Meanwhile in BestMinster...

12 GoodGym runners ran 6k to help at St Andrews Gym.

On a mild Wednesday night 12 GoodGym runners hit to the streets of Westminster for a 6k run to help out at St Andrews Gym and also bid farewell to our trainer Cory.

We welcomed 4 runners on their second run: Hermoine, Hannah, Felicity and Catherine. Hope to see you again next week?

We headed out down a busy Oxford street, with some dynamic sidestepping we beat the sale shoppers and sprinted down the hill to say “Hi” to the royals at Buckingham Palace. Nina was hoping for a secret spot of Prince Harry - no luck.

Swooning over the Prince complete, we then split into two groups - with the super keen runners opting for a leg round St James park, and a quick wave a the park keeper house. Whilst the sensible folk opted for the run through the park.

All back together, and it was time for some fun, or at least that is what Cory told us. We hit the curb for some step ups, and star jumps, finished off by a quick sprint to our location, St Andrews Gym.

Inside St Andrew’s Gym, we had time for a quick hydration stop, and it was straight back to work. 12 minutes on the clock, it was time to get this place cleaned up. Spray at the ready and we were off, treadmills (our least favourite thing), benches, weights - all spic and spam. With time still left on the clock it was time for a mini HIIT workout. 5 minutes Cory said, it will be easy he said.. Into the Yoga room we went, and along came the exercise ball - all on the floor and the mission was to pass the exercise ball round the circle whilst lying on the floor. A very secret AB workout complete and it was back the running.

A couple of straight kilometers back to our location, and we had some very happy runners who were glad it was on to the stretching.

One final thing - the farewell speech from Cory. We are sad to say goodbye to our lovely trainer Cory who has been helping us do good in Westminster for the last 2 years. Cory has helped lots of runner beat the fitness blues and do some great things every Wednesday, whether it is helping handout food to rough sleepers, clearing local church gardens, or helping out down at St Andrews. Good Luck Cory, we hope to see you running with us again sometime in the future.

Meanwhile in BestMinster we are back in full effect for ours and your first run of 2017.

What better way to get than Good going this than running and delivering food to rough sleepers in Central London on behalf of Rhythms of Life? A great charity set up by Andrew who has spent some of his life sleeping rough himself.

Now as it was our first session of the year we brought together lots of newbies and lots of regulars who pulled together to make the lil goody bags for our delivery containing fruit, sandwiches, crisps and chocolate.

Obviously before any of this happened we discussed the wonderfulness of GoodGym and why we do what we do, some health and safety and few sips of water and we were off.

Once again we'd been told where the best place was to head for the drop offs so all in all the plan was for a steady few KM followed by some intervals then steady back.

We left GG HQ and headed down into the strand via the back streets where we distributed the food to those in need and I swear we heard the the best thing I've ever heard on a GG run.

Would you like some food?

No thanks, BUT have you got a tenna as there's a hat that I saw on sale I'd like to buy abc replica gun in a library that I like the look of lol.

When we told up we had no money and no replicas he accepted the food and we were on our way.

We headed towards Trafalgar square for some relay reps then to the Christmas bazar for some selfies and as if by magic we were back at base having done our bit, just because.

Thanks for joining us, hopefully we'll see you next for yet more goodness. Now remember, continue to do small things with great love.

Meanwhile in Bestminster 12 brave souls headed half a click south by south west to the Salvation Army strong hold in Regents hall on Princess street. Why? To help sort through clothing and help distribute to rough sleepers who were coming in to be grab some food at the soup kitchen before heading off to there accommodation.

We were joined by a few newbies so we gave them the fulllllllllll in depth briefing on the goodness that Is goodgym and why what we do is so important. A few announcements about Christmas drinks, races and missions and we were off.

Obviously we took the long way to get there arriving not long after we left lol, we were welcomed by the lovely staff at SA and given a breakdown of what would happen as well as the dos and do nots.

We split into 2 teams, 1 team downstairs sorting clothes into size order and taking orders from upstairs.

