35 runners came out in style for GoodGym Camden this week, as we come to the end of a really strong month for attendance!

We had not one, not two but THREE new runners with us tonight - welcome Charley, Michelle and Emily! Hope to see you all back with us very soon!

There was also another cause for celebration (even this was the third time actually celebrating it!); Camden's Sally hit 200 GOOD DEEDS! A huuuuge achievement and one to really cheer her about here! All those hours put to great use for the community; very well done indeed.

Liz had spent a lot time on putting together the most amazing red cape (from scratch!), complete with the GG logo and VELCRO Good Deed numbers (so they can be interchangeable) and the exact same font GoodGym Camden as is found on the website. Photos just don't do it justice and you'll have to come to one of our runs to see it for yourself.

Talking of our next run: Alara has had to postpone by a week so one half of the run is now TBA. We'll still be going to C4WS to make beds again though. Sign up here and I'll confirm that second bigger task when I have it.

C4WS Report (written by Beth)

After a short warm up, 13 runners ran to the American International Church to make beds for their homeless shelter. We got to work quickly and set up 12 beds, then headed to Granary Square for a fitness session. After a couple of laps of the square interspersed with star jumps/squats, we jogged gently back to the Living Centre for cake.

Cecil Sharp House

The rest of us headed north to the Home of English Folk and Dance that is Cecil Sharp House. Susannah was there to greet us and give us the rundown of what needed doing this week. There was branch-snapping, path-sweeping, dirt-collecting and leaf-clearing to be getting on with and the rain luckily held off just long enough for us. We managed to fill 9 bags of branches, twigs and leaves before having to put down our gloves and tools for the night.

There happened to be a lecture on MAGIC happening (ooooooooooooooo) in the room that the choir usually rehearses in at the back of Cecil Sharp. I'm sure it was just a fast-track Hogwarts scheme in disguise (hence the Potter-related pun), but we'll never know. Susannah was certainly keeping her cards close to her chest on this one.

With everything cleared, swept and snapped, it was time to head back for stretches and the MOUNTAINS of cake that awaited us at base, in honour of Sally's 200th.

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSIONS HERE: There's some plogging in Russell Square Gardens on Friday lunchtime between 12:30-13:10 coming up, as well as some lifting and shifting at Story Garden 14:00-15:30. NEXT WEEK'S RUN: Next week, we'll be back at C4WS as usual and the second task is TBA because of Alara having to shift back by a week. Sign up to stay in the loop.

Make sure to sign up for the NEW Alara run here if you'd like to come along and see the permaculture garden and orchards (plus, who's going to turn down a box of lovely granola?)!

Happy running and see you soon,

JANUARY CHALLENGE SHOUT-OUT: It's January, it's cold, it's always dark and everyone's broke. Luckily GoodGym Camden's here with lots of ways you can do good and get fit (and win this Challenge for Camden!), all you need to do is make sure your Strava is linked up to your GG account and get those miles logged in. It's a friendly competition between GoodGyms around the UK, but the key word there is competition and we must win! Camden's now #5 of all GoodGyms in all the land, but it's only the 9th and we've got a lot of January left. Sign up to the January Challenge here. (Well done if you've already signed up and linked Strava!)

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A whopping 35 GoodGymers shook off the running cobwebs and rang in the New Year with a run out in Camden on Wednesday night.

We welcomed two new folks to the herd - shout out to Niccole and Lauren. I hope Camden is what you'd hoped for (and then some) and I'm looking forward to seeing you out with us again soon.

How about Christmas Tree Run (Take 2)? Same time, same place next week - sign up now!

Tonight was the second Annual GoodGym Camden Christmas Tree Run as well as our regular bed-making at the American International Church.

A small but mighty group of 9 - led by the brilliant Louise - ran down to Jonathan and the team at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road for our first (official, non-community mission) bed-making of the New Year. 8 beds were made for those who needed them and, as the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down, a slightly longer run was on the cards for the return leg back to the Living Centre.

As the beds were being made, 5 packs of runners had fanned out across Camden Town in competition for the Cardamom Cup (but mostly just for the bragging rights of being the winning team) in the...

Second-Annual Camden Christmas Tree Run!

For the second year running, Camden runners went head-to-head in a competition to harvest as many abandoned Christmas trees from the streets around their chosen collection point as they possibly could. The time they had? 70 minutes. 5 teams. 25 runners. And the victors? Returning to the Living Centre at 20:28, just 2 minutes away from disqualification, was TEAM TREE-MENDUS with a whopping 14 trees collected and thrown over a fence (into the collection point).

