This new GoodGym decade has kicked off with a bang as we launched our January Challenge 2020. We are aiming to complete 8000 Good Deeds and cover a whopping 100,000kms during this month. And GGHaringey has risen to the challenge completing 46 deeds and running 406kms during the first week of the year. We're currently sitting just outside the Top 10 in the Goodgym league so you should join us and help. Whether it's Red Jan, Dry Jan, Vegan Jan, or just your old aunt Jan, that's moving you this month, come and join us and help us complete our challenge!

Who needs the Golden Globes...

26 Goodgymmers in total last night, smashing our previous attendance record by 6! Pat on the back for all 26 of you <3

Loads of new faces last night too so a big cheer for them: Natalie and Ke-on joining us for their maiden Goodgym runs, and Amanda and Helen visiting us from GGHackney and GGHammersmith. Rock stars!

Big shout to Rebecca who is celebrating her GG anniversary by smashing hear way through loads of deeds this month. And last, but certainly not least, a big WOOP for Latoya who at the time of writing has completed a whopping 11 deeds this year already. Boom!!

Exfiltrating Mince sPies

We groggily staggered to GGHarinhey HQ, emerging from the midst of one too many Mince Pie/ Large Baileys Breakfast but soon we were back warming up and raring to go. There were so many of us that our intro briefing took much longer than we are used to and a quick spin of the burpee name game was in order. Thankfully no one got confused with names. Yep, absolutely no one.

We ran towards the Haringey Foodbank through one of our favourite routes, taking us through Tottenham Cemetery, and even the threat of rain didn't dampen our spirits.

At the task, Femi from the foodbank had arranged a mountain of donations for us to sort and sort them we did, reader. In spite of the crowded conditions, our Goodgymmers worked diligently and gingerly and within half an hour, the mountain of donations was no more. Femi had only managed to shake off the dizziness this morning when he texted us to say thanks and that he couldn't believe how much we got done. That's GGHaringey for you! 

Before we left, we were rewarded with mince pies and chocolates - just the fuel needed for the 2.5 run back to HQ. All in all, a fantastic start to the year.

This month we have loads of opportunities for you to join the fun. This weekend, on Saturday you can join us as we volunteer at the Burgess parkrun, and on Sunday Chi, our resident Bootcamp extraordinaire, is hosting a litter pick/fitness session combo at Finsbury Park. And our next group run is next week, when we'll be planting bulbs at Tottenham Green and you should totally, 100% join us. And bring a friend. Or 70.

13 Hardy Goodgym #WinterWarriors faced the elements to plant a little love and some bulbs at their local park.

Woop Woop Galore.

The humble streets of Tottenham were graced with Dharmesh and Liz's presence and they were A-mazing!

Also, massive shout out to BadGym Ambassador Extraordinaire R-r--r-r-r-ita who smashed her 50th deed in home ground and even managed to not get too distracted creating mischief. Rock star.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, a huge thank you to our Sister Barnet Goodgym Chapter who hosted a rather special Christmas Party last weekend. Mumtaz and team, t'was ace! <3 <3

Spring In Our Step

After our task for the night fell through earlier this week, the wonderful Friends of Tottenham Green stepped in and saved us by letting us come and plant some bulbs! We have literally and metaphorically paid our down payment for a lovely Spring picnic spot with our very hands. Boom.

Before we got on with our task, we warmed up whilst sharing our deepest wishes for Christmas (mainly cake, I'm not going to lie to you) and some of us set off for a 2.5k run, whilst Liz led a walking group to the task.

Laura from FOTG met us there and as always she had kindly prepared a number of tasks for us. She welcomed us with news that the Shipping Container she kindly allows us access to as our HQ had been broken into a couple of days ago. We were suitably angered but channeled our energy into beautifying the Green and, reader, beautify it we did.

After about a half hour of hard (and cold) graft, we had a lively running drill session and we set off for another 2.5k run.

Afterwards, we crashed the FOTG's Xmas do and Rita celebrated her 50th deed by leading a few #WinterWarriors into mischief and plenty of cake. Standard.

All in all, a pretty successful night if you ask me.

ONE MORE RUN BEFORE CHRISTMAS NOW - LAST ONE OF THE DECADE! And it is going to be one of our best to date, I hope. We'll be cooking and serving a meal for over 30 guests at the All People All Places homeless shelter in Muswell Hill, and some of the tasks for the evening will include eating loads of home-baked cake, pulling some crackers, playing party games, and generally ensuring the guests have a great festive eve. All hands on deck needed so you must come! And bring a friend! :)

BOOM!

We had a lovely evening visiting the wonderful folk at All People All Places (APAP) and we loved it so much we broke the 20 GoodGymmers mark for the first time in years. Boom!

First Stop: Kudos Central

Everybody make some noise for Kristina, Eve, and Luc who all shined last night during their GGH debut. Amazing!

Next Stop: We Will, We Will Mop You

One by one, our intrepid goodgymers made their way up the very very steep hills that led to our one-off rendezvous at the Muswell Hill Roundabout.

We made our way to the homeless shelter where Conor and Duncan from APAP welcomed us with open arms and a multitude of tasks. Good thing there were plenty of us to go around!

