbank, and sanded down the railings outside the building ready for painting. So our job last night was so start the big job itself.

So after a quick warm up which got our heart rates going, we did a poll to find out which national cuisine we would choose if we could only have one forever more. I'm pleased to report, without a hint of bias, that Italian came out on top, followed by Thai, Indian, British and...sweets (Beth!)

After a nice steady 3k run down there, we arrived to find a series of paint-filled cups, brushes and plastic sheets ready for us to get started straight away. It was a challenging (black paint + black railings + night) but a satisfying one as the team inched its way along producing lovely shiny and rust-free railings. That is really going to smarten the place up, and with Roger the Pastor managing a very busy community space, this was one less thing for him to do.

After tidying up after ourselves we opted to do our fitness session just outside the church on a nice bit of pedestrianised street. After a quick photo shoot from a gentleman who wanted to send our picture to his daughter studying in Newcastle (spread the GoodGym word people!) we started on a pacing drill which saw us vary our running from 10-100% effort, followed by some conditioning exercises and of course finishing off with our weekly one minute plank.

It was a super speedy run home and all that was left to do was stretch out our muscles and look forward to next week when we'll be litter picking for a residents' association. See you then lovely people!