19 GoodGymers ran 5km up to White City Adventure Playground for an Earth Hour Special!

The blossom is out and the nights are finally beginning to get lighter and warmer as we edge ever closer to some lovely outdoor tasks in the sun! Tonight was a special night in H&F as we were celebrating not one but TWO big 50th good deed milestones. A big CONGRATULATIONS to PB and January good deed machine, Helen and to the man who's often laughing and people recognise definitely not because of the fact he's got his name written on his GoodGym tee, Will for reaching their 50th good deeds last night. Will they both reach their 100th good deed together?!

Amongst all my wonderful regulars tonight, it was lovely to welcome along Helene and Mia for their first H&F group run - hope you both enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon!

For what it's Earth! Onto the news...

This week GoodGym is partnering with the WWF as part of Earth Hour, the world’s biggest switch off event on Saturday 30th March at 8.30pm. Earth Hour highlights the changes needed at a global level, but also encourages everyone to take personal action. You could, for instance, change the way you eat, embrace reusables and buy less plastic, or help to restore nature in your community. You can share your pledge using #VoiceForThePlanet throughout March to show how you are making a difference.

1. Special Earth Hour GoodGym group run - Saturday 30th March - meet at 5pm outside London's City Hall for a 2.5km run down to Spitalfields Farm. For all the details and to sign up, click here.
2. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - Our friends at Fulham Palace parkrun will celebrate their 300th parkrun event...and the best news is that GoodGym will be helping out with a BIG takeover event! Sign up here - please fill out the spreadsheet with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
3. RunUK volunteering - Sunday 14th April - RunUK are offering a free place in any of their upcoming runs if you volunteer at the Putney & Fulham half marathon - if you're keen just drop me a line.

With the name and number count and short pulse-raising warm-up completed, we began the 2.5km run up to White City Adventure Playground. Pausing only briefly at the top of Hammersmith Grove for our weekly wall sit we arrived in record breaking time. When we arrived we were greeted by the ever enthusiatic and appreciative, Rob and Koj. They both welcomed us in and briefly explained to the group about the "can do" organisation that is the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do at White City Adventure Playground - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends. Following on from our visit a few weeks ago, Rob and Koj gave the lovely feedback that other organisations and schools in the area had heard of GoodGym, and most importantly that the children and after-school clubs loved their newly painted kitchen and the work-in progress toilet transformation!

Koj explained the jobs that we would be lending a hand with tonight...

1. Finish the painting of the boys & girls toilets - in two shades of blue for the boys & yellow for the girls, and remove all the toilet tissue balls (also delightfully known as spit wads) stuck to the ceiling.
2. Paint a big graffiti wall - cover over the current graffiti in a nice fresh coat of white paint.
3. A surprise competitive litter pick in the playground.

With all the equipment layed out and ready to go, despite my maths and division leaving something to be desired, the team split into three groups: Team painting (/team toilet), Team Wall and Team Litter.

When you've gotta Van Gogh, you gotta Van Gogh

Team painting, led by Helen continued the blue and yellow job we started a couple of weeks ago. With many crouched round toilets in interesting positions and up ladders, the team worked tirelessly to get the job done. Many of the other team members also got involved with the final bits of the blue boys toilet painting so as not to leave it unfinished, plus it answered the age old question of "just how many GoodGymers can you fit into a small boys' toilet?"!

It's all white now baby, the walls all white now

Team wall, led by Catriona, overseen by Sophie and her helpful running lights, rolled their way quickly and efficiently to a fresh looking white wall. With a couple of inconveniently placed plants removed by Koj...no longer a sight for saw eyes. It didn't take long for the team to freshen up the wall ready for the youth club to graffiti away on a nice blank canvas.

A litter pick of this and a litter pick of that

Team litter, led by Sarah, who of course took charge of the bin bag, throughly combed through the grass and adventure playground. A plethora of litter objects were found and the bin bag full to bursting upon their scout round the entire outdoor area.

