7 awesome do-gooders ran 3km to help clear leaves in Russell Square!

Firstly thanks to Sammy for pun credit! That has saved me 4 hours this morning trying to think of one! So cheers!

Wow great work yesterday everyone! What a lovely afternoon for a run. We met at Brock St and headed down to Russell Square dodging the people traffic on our way. We arrived and met with David one of the volunteers who firstly greeted us with bad news saying we have no bags and few rakes as the park keeper wandered off... but thankfully he returned just in time!

We handed out gloves, rakes, leaf grabbers and huuuuuge bags and walked up down to a section of the park that had been pre-prepared for us to make leaf collecting even easier!

Another volunteer group also arrived, not the most chatty of bunches but we tried nonetheless. Then we had some general members of the public getting involved too... isn't that a wonderful thing!

You might think Russell Square is managed by Camden Council and for the most part it is, but they rely heavily on volunteer groups for big tasks like this which go a long way into helping preserve the plants and wildlife in the park so what you did yesterday was a MASSIVE help.

After about 40 minutes, the place had been truly transformed. Yes there was the odd leaf still lying around but we had filled about 15 sacks full of leaves which is really amazing!!

We dragged them all to the side, had a group photo and watched as the park keeper cycled around with his rather sad and now broken bell trying to get people out of the park! We had a little jog back to the office, some light stretches and we were done!

Great work everyone! David was delighted with all the work you did, so huge thanks! See you next time!

Five Goodgymers ran 4-5k to help the Story Garden in Somers Town!

Welcome along to newbie Mercedes - great to have you along!

This month's addition of the GGxFacebook Run we were helping the wonderful Story Garden, a new community garden that opens next week. There are run by Global Generation, who are an educational environmental charity that teaches local kids about growing/gardening, and supports the local community.

Massive help!

After a 1km run we arrived, checked in with Martina and talked through their big plans! She set us to work with four tasks which we did in turn:

1. Shifting bags of compost that will be used to fill planters in the polly tunnel.
2. Next we moved some heavy oak sleepers and laid them out in position for the big planters to be made.
3. Following on we split into two teams - one pair collected up cut ends of woods to pile up. The space will be used to put up a yurt today!
4. Lastly we collected up and piled up big pieces of rubble, which will help to make the site be less like and building site.

Martina and the team at Story Garden are so appreciative of our work, you guys are really helping to build a local community garden from scratch. Come back in a few weeks and see how much it's grown!

After all that fantastic work we took a group picture and then headed to Granary Square for a progressive lap - nice!

We are arranging our next run for early August, keep an eye out and bring your friends!

PB out

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

8 GoodGymers ran 5km to help Scope Charity Shop on Camden High Street!

Welcome along to GoodGymxFacebook Run - it was the first time for Andy and Jordan, great to have you join us. We collected together at the Reception of the Facebook Offices with the mission to do some good for our community and get a bit fitter.

We headed via the back streets to reach Camden High Street, aiming to avoid the traffic and enjoy the evening's run. Upon reaching the Scope Charity Shop we were ready to help this fantastic charity which aims for all disabled people across society to enjoy equality and fairness at home, school, work and in our communities.

GOOD Spraying!

Our contact Jane told us that the tasks for the evening were all about cleaning and tidying up. The charity shop is almost exclusively run by volunteers so any help we can give makes a massive difference. Armed with sprays and paper towels we got to work cleaning the windows, surfaces, skirting-boards, mirrors, shelves and display boxes. Plus Jordan did a great job of mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors, while Jake hoovered the shop and Andy swept the stairs - nice!

After 25 minutes we were done, Jane was really happy for our help and we left knowing we'd made a big impact in our community. I know the original plan was for us to sort donations at the shop, it's a shame this didn't happen this time around but I'm glad we could still help out.

Next we ran to Regents Park Inner Circle where we did some drills, including:

• High Knee Skip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBLf1KsmOJI
• Bounds/High Skip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMdz8pK5ByY
• B Skip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB8qd-_RehQ&t=10s

These drills are all focused on improving our technique - posture, arm drive, ground contact and higher knees. This was all building up to our 1km time trial around the inner circle - everyone pushed hard and did amazingly!

We then headed back to base for a group picture and a good old stretch.

See you next month for more GoodGym.

PB out.

8 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Cecil Sharp House

Thanks for coming along to the GGxFacebook Group Run. Welcome to the newbies!

So a bit about GoodGym, Ivo Gormley founded this wonderful charity nearly nine years ago for people to do good and get fit! Our mission is to help our communities with physical tasks and reduce loneliness through projects with older persons. There are three ways of doing good with us:

1. Group Run - First way is a group run, which you went on last night. As a group we meet in 45 areas around the UK on a weekly basis, we run to local charity do something physical for 30 minutes and run back.
2. Missions - these are one off and happen with 2-4 people, the idea is to help older persons in their home with something like setting up a hospital bed, moving furniture or gardening.
3. Coach Running - this is where you go visit an old isolated person once a week to have a chat and keep them company.

After a quick intro we warmed up and were rearing to go. We headed go Cecil Sharp House via Regents Park, still having the opportunity to run in the light at 5pm through the Royal Park. On the 2.5km run out the lead group stopped twice to do squats and shuttle runs - nice!

We arrived at Cecil Sharp House and met Mimi, she told us about the Home of English Folk Song and Dance, a charity that provides educational programmes and activities to the community. It also hosts weddings and events to keep the charity growing, making the permaculture garden vital to the space.

Armed with an array of tools we headed to the lawn to do some good! The target was yet again leaves, it is Autumn so they are everywhere! We raked the lawn with Katherine's special technique, brushed between the pavement cracks with the best tool in Camden and we collected up leaves on the stairs and pavement surrounding the lawn.

Over 30 minutes we collected together 10 bags of leaves that we will be used to make mulch/compost that will in turn feed the garden.

After a group picture we headed to Regents Park Inner Circle for an out and back challenge, and a 1km time trial -nice!

Well done to Julia who ran the furthest she's ever ran - 5km!

Thanks for coming guys and see you soon.

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