Multi-tasking it

A good sized group of runners gathered on the hotel steps this evening to head to Oxford House, the large community arts centre around the corner, to help task owner Sarah prep-and-paint, shift furniture, scrub, and remove signs!

After a short warm up in the glorious April sunshine, the large team headed through congested Bethnal Green streets, cheerfully dodging commuters, and made their way to the vast community centre where Sarah met us, quickly assigning runners to tasks.

4 teams were soon dispatched to all areas of the building: the prep-and-paint team wasted no time getting stuck in with masking tape, brushes and rollers while a second team were dispatched to the basement for some heavy lifting of desks, painting and, er, statues. A further team hit the stairwells and corridors for sign removal (tougher than it sounds), while a fourth team headed to the upstairs dance studio landing for some industrial scrubbing. The runners worked tirelessly getting through three rolls of masking tape before the first half hour was up; completing the furniture removal way ahead of time, and racing up and down stairs looking for mops and hoovers to complete the upstairs scrubbing. Their efforts put every prime time TV makeover to shame and it wasn’t long before the stairwells were littered with forlorn looking runners desperate for new tasks (nothing a GoodGymer hates more than to be taskless). And so people were reassigned to fetch Henry Hoovers from the basement; assist in Project Pristine on the upstairs landing, and empty paint trays in sinks.

Interesting inversions

And then it was 8.05pm before we knew it and we gathered in the theatre for Christina’s Vibrant Vinyasa session. What a treat. The runners started by lying on the floor, catching their breath for the day, under the watchful eye of this highly experienced teacher we’re lucky enough to have in our team! 25 minutes later and the runners had all stretched, flexed and eased out every last little knot for the night, all to the most beautiful background music.

Runner recognition

And we finished a really unforgettable night with a cheerio from Sarah, who explained how much we’ve helped fill a renovation gap withour decorating efforts – the perfect end to a thoroughly lovely Monday evening.

Big shout out’s tonight

A big warm welcome to tonight’s new runners – what a treat! Hello and welcome to Ellen, Joanna, Cristina and Shelley whose first run it was, and to Frances and Rosie, absolutely not new to GG but new to Tower Hamlets. It was just wonderful to have you all on board, and we hope to see you very soon.

Thank you to task force member Lieke for lovely steady backmarking this evening, and the biggest thanks of the night goes to our very own Christina, for planning and delivering the most wonderful yoga session.

But you’re all amazing - our task owner confirmed tonight what we all really know anyway: that you’re absolutely brilliant, for showing up on a Monday evening, getting stuck in and really making a difference in our borough. It’s quite something.

Easter Monday means TWO great tasks to choose from!

Next week, it’s our Easter Monday fun run! Yes, we’re lucky enough to be housed at two tasks: choose from litter-picking around the lakes in Victoria Park, or heading to the Glasshouse Community Centre, by the park, for a spot of gardening and filling some big planters. And then we’re all going to meet for an EGGcellent (see what I did there) fitness session in the park. You can check it all out, and get yourself signed up, here.

Until then, have a great week: enjoy the sun, squeeze in a run AND HAVE SOME FUN!

We were two-tasking it again this evening, and really putting the ‘earth’ into Earth Hour on both our tasks.

A secondary SOS task to Cranbrook Community Food Garden

In an eleventh hour addition to our planned activity, task force member Becky J headed up a splinter group of four to one of our longest standing, favourite tasks, Cranbrook Community Food Garden. Writes Becky, “Just a mini detour en route to Cranbrook this evening, as fellow Task Force member Bryon challenged me to attempt navigating our route without assistance (always a challenge...). This added just one small loop to the run, but I'm all in favour of a little extra (accidental) mileage.

On arrival at the garden, we witnessed Storm Gareth had indeed left a trail of destruction in his wake, felling a tree and damaging fencing in the process. Bryon and Eimear set to work removing twigs from a boundary fence, while Tom and I began the tricky task of untangling climbing plants from a now broken trellis, before pulling down the arch.

Having successfully achieved this, (and, btw, saving a tree we feared may have to be pulled up in the process), we were then presented with a flat pack replacement arch (turns out flat pack instructions are easier in daylight, with a mug of strong coffee, than in a dark garden, deciphered under torchlight alone).

But Bryon and Eimear joined us and together we got the arch standing, just in time to pose for a couple of pics alongside our evening’s handiwork.”

Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue indeed.