Nifty fifty

Before we headed off and said our goodbyes to Rob and Koj, we had a quick '50' based quiz while running on the spot to get the blood pumping again. Those that got answers wrong had to do either 10 jumping jacks, 10 squats or 10 press-ups, depending on the question. Despite, naming no-names, SOPHIE, Googling one of the answers there was impecable honesty from all. Fun facts learnt tonight were: the incredible Mal Law ran 50 mountain marathons in New Zealand not South Africa (check out FIFTY - The Movie), Tin is the chemical element that is the atomic number 50, and Jo Pavey will reach her 50th birthday before Paula Radcliffe.

Bake it happen...bake room, bake room!

With everyone nicely warmed-up again we headed off on our run back to base. Andrew and Catriona led a group of speedsters back while I attempted to stay in-between them and our wonderful milestone backmarkers tonight, Helen and Will. Once we were back at base we had a nice stretch off and the part of the evening many had been looking forward to....cakes and flapjacks! And oh what a fabulous array of wonderful treats there were, Bake Off eat your heart out! Great night all, thank so much for staying a little later to get the painting job completed. And well done again to Helen and Will Next week we are heading up to Wormholt Park to help build a loggery. Please bring a head torch if you have one! For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a fab week all!

With the rain bucketing down all day and the Met Office issuing yellow wind weather warnings, amongst injuries (hope you had a RICE rest up this evening) and work, the Task Force and I were slightly trepidatious about the effect of these on numbers tonight. We neededn't have worried as a brilliant and hardy 17 other GoodGym'ers came out to do good and get fit at one of our favourite task locations, the brilliant White City Adventure Playground. Amongst all my wonderful regulars tonight, it was lovely to welcome along Mo for his first H&F group run - hope you enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon!

Win, news or draw

1. GoodGym Shindig 2019 - weekend of 19th July, in Ironbridge. Register your interest by 21st March.
2. 50th GoodGym Area - later this month the 50th GG area launches & as part of the celebrations all the areas have been tasked with representing their area launch number pictorially with as many people as possible! GG H&F were area no. 24 so next we will be attempting to get creative with 24...ideas welcome!
3. Community Missions - Up for a weekend community mission? No DBS check is required for a community mission.

• Sun 17th March from 10.30am - plogging & some bootcamp in York Gardens, Battersea. Sign up here.
• Sat 6th April from 12pm - help sort food donations for City Harvest in Acton. Sign up here.

AND a big well done to all those that ran either the Thames Meander or Big Half at the weekend - Sapphire, Jonny, Johnny, Sarah, Eloise and Matt - some cracking running and times in those very windy conditions, well done guys and girls!

Wall present and correct

With the name and number count and short pulse-raising number game warm-up completed, we began the 2.5km run up to White City Adventure Playground with Bex expertly back marking. Tonight our luck seemed to be in as the rain had stopped as we set-off and something that was very much a rarity, we didn't get caught by all the traffic lights! En route we had one quick pause to get in our traditional 30-second wall sit (with some taking the word "wall sit" too literally!), wall sit done we headed across the zebra crossing and up to the entrance of White City Adventure Playground.

After a couple of buzzes at the door we were greeted by the ever enthusiatic and appreciative Deputy Manager, Koj. He welcomed us in and briefly explained to the group about the "can do" organisation that is the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do at White City Adventure Playground - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs at weekends.

They see us rolling, we painting...

With all the equipment layed out and ready to go, Koj explained the jobs that we would be lending a hand with tonight...yes you guessed it, more painting for the team!!

• Paint the kitchen area - in a coastal glow and grey colour scheme.
• Paint the boys & girls toilets - in two shades of blue for the boys & yellow for the girls, and remove all the toilet tissue balls stuck to the ceiling (spit wads are apparently what they are known as, delighful!).