Some of us gave the kitchen a good scrub and left it looking spotless; some of us cleared a couple of rooms, moving some tools and bit and bobs to a different floor; some of us hoovered and mopped the main hall; there was bed airing, shelf-making, we even managed to get ourselves trapped in a stairwell for a while!

We crammed ourselves into the main hall for a quick fitness session, where a misguided attempt at a burpee game was followed by a more appropriate suggestion from Latoya and Louise to play Sally Said Sit Down. Everyone loved it - LOVED IT - and it's sure to become a GGH regular*.

By the time we left, the APAP folk were a bit dizzy at the energy and general get-on-with-it-ness of our Goodgymmers and I was a proud trainer.

We then ran down the hill and through awesome Ally Pally into Wood Green for our social but we got unlucky trying to find anywhere with an open kitchen so some of us got hangry and tried to put me in a bin.

It was an ace night.

Next week we're doing a bit of leafleting and playing for the very first ever GGH Scavenger Hunt Cup. I really think you should join us!

Peace.

*I'm allowing myself some poetic license here, regarding the level of love towards the game or amount of goodwill towards Latoya and Louise in the room afterwards :)

'Twas the night before All Hallows' Eve and a cast of ghoulish things came out play... Fourteen gruesome creatures writhed over the streets, and took over a very BadGym in Haringey.

Going for Ghould

Yucky Euclides performed an ancient summoning on a dark autumn night, and one by one, all the creatures of the netherworld ambled towards a helpless kids centre. There was Scarah and Naughty Nurjehan, Dastardly Dave and Nasty Neil, Wretched Rhiannon and Jagged Julie, Creepy Cathy and Horrible Hetty, Calamity Kandy and Merciless Mai, Catastrophic Kapil, Chilling Charlie and Lurking Lou. They revelled in Creepy Cathy's frightful face paint and then set siege upon an unsuspecting kids centre. The night before All Saints' Eve became truly a nightmare before kindergarten.

Slowly, these grisly entities took over the centre, transforming it from an innocent kids playground into a macabre ball pit of despair. The walls took on the dark tones of Halloween as the pumpkin garlands went up and the skeletons and ghosts came to life.

At the ball pit, it was a bloodbath. Dastardly Dave and Naughty Nurjehan carried out one of the worst massacres of bacteria known to GGH as they set out to clean, scrub, and hoover the pit. The poor microscopic victims never stood a chance.

Even in the garden, Horrible Hetty and Chilling Charlie proceeded to just pull out helpless weeds as they danced, pranced, and cackled into the dark night.

After this gruesome lot had fulfilled their appetite for destruction, they turned their attention to more mundane desires as they feasted upon multitude of percy pigs, vegan sour snakes, and chocolate. They laughed as the banquet gathered pace and in a frenzy of evil, some balloons might have been popped.

Then, as if responding to unearthly calls, one by one these grisly things slithered away to rest upon their lair for another year whereupon they'll rise again.

'Twas truly a BadGym night.

11 befuddled GoodGymmers bravely tried to make sense of a task adventure that really shouldn't have been!

Can We Get A Boom Boom!

Big shout out to our very own Deed Queen Extraordinaire Latoya, who was not only celebrating her 100th Deed but also her birthday. Boom!

The Task That Should Not Be

It's a truth universally acknowledged that when a writer has to resort to fancy and flowery literary allusions, he's probably just trying to hide the fact he's not really got much to say. Aaaaaaaaanyway, we had an interesting task last night, where our 11 GoodGymmers made the best out of a rather half-baked situation and found themselves jobs that included putting up a blind, some litter picking, and just some general maintenance. At the end, we even managed to get a peak at the boxing club where a group was being put through some serious training. Some of us tried to keep up with them for a bit until we were unceremoniously turfed out. It was a weird kind of task but the world-renowned Haringey GoodGym bonhomie got us through it.  

We had a nice run up and down the High Street in the wonderfully mild evening and after 100 high fives for Latoya, we headed into the night in search of 100 beverages and more funtimes. Boom!

Join us next week!

The nights are getting longer, the weather is getting colder, the awesome Haringey Goodgymmers are getting stronger. Boom!

13 a-mazing Goodgymmers congregated at HQ in the midst of the post-London Marathon ballot result ennui. We didn't let the rejection get us down and instead we used it to spur us on during our run tonight. Boom indeed!

We took the scenic route to the Haringey Foodbank at the Selby Centre through Tottenham Cemetery. Once at the foodbank, Femi welcomed us with a plethora of tasks. Some us sorted out tea boxes by sell-by dates; some of us prepped documents for some much well-needed shredding; and the rest got stuck into some good ol' school shelving.

These Goodgymmers were On. It. Tonight! They made really quick work of those tasks and they didn't even want to stop. I had to physically move some of them so we could get some group shots! Even then some of them were suspiciously slow...

Unexpected Cake In The Foodbank Area

... But that was because they had done some impressive detective work and arranged some birthday cake for their shoddy trainer because they are awesome. He was very touched, if a bit sweary. Thanks.

We then floated back to HQ on the promise of cake. Good times!