Potting at Parkview

Meanwhile, I headed up the Parkview crew who were Glasshouse-bound to this most wonderful community hall on the Parkview Estate. Task owner Catherine met us with two tasks – potting bee-friendly plants and leafleting for the upcoming Spring Fayre - leaving no preparation stone unturned as she presented a proposed plant production line of such efficiency, the likes of which I’ve never seen before; ditto leafleting instructions (think hand drawn maps of the estate).

Two leaflet teams were dispatched onto the estate's many blocks, while the plant-potters, headed up by Luke, and initially Dave (who was then demoted to deputy by young Connie, who joined from the Parkview residents team to instruct on best plant-handling practice) grouped in two different areas of the hall.

It was a race to the finish, but by the time we left all 800 plants had been potted, and the area swept and scrubbed down. Wow.

Tempo run and tree pose

And so we headed to Victoria Park, led by Steve, for some fabulous speedwork headed up by both Tom and Steve, and finishing with a couple of resistance exercises.

And then it was back to our beautiful hotel base, where we were lucky enough to have Christina, a regular runner and qualified yoga teacher, lead us through some fabulous yoga stretches to finish.

Another totally neat night. More missions awesomely accomplished. More thoroughly relieved and appreciative task owners. Well. Done. You.

Monday shout-out’s

A very big shout out to tonight's first time runners, Ridwan, Anais and Eirini – thanks for making such a huge contribution on your first run, and we hope to see you really soon.

And thank you to Becky, for enabling the second task to happen, and for kind of saving the day and for taking some great pics, and writing the report.

Now, don’t forget, we’re doing it all again on Saturday when task force member Bryon leads up a brand new gardening task in E3 – yes, we’re putting the ‘earth’ back into Earth Hour for the second time this week. More details and sign up are here.

Have a brilliant week, won't you all, and hope to see you very soon.

Ready to head out

It was a very cheerful group of runners who congregated in a rather hot hotel room this evening to prepare for our two-task night. Everyone was keen to get going to our gardening tasks, which originally involved a lot of digging, but one of our tasks changed at the last minute, due to a waterlogged garden!

Bryon's brilliant gardening team

After a very brief warm-up, Bryon led the Hollybush team to the Commmunity Food Garden over at the Hollybush Estate where Michael and Margaret soon put the runners to work with bundles of weeding and digging. They worked tirelessly squatting, weeding and bagging, and Margaret was just thrilled with what they accomplished, messaging the minute they'd left with proud pics, asking when they could return!

...and chilly digging at Cranbrook

Meanwhile, I led the second team to the Cranbrook Community Food Garden where task owner Janet was keen for the runners to fill in the many holes the foxes had dug, in and around the vegetable beds. Teams were dispatched to the compost heap, to shovel and wheel compost back to the beds where the filling team were on hand to repair the foxes' damage.

As usual, the GoodGymers were ready well ahead of time, and so a new crew was formed outside of the garden collecting the many leaves filling the borders.

...topped off with sprinting at Meath

And so 8pm came and went, and we all met at one of our favourite training places, Meath Gardens (this is not only very pretty, it's also well lit, so useful for winter fitness). Tonight we were running laps, and so Emily and Sarah started us off, being our first 'hares' for the greyhound-and-hare game, a Tower Hamlets favourite. With a very small head start of 30 seconds, they sprinted off, with a speedy team on their tail. Winners Liam and Chi then headed up the next lap, with an even shorter head start of 20 seconds. In between each lap, we worked on a different variation of the lunge, tailored to our running needs (the hopping and kick-butt lunge may have seemed like mean choices in between speed sets, but they're excellent for the bigger running picture, honest).

And the before we knew it, it was nearly 8.30 and we headed back to the hotel, to cheered in by Chi, and stretched courtesy of Christina!

What a night of GoodGym contributions - thank you. Not only did you work so tirelessly for our task owners, your input to our overall session, and your fitness contributions, were incredible.

Let’s hear it for…

...Our new runners. A big GG shout-out goes to our new runners tonight: Damien Steve and Rebecca, whose first time it was with Tower Hamlets. You were all such an asset to our two-task evening: thank you.

Thanks to our brilliant ‘hares’ tonight: our brave runners who rose beautifully to the challenge of setting the pace for a fast and furious speed session: Emily and Sarah; Chi and Liam, and Rebecca and Fiona. What a fabulous start to the week you gave us.

