Kingston GoodGym you rock on Week Two!  We salute you!  We don't need to be at The Rolling Stones at Olympic Park tonight as we used our rock n roll energy instead.  We rocked Kingston with a mega work-out involving the maximum GoodGym distance of a 10k run and a load of rake, barrowing and rolling! 

Well done Kingston for completing the challenge so successfully on Week Two - no mean feat.  It must be an evening of 10s - 10  game runners running 10k and not needing the bus back.  The runners included returning runners from last weeks's launch night, GG Richmond runners and new runner Kate - welcome!  

After a quick warm up in front of our new home, The Guildhall, we were off and soon ate up those k's through Surbiton, Berrylands (and it's one sharpener 'hill' mid route which Mark insists is just a 'slope') and before not too long we were at Manor Park and our task.  

Simeon the task owner from The Friends of Manor Park enthusiastically greeted, briefed us and equipped us with just the right tools, including 3 marvellous wheel barrows to drive.  The brief was to lay a path through the copse to make a clearer route for users to enjoy and get back to nature.  The Friends of Manor Park, is a local community group, based in New Malden established by residents to help protect and improve the park so more people can play, exercise, take part in sport, walk, and socialise.  

We quickly divided into groups to set up a production line to shovel, barrow and rake the fabulous green wood chips.  We reckon these wood chips were better than Chelsea - an aromatic and beautiful contrasting mix of brown and green foliage.  In under 30 minutes we'd moved a mountain of woodchips into a beautiful path.   

Thank you Simeon, it was a pleasure to work with you tonight and a most satisfying task so we'd love to be back soon.

The run back was a good challenge on tiring muscles so thank you Mark for an excellent stretch out and cool down on the beautiful lawn outside Guildhall.

Tonight when we discussed the news, Nick announced a new PB from the weekend in the Hackney Half - congratulations Nick. Bill also congratulations to you for a most worthy piece of news and another new PB, this time at Park Run - well played!

Also mentioned was the GoodGym Olympics, check out the events here 152 runners are already signed up!

Thanks Jane for this excellent report - look forward to seeing you all next week for a shorter run , I promise (I don't even think there are any "slopes")

LAUNCH NIGHT!!!

And so it begins, Tuesday nights, 6.45pm, at The Guildhall in Kingston. That's right, tonight saw the launch of GG Kingston and 32 runners came to join us as we celebrated the pairing of GoodGym and Kingston Council in order to get fit by doing good in the community.

We had the pleasure of being joined by Mayor, Julie Pickering , who gave a warm and heart felt speech that made some runners feel as though they were part of some great developmental changes in the borough. It was wonderful to have the Mayor wish us well and offer such encouraging words of support for GoodGym. In addition to this we were also joined by Martel Atterbury and Sue Gregory-Johnson from the Sports and Leisure Development Team a Kingston Council. Martel played a key role in getting Kingston off the ground and Sue was fantastic tonight, sending out a live stream on Twitter of the run - check it out...

https://t.co/aaBAKtPVpW

— Active Kingston (@ActiveKingston) May 15, 2018

After the briefing and warm up we set out on our first run, heading to Tolworth Allotments to prep an allotment and move a shed for Community Brain and the SHEDx project. This organisation have recently taken over the abandoned Tolworth Allotments with the aim of teaching food growing and generating sustainable sources of locally produced food. They want to inspire communities to feel proud of where they live and actively engage with it.

To get to the allotments we ran 3km through the Kingston streets and up a cheeky hill, you could hear a slight squeal from the Richmond GG runners who joined us to show their support. Their squeal was because they said "they just knew" Mark would put a hill in somewhere!

Once we reached the allotments we were greeted by** Robin Hutchinson ** who explained all about Community Brain and the SHEDx project. Do give them a follow on Twitter!! Robin instructed us runners to lift and turn over soil in the allotment so that it was ready to be used for the next stage of the project.

A time lapse of our @GoodGymKingston runners working their magic at the @communitybrain allotment #transformation pic.twitter.com/69Fs7OVRfU

— Active Kingston (@ActiveKingston) May 15, 2018

And for the finale of this fantastic task that already saw Kingston runners itching to complete fully we were asked to all move a shed! That's right a shed! So although we had all pretty much just met that evening, we clubbed together with true community spirit and deadlifted (like Mark showed us) a very large shed, moving it to it's new desired location at the other end of the allotment.

Get a SHED load of this! Episode 1 - The Lift pic.twitter.com/0mG9a932Mt

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) May 15, 2018

Such an AWESOME task!

So after many high fives we all headed back to Guildhall, thankfully mostly down hill as we had done the hard work already and were pretty tired from lifting sheds (I feel like Wonder Woman saying that!!)

Once back at Guildhall, our stretching was accompanied by a warm fuzzy feeling of contentment, we had started our good deeds in Kingston and it felt great! So lovely to meet fellow runners, wanting to help in their local community, I am looking forward to running with you again. Thank you to all the GoodGym runners from Richmond who came to join us and Bryony and Gillian from head office, it was great to have you supporting as back markers.

Now over to Mark for a final comment, "So at last we have GG Kingston in place, looking forward to growing it with you all and providing for the Kingston community where it is needed most. It is your group and you are encouraged to take part as much as you like, so anything from suggesting potential tasks to writing this run report, or anything else that would make a strong Kingston Taskforce; feel free to let me know. Additionally I meant to say a HUGE thank you to Martel who's energy and enthusiasm has helped kick GG Kingston off tonight, particularly with arranging such an awesome start location. Finally, Robin was delighted with all that we achieved and he asked that if any of you wish to know more feel free to contact him under the Community Brain handle on Twitter."

What a GREAT sight! As the Kingston team hit the streets tonight! #kingston #goodgym #runninggroup #volunteering #gettingfitbydoinggood #keepfit #activekingston pic.twitter.com/tNWv4U5Lw7

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) May 15, 2018