9 GoodGymers ran 5km to help Alara Wholefoods and Kings Cross Orchard!

Thanks for coming along to the 5th GGxFacebook Group run!

GoodGym is now in 50 areas across the UK and there are 1000 people doing GG every week. It's both a BIG and GOOD thing to be a part of.

After we chatted GG, recent race achievements and future race aims we headed to Alara. Running along Euston Road, via Somers Town and then behind Granary Square we were there!

We met Tom who told us our task - to help look after Kings Cross Orchard. We did this by first clearing the weeds and ground around each of the tree's with various tools - everyone did a brilliant job of making 1/2 meter of diameter circles around each tree. Beautiful! The next part of the process was wheelbarrowing over and laying down woodchip (the mulch) to feed the tree's. This keeps them alive and thriving!

Time Trial Time!

Over 40 minutes we cleared and mulched all the orchards over one side and weeded the orchards over the other side. Everyone worked hard in the drizzle to get the task done.

Next we ran to Granary Square where we did the GG Camden time trial, the lead time was 2.51 - not far off the record!! We then headed back to the Facebook Offices for a stretch and a cool down.

Thanks for coming along guys, see you next month for more GGxFacebook fun!

PB out

On Thursday night ten tremendous GoodGymmers ran 4.5k to help out at Coram Fields in Bloomsbury.

This was the inaugural GoodGym x Facebook group run and we met outside their office, slightly buffeted by the wind, as we got to know each other. After a quick chat and a warm up we set off with Ana kindly back marking.

It's a shortish run and one that involves lots of pedestrian dodging but everyone kept up the pace to reach Coram's Fields in double quick time.

We were greeted by Noel the groundsman who explained we would be collecting leaves. Coram's Fields is a brilliant oasis in central London exclusively maintained for children and families. It often relies on volunteers for its upkeep so our help was appreciated.

We grabbed some tools and got to work. Dividing into twos the teams got competitive as they tried to fill the most bags. 25 minutes of hard work later you can see the evidence piled up in the pictures: that's a lot of bags guys.

"Hugely helpful, it make a huge difference to our charity, it would have taken our guys hours to do this and it's made a big difference. They did brilliantly for first timers. They put in a lot of effort in a short time "

Noel, manager, Coram's fields

That hard work done, Noel thanked us and we dashed off for a fitness session. We found some open space at st Andrew's gardens and divided into two teams for some repeats. The teams ran one lap at 50% and the next at 70% before going again. In between repeats we worked on squats and calf raises before a finisher of a timed fast lap. It got a bit competitive and everyone did brilliantly. This was a great way to pick up our heart rate and work on that speed.

High fives all around and we set off for a light run back to base for stretches. Thanks for having us everyone and I hope to see you all again on another run soon!

Damian, Barnet trainer