Thank you to Chi, for helping to lead our fitness session and for some great pics, and to Christina, for some wonderful new input to our end-of-session stretches.

…And thanks to Joel, who always comes up with a game-changing pun at the eleventh hour.

And to our brilliant task force. Who are always behind the scenes, planning, leading and helping to build you a brilliant night. Thanks to Bryon for leading our Hollybush team and for fab pics; to Becky for beautiful back-marking and for meeting-and-greeting so well every week.

And so to the week ahead…

Looking ahead to this weekend, Sat 9th Feb, we have not three but FOUR events you can be part of! Becky G is heading up another fabulous Mile End parkrun pacing event - all those details are here, while also this Saturday, the 9th, Bryon will be heading up a picturesque canal run, followed by shrub-planting and a late pub lunch with our lovely task owners! Come and join in for as little or as much of this fun-filled Saturday afternoon as you fancy.

And next Monday, we’re back to Oxford House, just around the corner, for an indoor task helping to get this wonderful arts centre ready for a lick or two of paint, followed by Pilates session with a focus of flexibility - details and sign up are here.

Have a really good week, everyone, hope to see you soon.

Chilly – but cheerful

31 runners gathered in Bethnal Green tonight to head out to Weavers Adventure Playground, one of our very favourite tasks. The 4-degree January chill was no match for this determined lot as we congregated outside our hotel meeting point for our headcount, amidst lots of excited chatter.

Such was the chill in the air, we decided to head to nearby Middleton Green for a quick warm up lap, followed by a couple of dynamic mobility exercises to get us in the mood for shovelling sand and lifting tyres. Everyone took this very well, as we 'enjoyed' skater squats on the basketball court, having chased Steve around the small park.

Truly tough tasks

Shortly after 7.15 we arrived at the playground to be greeted by task owner Alex who was well prepared with a line up of tough but interesting tasks. The first crew headed to the sandpit to shovel sand into wheelbarrows and then out into tyres on the go-kart track. No mean feat, I can tell you.

Another group gathered beneath the trampoline to pull up weeds and shrubs; a third group shifted tyres from one tyre mountain to another (and then stacked a further tyre mountain tidily), while a fourth group washed and scrubbed furniture and children's toys.

Too speedy for their own good

Sounds like a lot? It was but guess what? 20 minutes in and half the runners were taskless, "They work too fast!" bemoaned Alex. Best. Criticism. Ever. And so further tasks were created. A new crew were despatched behind the hall to move garden furniture and goal posts (no, that's not a typo, and was a close shave shifting that thing in the air at one point, btw - #youhadonejob), while another team then moved timber at lightning speed from one side of the play area to another.

And then there was still time leftover. The majority of the team then gathered in the hall for our workout of the night (a few stayed out to get the job done.) There seemed to be many disgruntled faces during the workout tonight, which I wasn't sure was down to the floor surface which made for a miserable side plank, or my lack of height in a big hall, making for a difficult-to-follow exercise demo. Or the mean exercises. Don't think the latter.

And then it was 8.20 and we were saying cheerio to Alex, who expressed a short-but-heartfelt thanks for all that we do, and the difference it makes to him and to the children who use the playground. It really is nothing short of a miracle.

And then we were home-and-hotel bound, another productive and enjoyable night under our belt.

Shout-out's galore this week...

From us all, thank you to Steve, Luke and Bryon for leading and navigating our run out, and for Steve heading up our impromptu opening speed session.

Thanks to Ivo and Will for lovely back marking, and to David for this week’s wonderful pun, and to Dave who helped out with music tech at the start of the evening so we could all plank to music.

A very, very big warm welcome to our wonderful new runners tonight: Daniel, Christina, Becki, Vaida, Sarah and Karkay. What work! What a Monday night effort. What we all want to know is, when are you coming back?? I hope you had a wonderful night, and thanks for helping to make this evening so fun and productive.

Moving on to our next exciting events for you…

So, moving on…Next week, we’re two-tasking it at least (might even be 3 – watch this space), heading to Hollybush & Cranbrook gardens, followed by some running – details are here, while don’t forget on Sat Feb 9th, our fabulous Task Force member and parkrun co-ordinator, Becky G, is heading up our next Mile End parkrun pacing collaboration. Details and sign up for that are here.

Right, I’m off. Well done again for absolutely blowing January blues right out of the water; for being the most productive and fun crew to be found in East London.

Have a wonderful week, and I hope to see you very, very soon.