What was really nice about this task was that it was something that the children's council, which they formed themselves and meet every month, suggested as one of the ways to improve the centre, as well as choosing their own colour schemes for the toilets. Following a quick health and safety briefing the team split into two teams, 'team kitchen' and 'team toilets' and as always quickly and efficiently got armed with paint brushes, masking tape and ladders, and began tackling the tasks at hand.

No laughing ladder, this wasn't for the paint hearted

Within minutes Jonathan was up the ladder and scraping the spit wads from the boys' toilets ceiling, while Sarah, Steph, Eloise and Sapphire began painting the walls blue.

High rollers, without a royal flush

Mo provided a clean sweep of the area outside the toilets before he began the high roller job of painting the mapped walls in a fresh coat of coastal glow.

Yellow, is it GoodGym you're looking for?

Andrew, Bex and Jonny began the white wall transformation in the girls toilets to a nice mellow yellow, with the hand dryer providing an amusing suprise for Bex as she rolled over the dirt underneath.

We got so EMULSIONAL, life is a ROLLERcoaster

Team kitchen: Helen, Tom, Will, Alice, Matt, Catherine and Johnny (rumour is Johnny chose the kitchen as this was the most likely place the biscuits would be!) started by prepping the kitchen walls with masking tape so as to get a nice neat finish. Catherine was also introduced to her biggest fan by Koj, the cooker fan!

Both team kitchen and team toilets did an impressive paint makeover job in just over 40 minutes, with all the walls looking fresher and brighter than before - and we'll be back in a couple of weeks to finish the paint jobs amongst some other environmental jobs in support of the WWF and GoodGym partnership.

Last but squat least...we pushed through to the end

With all the paint pot lids put back on tins and the majority of the brushes and trays cleaned up and left to drain, we 'luckily' had time for quick indoor fitness session. After some incorrect guesses as to what tonight's music based fitness session song was, "Happy" by Pharell was revealed. The challenge was to either squat or do a press-up on the word "Happy" or "Happiness" - with the latter holding the plank position until the phrase was heard in the song. As Tom was going to be away for three weeks he had no choice in the matter, lots of squats for him so that he could fully get his squat fill! The song seemed very much longer than it had done on last listen but everyone did a cracking job and executed their exercises brilliantly, including Koj, great work all!

Before we said our goodbyes and thankyous to Koj, the team posed for a team photo around the GoodGym t-shirt and scrapbook that the children of White City Adventure Playground have been working on, all the photos and previous run reports are in the process of being cut out and pieced together into the scrapbook - such a lovely gesture, we love helping out here!

School runnings

Task, team photo and fitness session completed, we said goodbye to Koj and headed off on our 2.5km run back to base. We all picked up the pace for the latter part and aside from one quick stop for the traffic lights, it wasn't long before we were back at base completing a quick cool down and stretch off. Thank you all for turning out on what threatened to be a pretty wet night, next week we've hopefully got a Two Task Tuesday! We'll be helping out two local schools in the area with some painting jobs, sign up for next week's run here. Have a fab week!

Warning this run report may contain an excessive amount of puns!

Last night a wonderful 10 other GoodGym'ers came out to play (well technically run) and help out at the brilliant White City Adventure Playground. It was lovely to welcome along the E's of Elen and Emily for their first H&F group run - great to have you both along, hope you enjoyed it, you _played your cards right in choosing H&F!

Still Got the News

1. November Long Run (this Saturday!) - This month's GoodGym long run is the 'Southwark Circle' starting at 11am from Waterloo Station. Sign up here.
2. GoodGym London Christmas Party! (1st December). Hosted by GoodGym Southwark at the Old Library in Burgess Park. Fancy dress theme - the first letter of your GoodGym area - hoping to see some 'hammers', 'frogs', and other great H&F letter outfits there!...... £4 donation, lots of killer tunes and dodgy dancing! Sign up here. Please also bring along any sportswear donations you may have for Polly.
3. Charley is doing a 20km walk for GOSH in January 2019 and as part of her fundraising is 'knitting furiously on the tube' & selling personalised stockings for £3 each or two for £5 - please drop her a line if you'd like one or more!