The other team upstairs was classed as FRONT OF HOUSE lol. Meeting and greeting those that came in then asking what clothes they needed. All info was jotted down and everyone downstairs prepared socks, jackets, tees, trousers, sleeping bags, shoes and anything else they needed.

We did this for an hour, made new friends and finally said our goodbyes.

We left, had a gentle warm up then began some cheeky lil sprint relays to finish the session on a high.... thanks for coming ;-)

Meanwhile in Westminster 13 runners, 30 bags of food, 30 homeless people fed and a healthy 5k Today was my first GoodGym run. Going along to a new thing is always a bit daunting but what a friendly bunch good gym runners are and with 5 newbies in the same boat, conversation was flowing. A solid group of 13 peeps with some nice matching high-viz gear and at least 3 layers each, managed to organise ourselves into an efficient sandwich conveyor belt to create bags of food. This evening we were to run around central London stopping to give homeless people a food package each. Though it was cold, a run for 45 minutes is nothing compared to the sub-zero temperatures homeless people are facing right now. Zipping down side streets of London, and jostling through the crowds of Oxford Circus allowed some good breaks and developed my knowledge of roads other than the high street. But the main goal was to find and feed as many homeless people as possible. When we gave our small gifts of sandwiches, fruit and a chocolate treats away we received overwhelming thanks, excited faces and even looks of surprise at the generosity. I can’t really put into words my feelings but you could see how grateful these people were, how you brightened their day, through just a small gesture, the difference had been made. With the food all given away we started to head back to base but not without a detour run around Trafalgar square. Two quick ‘race’ laps upped our speed, not one of us anticipated the hill (small incline..) back up to our starting point and were sufficiently breathless and challenged. A gentle jog back to base and our task here was done. For me, GoodGym helped me achieve two goals. Supporting homeless people on the streets of London. Running around London evenings in the dark (the treadmill really is boring now) 10/10 and yes, I’ve already recommended to a friend.

Meanwhile in Bestminster our plan for this evening was a simple one. Hand out and drop off leaflets in Central and West Westminster for over 50s charity Open Age

Open Age was established in 1993 and they’re now celebrating over 20 years of championing an active life for older people. Their aim is to enable anyone aged 50 or older to sustain their physical and mental fitness, maintain an active lifestyle and develop new and stimulating interests.

They provide a wide range of physical, creative and mentally stimulating activities to enable older people to develop new skills, fulfil their potential and most importantly make new friends.

Now from reports coming in it was going to absolutely hammer it down at some point this evening so the plan was to absolutely hammer down to the edgware road area a mile and half up the road, deliver all of the leaflets to lots of houses and hammer it back, so thats exactly what we did.

But before we got started we had to explain to all of these amazing new goodgymers why what they were doing was so good so thats exactly what i with the help of a special guest who will remain unamed.

After this magical briefing the 8 of us headed off on our travels in light rain slowly but surely picking up the pace till we arrived on church street, we headed into a block of flats, split up and popped leaflets through doors and flew back down the steps.

Shortly after we split into small groups and raced around all the side streets till all the leaflets were gone. A quick regroup and off we went again trying to beat the rain.

Did we? Of course we did, a job well done and 5k covered....

See you next week...

Meanwhile in Westminster we headed 2 mins over the road to the Salvation Army to hand deliver a bunch of coats and toiletries and help out with giving them out as well as joining the other volunteers on soup kitchen duties.

The plan was simple, wander over, help out for the 30 mins then head off on a 30 minute tempo run so that exactly what we did.

The Salvation Army run a very tight ship at Princess Street drop in centre. Rough sleepers turn up and are offered food then ask what they need whether it be food, clothing or toiletries. You write it all down on a piece of paper, they are given a number, you go downstairs into the store room, collect the clothes, call out the number and bobs your uncle they are a little warmer.

We spent 30 mins there mingling, chatting and helping and then we were off.

An ever so slightly uncomfortable pace from light to light just to get the blood pumping, followed by some stretching and smiling and we were all done.

Thanks to all of you who came out to play, see you next week.

