Our monthly visit to local community hub, Cody Dock, was met with a lovely posse of benevolent running volunteers at our usual spot. As per normal our numbers bolstered in the final few minutes before we wrapped up the intro. We welcomed back Clara for her second run with us, first timer Chris and Elise back from a niggle. Boom Boom.

Random Weekly Question was "In an age of throw away fashion and a 'wear it once culture', what's your oldest standing item of clothing you still wear?" Running t-shirts from early teens, decade old tights, dad's 50 year old rucksack, 25 year old hats (need to see that on Brad), skirts from school, shorts so old your mum mistakes them for a cleaning rag, 40 year old cycling kit and pants currently being worn. Plus a raft of other hand me downs and cherished clothing, old is gold baby.

2 miles later, down an empty canal with a clear watchful moon above, we reached. Large timber models were admired and assessed, transformer-esque in appearance with movement-sensors and programmed to talk. We then headed into the exhibition room to go to work. Taking down the photography display, all the photos off the wall, compiling the competition snaps carefully. Then rearranging the makeshift walls, moving the mini bridge prototype, and making a stage. All for the Monster Ball, part of the Halloween Party on the 26th. Unfortunately for us, it's clashing with Ruth and Dan's leaving do.

It was an impressive show of team work and capitalising on the many willing hands, never to ceases to wow, how quickly we get through these jobs. Nicely done amigos.

Next week we go to Hackney Adventure Playground, and let's be honest, it's always an adventure there. A short run, but complimented by a little training session afterwards.

Here's to a quality weekend and getting some miles logged in the rain (it can be a liberating affair, try it)

Till next week

B

Thick smoky clouds engulfed the majority of a dusk sky last night, not sufficient to scare off our red warriors.

Siobhan's 100th and Clara's 2nd GG run yesterday. We did an extra efficient intro chat, inc a pre-asked RWQ: "what phrase irks you most?" A great cathartic exercise, I thoroughly enjoyed watching us all vent. We had phrases and words from 'reaching out', 'taking it back to base camp', 'cascade it down', 'living your best life', 'genre', 'a game of two halves', the incessant use of 'like', 'no offence, but', the default use of male of pronouns and many more.

Longest run on the GGN books at the mo, 9k in total, though seemingly not a big deal for most of you. Remember a year or so back, we had a similar distance run, and was a big effort getting back. Shows how much fitter this group has got collectively, mindset change too.

Once we arrived at the hospital, weeds were yoinked out, flowers and bulbs were planted, bushes were trimmed and tidied. The Dementia garden looked miles better 25mins after you'll left. Nice one guys.

Next week we are at Manorfield School, sign up here

Before I log off, two things. Huge credit to our Siobhan, who climbed into three figures yesterday. Our intrepid traveller who's been absolutely superb in pumping out social media posts, evidencing your efforts. Good luck with your masters and see you in December mate.

Second, we've got another birthday next week, GGN turn 5, dinner and drinks after our session. Looks set to be a corking 5 year anniversary.

Have a quality weekend and catch you soon

5 runners ran 3.5km to plant pompoms and pansies at Holly Bush Estate

Big cheers for all four new runners Laura, Clara, Victoria and Christina who joined me last night for their first ever taste of GoodGym. They made it out in spite of the less-than-promising weather earlier in the day. As a group we went outside to warm up - skipping and side stepping our way to a higher heart rate. We ran 1.3k to Holly Bush Estate where Margaret and Michael explained our task to us - planting pansies and pompoms in planters built by previous GoodGymers in a communal area in the Estate. We were careful to avoid the bulbs that had been lovingly planted by GoodGymers before us and whizzed through the task. We tried our best to keep the beds alternating neatly between pompoms and pansies but the last few planters ended up quite pompom heavy!

Margaret and Michael then took us round the corner to their community garden which has a water feature and a hand-built shed. The garden is planted and maintained entirely by volunteers and provides a learning space for local children amongst other things. The community centre that backs onto it is used by all kinds of groups - from Irish dancing to exams and everything you can imagine in between.

Margaret was thrilled with our power-planting!

We waved our goodbyes to the pair and set off for a gentle lap of Middleton Green. We then spent some time exploring our running ‘gears’ - easy, medium and hard. Once out of breath we worked on bringing ourselves back to a resting state focusing on breathing into the belly. This also expands the diaphragm and is my sworn-by remedy for stitches. We headed back to the Town Hall with a stellar sprint finish totalling 2.2k for the return run.

Great work team! I hope to see you at our next group run on Monday :)

Keep running happy, Lucy