The final scores were as follows:

Team Tree-Mendus - 14 (8.79km)

Team Tree-Angle - 11

Team Five-and-a-Wreath - 5 (8km)

Team Pines 4 Pints - 4

Team Ho (ho ho) - 4

Commiserations to the other teams, but don't worry - you've got another chance to win next week! With a hat tip to sportsmanship, Team Tree-Mendus unanimously decided to give Team Tree-Angle the revered Cardomom Bun baked by yours truly this morning, to enjoy at the pub. Rumour is that there might be more baked goods for next week's competition.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS GALORE: In true Red January spirit, Liz has been organising community missions for us Camdeners to get stuck into; Plogging - lunchtime litter picks - this Friday (anyone can join in, regardless of location), Volunteering with the Canal and River Trust this Saturday and, next week, Volunteering at the Ally Pally Parkrun!.

NEXT WEEK'S RUN: We'll be back with the Christmas Tree Run (Take Two) and some of us will be going back to the American International Church. Come along!

Happy running (and missioning) until then.

Thanks go to Liz for the excellent punnage.

30 GoodGymers got in the Christmas spirit last night for another week of running with GoodGym Camden!

We welcomed Laurel to the herd - hope you enjoyed yourself Laurel and found that GoodGym was as good as you'd hoped. Looking forward to seeing you with us again soon.

If you fancy getting ahead of the game and signing up for our last run of the year, get stuck in here!

As with all of our winter tasks, tonight was a double tasker; bed-making at the American International Church and Christmas-decorating at SPCA.

Hanry led the 10-strong group to the homeless shelter to help Jonathan and the team get 18 beds ready for those who needed a place to spend the night out of the cold and off the streets. It's such a worthwhile cause and I'm so glad we can lend a hand to C4WS over the winter when the cold really bites. Every time I speak to Jonathan, he keeps saying how grateful he is that we're doing what we're doing, so thank you everyone.

I took the other half of the group to the Saint Pancras Community Association in the other direction for some light-hearted Christmas decorating fun. We had our work cut out for us - Elaine had left us with boxes of decorations and a few instructions (think a Technical Challenge on Bake Off!) so we had a fair bit of creative freedom with it. The group split again into Team Downstairs and Team Upstairs and everyone got cracking on hanging paperchains, decorating the two Christmas trees, putting out the bunting and sticking snowflakes to the doors and windows.

There were a few Italian fiesta coloured banners which I think we styled out nicely and George did some great work tinseling up the bannisters. The photos tell the story better than I ever could.

After a quick team photo next to one of the Christmas trees, it was time to head back for a cool down stretch and then PIZZA!

It was so great to have so many of you out with us, eating pizza at Happy Face last night and I just wanted to say thank you very, very much for a lovely card and hilarious Christmas outfit. Special thanks to Rosie (and Helen from Scope) from being the organisers of this unexpected treat - the card is sitting on my desk as I'm writing this, I love it!

Thanks for being so welcoming over the last few months and I hope you're looking forward to what 2020 will bring as much as I am. If I don't see you next week, MERRY CHRISTMAS and I hope you enjoy some well-deserved time off with friends and family.

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSION: If you're free this evening (Thursday) from 6pm and would like to sing your heart out for a good cause, then join our very own Beth and some others from GoodGym Wandsworth for some good old-fashioned carolling at Kambala Cares in SW11 2LE.

OUR LAST RUN OF 2019: Next Wednesday's session is our last group run of the year and we're going to be sticking together to go down to C4WS as a one big team before we say goodbye ahead of the Christmas break. Festive wear is as close to compulsary as possible and there may well be fitness penalties for those in just regular running clothes - ye be warned!

THE CHRISTMAS BREAK: There will be NO RUNS on Wednesday 25th December or Wednesday 1st of January and our first run back in the New Year will be on the 8th of January 2020.

LET’S EAT PIZZA! So, GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come!

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37 (!!!) brave and intrepid GoodGymers made it out to GoodGym Camden on a drizzly Wednesday night for another two-task night. We welcomed a shiny new person to the Camden herd - hello Hanna, I hope you enjoyed yourselves tonight.

Next week's run will be to C4WS again as well as back to Cecil Sharp House - sign up here if you want to get ahead of the game!

After a quick intro, we stretched and split up into two groups - C4WS (the Homeless Shelter) was led by our trusty light provider Hanry, the Scope group by me.

Arriving at Scope just before 7:30, we stormed the shop, met Helen and her incredibly organised list of activities for us to get stuck into before we split into teams:

• Team Jewellery
• Team Shoes
• Team Rag or Bag
• Team Shirley
• And finally, what can only be described as Team Fancy Dress.

A monster task - and one that we’ll definitely have to come back to - was to sort and price jewellery for the shop. No special marks for correctly identifying that this was Team Jewellery’s domain!

Also down on the shop floor there was some dusting, cleaning and organising of a shoe rack to be done, efficiently tackled by Team Shoes.