And finally, well done to Catriona and the rest of the GG Raceteam for running against the elements (think sun, rain, hail) in the Cross Country at Welwyn City Garden at the weekend - the next Cross Country race is at Wormwood Scrubs on 1st December, to sign up, click here.

Name changer

While warming up in a perfectly formed circle we had a quick name and number count with some, naming no names (Andrew) 'mixing it up' and throwing me with the name of "Jake", easily thrown! With Stravas set we headed up on the 2.5km run up to White City, hoping for a nice quick run with the traffic lights, obviously this meant that there were more 'stops' than 'gos' but it allowed us to nicely regroup before we turned up the long and straight Hammersmith Grove. Once at the top of the road there was a brief pause due to the lights being against us again, but much to everyone's excitement we used this bonus time to fit in a 30 second wall-sit before continuing on our run up through the busy Uxbridge Road up towards White City. It wasn't long until we arrived at White City Adventure Playground, with a few bonus squats squeezed in!

A (play) day to adventure

We were greeted by the Deputy Manager, Koj who welcome us in and briefly explained to the group about the Play Association and the amazing projects and work they do - from delivering after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years, to specialising in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and also teaching for children with complex special needs. This was proceeded by a quick tour of the Adventure Playground, a truly AWESOME playground that is a child's play haven!

All work, no child's play

Resisting the urge to have a play on the swings and slides, the group quickly set to work on clearing the small garden area that had become overgrown in the summer months, this garden area, once cleared will be transformed into a working garden for the children to use. Despite the small selection of tools, as Koj humourously commented "less may not be more" in this case - it transpired that he was a stand-up comedian so I asked what his puns repertoire was like, turns out pretty good, and we all had good fun bouncing puns around the entire evening, well we both got quite a few laughs from Charley so I'll take that!

Avoiding axecidents

Chris carefully wielded the axe as Tom, Jason and himself tackled the overgrown herbs in the center of the garden. Catherine and Emily worked on the bed behind while Andrew and Elen tackled the weeds and ivy growing up the side of the building, and Bex and Catriona got stuck into the bed near the garden entrance.

A mixed bag...of garden waste

With plants and weeds being cut down left right and center (quite literally) at a very fast rate it wasn't long before the bag of garden waste was overflowing and everyone was carefully balancing the final cuttings and waste onto the pile. Bex attempted one final sweep of the path with a large brush missing the handle much to the others bemusement, but it did the job perfectly.

Zip service

Following a couple of group photos around the very overflowing garden waste bag (in which Tom has a brilliantly placed floodlight behind him) and one in front of the play equipment, Koj dashed inside and re-appeared with the zip line swing.....

Policing fitness with Roxanne

With much fun had and a quick final slide before heading back indoors it was time for the part of the evening we all get excited about, fitness! Tonight's quick fitness session involved the song "Roxanne" by the Police. Following some nostalgia back to our freshers days at Uni tonight we were going to be doing some press-ups on "Roxanne" and some squat thrusts on "Red Light" while in the bridge position, or some squats on both. A tough 3 minutes, great effort all (including Koj who joined in the fun)!

All that was left was for us to say our goodbyes and run the 2.5km back to base. Barring a few quick stops en route with some bonus lunges, one-legged holds and wall-sits, as we'd quite rightly overdone the bonus squats for one night it wasn't long before we back and having a stretch and cool down after all our exertions of the night.

Thank you all for one very fun night, hope you have a lovely week! Next week, we have a slightly longer 7-8km run to Ray's Playhouse to help with some painting! We will have two pace groups so everyone can run at a pace thats comfortable for them. Sign up here. There will also be a post-run social! Hopefully see you there.