Five of us braved the cold to head out litter picking up on the precinct this evening. Armed with litter pickers (some a little better than others...) and bin bags we toured the street collecting discarded coffee cups, beer cans, ATM receipts, straws, coffee stirrers, bottle tops and even a piano keyboard!

It was certainly no trouble finding stuff to pick up since it was everywhere. A little competition arose where rubbish points were awarded:

• 5 points for empty beer cans
• 4 points for crisp wrappers
• 3 points for chocolate bar wrappers

Then the beer and cider cans started appearing and we stopped being quite as good and shoving each other out the way to collect more points. When one drunkard suggested he would tip over a bin to provide loads of points we decided we had done enough good and headed back, via a public bin, into which we crammed our pickings.

We're not sure who got most points. There were a few cider cans and vodka bottles, and we weren't sure what they were worth. EVERYONE'S A WINNER!

Litter pickers dropped off we did a mini-fitness session.

• There is no lack of hills around, so we figured we may as well learn a few tricks for getting up them. We practised cadence and arm drive (including elbowing each other - definitely the most aggressive running drill)

• Then a game of secret surges with a twist: instead of giving everybody a secret number, everybody was given two animals (well, the names of two animals. Not their given names like "Snowy" or "Rover", but the actual animal, like "dog" or "hippo". In fact "hippo" was given out twice, then I couldn't remember what I'd given out or who had had what or who had been. You know what, I'm gonna stick to numbers in the future). Each time your animal is called out you have to surge away from the rest of the group who must give chase. Fastest animal of the night was a Chinchilla. Well done, Gary.

• Finally a game of "lunge, high knees, skip, sprint" - which doesn't really need much explanation - before a final surge home and a little stretch while petting pups!

Wonderful litter picking and top training everybody. Great to meet you all. Lydia's back next week and I'm looking forward to covering again on the 23rd, Until then,
Simon

Meanwhile in Bestminster our plan for this evening was a simple one. Hand out and drop off leaflets in Central and West Westminster for over 50s charity Open Age

Open Age was established in 1993 and they’re now celebrating over 20 years of championing an active life for older people. Their aim is to enable anyone aged 50 or older to sustain their physical and mental fitness, maintain an active lifestyle and develop new and stimulating interests.

They provide a wide range of physical, creative and mentally stimulating activities to enable older people to develop new skills, fulfil their potential and most importantly make new friends.

Now from reports coming in we were going to blessed with beautiful weather up until 1945 so the plan was to run so fast and deliver the leaflets at such a high speed that we would of course beat the light rain and powerful winds.

With a few newbies attending they were all given the full lowdown on the wonderfulness of both Open Age and GoodGym and leaflets in hand we were off.

Floating up and down back streets, main roads and dead ends working in unison with the odd passer by we got the job done in know time at all.

5k later, 300 leaflets deep we arrived back safely just before quarter tooooo for a well deserved glass of bubbly..... water lol

Thanks for coming...... see y'all next week....

Meanwhile in Westminster a large group of incredibly nice people headed down to Sayers Croft to help maintain one of the small pieces of green wildlifey spaces that Westminster has to offer.

With lots of newbies starting this week they were given a fulll extended in depth breakdown of why GoodGym is so good and why them coming along helps to make it better. A quick health and safety brief, discussion around current affairs and upcoming races we were off. Now as this weeks tasks was a 10k round trip with the option to return via uber we went out at a conservative pace before I sneakily dropped in a few intervals.

The plan on our arrival was to clean the classroom windows from the outside. Sweep and weed the yard. Give the area a jolly good litter picking, wipe down the signs around the site that were covered in leaves and weed out any bad stuff that was left floating in the pond.

Sadly when we arrived the key to let us in to the area to do all of these wonderfully good deeds had disappeared so instead we took a tour of the area, kept an eye out for wildlife and areas that on our return we will pay extra care and attention tooooo.

Now as we hadn't expended to much energy doing the task EVERYONE ran the full 10k back but sadly some were caught napping when the Sky kindly opened up. But as we said, it's only water.

Hopefully on our return they will have found the keys and we can once again turn these fingers green.