In the back we had Team Rag og Bag running a tight ship, leading the sort through of donations into bags that the shop will keep and sell and one they’ll recycle. Like a little production line of elves, they worked away right until the final minute we were there.

Upstairs were both Team Shirley (the brilliant husband and wife team of John and Jackie and Team Fancy Dress. Team Shirley were in charge with cleaning the upstairs bannisters, kitchen and floors which they did magnificently if I say so myself.

Finally, Team Fancy Dress! De-facto led by Rosie in a jumpsuit/Oompa Loompa dual-purpose item, there was steaming, sorting through, pricing and tagging clothes to go out onto the shop floor. See the photos for some particularly sharp Christmas suits, great wigs and strong Christmas jumpers!

Just gone 8pm, we waved goodbye to Helen and headed back to the Living Centre to meet back up with Hanry’s homeless shelter team for a final stretch and cool down.

Over at C4WS, the team did a fantastic job of making up 16 male beds and 4 female beds for the homeless users of the church. Jonathan was very impressed with what you achieved, so well done everyone! After the task was done there, it was a run over to Granary Square for some laps and fitness before heading back and regrouping.

We had a particularly good turnout at the pub after the run tonight. Everyone is welcome and it’s a great way to carry on chatting to GoodGym folks over a drink. Abi is the de-facto pub leader, and I know she’d love to see you there if you fancy coming along next time.

COMMUNITY MISSION ALERT: David from Russell Square Garden got in touch to say how impressed he was with our work a few weeks ago in the bulb-planting and fence-post-putting-up and asked if we might be able to come and [clear some leaves this Saturday 2:30-4:30.] Please do come along and help out - Liz is bringing cake!

NEXT WEEK: We’re going to be running back to the Home of Folk (Cecil Sharp) and C4WS again next week for some more leaf-clearing and bed-making. Would be great to see you there and you should definitely sign up now!

LET’S EAT PIZZA: So GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come.

Happy running,

Ben

Well, that was something else wasn't it?!

42

Yup 41 of you amazingly wonderful people popped down to Camden on a freezing November evening to run around 5km and help out two wonderful organisations! Give yourself a round of applause!

So where to begin on this wondrous night - well everyone piled into the St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre and after a far too long intro we split into two groups and so the night began!

The intro:

• We were joined by the lovely Hannah from Red January - she was down to experience a goodgym run first hand and to tell us about the upcoming partnership between RJ and GG. You can read all about Red January here, but Hannah, the founder, told us all about how she wanted to get people to beat the blues in January by using exercise - sounds perfect for us!
• Christmas is coming! Sign up to the Camden pizza party by the 27th Nov here, that's on the 11th December after the run and don't forget to warm up to that by going to the GG-wide xmas party on the 6th December, details here
• Did i say there were 42 of us!? Well a whopping SEVEN of that number were at GoodGym for the first time - a huge GGC welcome to: Alex, Maryam, Layli, Harriet, Laura, Eileen and of course Hannah from Red Jan!
• Finally shout out to Debbie who was indulging in a bit of GG tourism coming all the way from GG Newcastle!

Right, on to the night itself:

• Chris took a total of 16 people to the American International Church to make beds for those needing shelter last night. Whilst we're not pleased with the number it was rather serendipitous that 16 beds needed to be made! Well done to all of you including our walking group of Liz, Rosie and Frances!

• The remainder headed with me to Alara to do various mulch and leaf related tasks. We split into groups and had three teams working to collect leaves at the front of the space and collecting it all into a big pile. Another two teams collecting leaves at the back and transferring those leaves to the compost heap (while avoiding falling into the pond!) and finally we had one team working to wheelbarrow mulch to various parts of the back area. Everyone worked hard and kept themselves warm and before we knew it our time had passed! As ever Alex kindly rewarded everyone with a box of granola and with many thank yous in the air we headed to Granary Square to meet the other team.

G- RUN - ary Square:

• After taking everyone on a sighting run (it is right, right, right and right again) we split everyone into pairs and did a meet and retreat event. It was described with such spectacular levels of poor planning and organisation that it could only work impossibly well and after some initial troubles everyone lined up and shot off in opposite directions and before we knew it everyone was back and warm! Amazing stuff!

With that done it was time for some group photos with Hannah for Red January promotion and then we headed back to base. Once there we bumped into Ivo G, GG's Founder and Top Dog who had sadly missed the entire evening's fun - sad times! He joined us for the stretches and then the evening was done.

It was great to be back and so wonderful to see so many new and old faces - keep on coming and keep Camden great!

Cheers,
Pritesh

p.s. huge shout to Liz for the awesome Stereophonics pun!
p.p.s. apologies my photos are SO bad!