Another scorcher of an evening and the start of a new series of Bake Off didn't stop 26 runners at GoodGym H&F from turning out to run, sweat (lots!) and do good for their community tonight!

It was wonderful to welcome along Sophie and Ella for their first GoodGym H&F run - thank you for coming along, it was lovely to have you both involved tonight, hope you enjoyed it!

Sweat it be!

We slightly reluctantly left the nicely air conditioned Better Gym reception area and immediately were hit by the oven-esk 30 degree heat outside, this was going to be a warm and sweaty run! With sweat droplets already beginning to form we gathered outside for some special announcements and the weekly news round-up.

Today was extra special for two reasons:

1. Today was Eloise and Matt's last group run before their wedding (not weeding as autocorrect seems to think!) 👰🤵
2. It was Sarah's birthday! 🥳

Obviously both had to be celebrated in true H&F style; Eloise was presented with a veil, rosette and runners numbers 310819 (the date of the big day) for both herself and Matt #dogoodgetwed and Sarah a birthday rosette!

A reminder of this week's news:

• Next Tuesday it's our 3rd birthday! There will be cake and lots of post-run celebrations, please come along.
• Thursday 5th September is the next GoodGym social in Central London, all details are here.
• GoodGym is turning 10! There's a big party at City Hall on Thursday 12th September, please register here if you'd like to come along! There will also be a BIG day of missions on Saturday 21st September - more details coming soon.

Tonight's task was flyering for the wonderful charity Family Friends that offers parent befriending and child mentoring services in the three London Boroughs of H&F, Kensington and Brent. Next month they have some volunteer training planned so our aim tonight was to spread the word about Family Friends before next month's training all around Hammersmith tonight.

With everyone already feeling rather warm we completed a short warm-up and stretch before we split off into two groups and headed in opposite directions so we could cover as many shops, newsagents and supermarkets as possible in 45 minutes.

Catriona kindly led half the group along King Street and up Goldhawk Road while I led the other half of the group up Shepherd's Bush Road and along Goldhawk Road, with both groups splitting in two up the roads so as to cover the entire street!

In the pair tonight

Amazingly we all reconvened as planned at Ravenscourt Park bang on 8pm with all runners accounted for! With the weather not being sprint friendly the group were treated to some fun partner games and exercises. We started off with rock, paper, scissors in the press-up/plank position, after five rounds we tallied up the totals...no one won all five rounds but Mo did manage four! Next up were some high tens sit-ups, followed by some lean out squats back-to-back and some controlled holding squats.

A new back and field event!

The best was saved for last, BACKWARDS JUMPING!! An event we're sure will be included in next year's GoodGym Olympics after it's debut at Bristol last week, so we thought we'd get some secret practice in (hence why the video below is dark and blurred...)

With time ticking and the light quickly fading we called it a night and headed back to base where we had our cool down and stretch off. We also had our sweet-based treats handed over to us by Graham as a big thank you, and an array of cake and biscuit-based goodies to continue the celebrations and ensure we replenished our energy before we headed home.

Thank you for a fab evening all, great work getting so many leaflets distributed despite the heat. Next week we'll be celebrating our 3rd birthday and lending a hand at Springvale Tenants Residents Hall, please sign up here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend!

21 GoodGym'ers did some fanta-stic(k) weeding work at a local Community Gardens

Today was another of our brilliant summer days...yes, more wind and rain! However, the threat of heavy downpours and thunderstorms didn't put off my wonderful group tonight. 20 other GoodGym'mers joined me tonight with beaming smiles, all ready and eager to run and do good.

Luckily there appeared to be an aptly timed break in the rain for our run tonight, and I think everyone had their fingers crossed that it remained this way, for a few hours at least!

A big welcome to our 6 newbies tonight, Ellie, Karla, Maddy, Rob M, Dan and Rob G - thank you all for coming along, hope you enjoyed it! It was also lovely to have Jason back after many months of school and studying!

Just news it!

Firstly, well done to all those who have been getting involved with missions these past few weeks! You can have a read about them all here: Bringing London Fashion Week to Wandsworth 🌿👚, Lot's of child's play 🎨, Always in the kitchen at parties 🥄.

1. GoodGym Monthly Long Run - This Saturday! - Led by Andy and I along the Wandle Trail, 16/10km run options, for all the details click here.
2. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - We're still in need of some funnel managers, marshals and paces! - Please sign up here & please fill out the spreadsheet on the sign up page with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
3. Asics London 10K Aid Station Volunteering - Sunday 21st July - Come and volunteer at the race, you'll get FREE entry into another Virgin Sport race and get to cheer on loads of other GoodGym'ers. For all the details on how to sign up click here.

This week GoodGym is partnered with The Great Get Together, a scheme which was started by Jo Cox's family and friends to bring us more together as communities and celebrate the fact that we all have more in common than we do apart. There's some special Community Missions happening on Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd June - check them all out here.

Through stick and thin

We had a quick pulse raising warm-up, stretch and number game before we headed off on our short 1km run up to our task tonight at Loris Community Garden, pausing only briefly for traffic lights and the much loved weekly wall sit.

Weeding between the lines

The task tonight was simple...weed the garden path and in the flower beds. Unfortunately due to the late rearrangement of tonight's task, the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association were unable to leave us any tools to assist us so it was very much a case of 'manual gardening'. However, we had the padlock combination to their side store and after a good forage we found: a fork, a spade, a garden waste bag and what surprisingly turned out to be the most useful tool of the evening, sticks!!

Stickin' it to the weeds

Armed with sticks, everyone set to work on the garden path and in the flower beds in an attempt to get to the 'root of the problem'. It wasn't long before there were piles of weeds built up around the path which in time were all neatly placed into the garden waste bag.

A litter pick of this, and a litter pick of that

While many tackled the weeds in the garden, Maddy and Xiaolei did a wonderful job collecting all the litter in the area and emptying the full litter bin near the entrance.

As always half an hour flew by and it was time to pack away all the tools, well 'up sticks' and pose for a lovely group photo around the freshly weeded paths and the now full garden waste bag.

A GoodGym sprint screen

With everyone congregated outside the garden we headed off on our short run down to Brook Green for the 1km time trial around the outer perimeter of the Green. We headed to the start of the Strava segment so that everyone's times could be logged and progress tracked. Rob M and Jonny led the way with everyone nicely spaced apart behind. Everyone displayed some excellent 'pockets to sockets' technique and good postures throughout, with Mo capturing some fanastic finish line photos. Post-lap there were significantly raised pulse rates, heavier breaths, and noticeably redder and sweatier faces. There were course segment records broken, as well as 1km PBs! Brilliant effort all!

Pair Conditioning

Before we headed back to base everyone got into pairs and completed some challenging partner exercises, these included the squat to sit, wonderfully demonstrated by Mo and Lucy, the pistol squat and seated glute stretch. We then headed back on our short run back to base for a cool down and stretch off, led by the wonderful double-act of Jonny and Mo. Thanks for a great evening, top effort all round!

Next week's we're heading up to Phoenix Farm to lend a hand with some weeding, watering, and chopping of plants for the compost heaps. Please sign up here. Hopefully see you then, have a fab week!