Despite the pouring rain and prospect of another wet and cold run, last night a brilliant 7 other GoodGym'ers avoided the temptation to stay dry and in the warm and joined me for our final group run of 2018! Amongst my lovely regulars it was great to welcome along James for his second H&F group run - hope you enjoyed it!

That old chestnut...the news!

1. Tonight was the last group run of 2018! So NO Christmas Day or New Year’s Day GoodGym H&F but remember there are quite a few parkruns happening.
2. There’s still time to get your festive GoodGym badges with Community Missions still occurring over the festive break. Why not aim for the Winter 321 Challenge badge: 3 cheers, 2 community missions and 1 group run?!

In the line of flyer

This week we had a flyering task for 3 wonderful community organisations:

1. Family Friends - a small charity who provide a parent befriending and child mentoring service in West London. They use volunteers to support the service and are currently looking to recruit new mentors and befrienders.
2. Doorstep Library - a charity that recruit and train volunteers to go into some of the most disadvantaged areas in London to help introduce children from ages 1-11 to the pleasure of reading and inspire them with it.
3. Acknowledging Youths - a project that was set up to raise the aspirations and make a positive impact on the life of disadvantaged young people in London. They provide education and training to help prepare the young people for interviews and ensure they are ‘work ready’.

Following a quick warm-up we all headed off up to Shepherd’s Bush Road. Once at Brook Green we split into two with Team One - Sarah, Jonny, Jason and Chris covering one side of the road and Team Two - Sarah, James, Johnny and Beth covering the other side so as to maximise our flyering efficiency.

Both teams headed up Shepherd’s Bush Road and then along Goldhawk Road distributing many of the flyers to local newsagents, laundrettes and pubs as they ran, with the latter proving very tempting for a quick refreshment stop!

Safe you 'elfs for Christmas!

With the pub temptation avoided both teams pushed on and regrouped by Goldhawk tube station. With the rain still coming down and the flyers beginning to get overly damp we decided to call it a night on the flyering front and posed for a group photo under the shelter of an office.

In order to get a good run in, especially since as Sarah noted, I'd begun to get my bearings around the area a far lot better so there were less 'scenic routes' taken, we all headed down towards Furnivall Gardens.

The 12 Days of GoodGymas

Once at Furnivall Gardens the group completed a nice festive themed pyramid fitness session. In true grinch style I added an extra degree of difficulty by asking everyone to complete a short 10m sprint after completing each exercise.

On the 12 days of GoodGym Christmas, my GoodGym Trainer gave to me (carol singing however was not enforced!)...

1. One nutcracker knees
2. Two tricep presses
3. Three snow angels
4. Four Christmas Tree balances
5. Five Boxing Day Presses
6. Six lunge wraps
7. Seven shooting star jumps
8. Eight rocking bridges
9. Nine press on the walls
10. Ten leaping leap frogs
11. Eleven drummer squats
12. Twelve toy soldiers with high knees

Lighten up, it's Christmas!

Everyone put in 100% effort and had significantly raised pulse rates, and redder and sweatier faces after completing the session. Brilliant effort all! All that was left was for us to run the short distance back to base, admiring the wonderful Christmas lights on display at St Paul's CE Primary School en route. Back at base we sheltered under the car park of the Better Gym and had our final stretch off in 2018. Here's to 2019!

Thank you all for a RUN-derful latter part of 2018, thank you for all your hard work and smiley faces week in week out no matter what the weather. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2019! And many thanks for my Buddy the elf approved treat!

The first group run in 2019 will be on Tuesday 8th January!! It will be an INDOOR task sorting donations for St Mungo's Reconnection Post, sign up here.

The fairy godmothers (and fathers) were out in their numbers in H&F tonight to help the elderly residents of Maystar Estate.

We were also lucky to have visiting fairy godmothers, Katie and Aiste, from the neighbouring kingdoms of GoodGym Camden and Greenwich along with new joiners James and Clare on their first group run.

It all started early on a Tuesday night when 22 GoodGymers stood in a circle and desperately tried to remember their names, a number and come up with an un-embarrassing favourite film. After the warm up, which featured The Shining (much concern), The Lion King (overall approval) and Harry Potter (once again – general nodding) we set off with a reminder that we hadn’t seen Clueless, Pretty Women or Mean Girls in far too long.

Arriving at Maystar Estate we were met by Pauline who had a fine display of various gardening tools. Choosing our weeding weapon of choice we were split into teams of five and six and set off to work our magic on the gardens of the elderly residents. Nearly 20 bags of garden waste/weeds later we were rewarded with smiles from the people who lived there and a great selection of biscuits and squash from Pauline.

After all of the weeding weapons were back in line and meeting the one and only Danny Cocaine (write it down everyone) we made our way to the river to do some interval training to get us back to Hammersmith Bridge.

And so, the fairy godmothers and fathers made it back to the Better Gym in Hammersmith and lived happily ever after - knowing that they would be laughing at everyone’s toddler photos in a few weeks time.

A special thanks to Beth for leading tonight’s run and to the wonderful Jason who keeps everyone company at the back.

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Big big thank you to Bex for writing this week's run report!...if anyone's missing their left slipper, please let Bex know!!

You're saved from my terrible puns this week but a quick reminder of all the news this week....

1. Community Mission - On Saturday 1st September (that's right, this Saturday!), there will be a community mission to help out at the amazing White City Adventure Playground, sign up here - Wormwood Scrubs parkrun followed by breakfast will be organised pre-mission! Please come along and lend a hand if you can You do not need to be DBS verified to get involved with community missions.
2. GG London-wide 'Hamingslow' Social - On Thursday 6th September, GG Hammersmith, Ealing and Hounslow will be uniting and hosting the social! It'll be in Hammersmith upstairs at The Rutland Arms! Sign up here.
3. GG H&F's 2nd Birthday - On Tuesday 11th September, part two of the birthday celebrations with a post-run social! Venue TBC. Important pre-social request - Please email or whatsapp a photo of yourself aged 2 to Bex before the date for the baby photo quiz round!
4. Adidas Shoreditch 10K Volunteering - Volunteer for Adidas City Run Shoreditch10K on Sunday 14th October and earn half-price entry into another Adidas City Run! – sign up here.
5. Donations Wanted! - Catriona is going to Calais in October to volunteer for a couple of weeks with an amazing charity called Help Refugees, who among other things, give support to people who were displaced from the Jungle when it was torn down by the French police. Do you have any of the items listed here that you can donate? If YES, please let Catriona know!

And, well done to Jason who FINALLY (suprisingly Back to the Future isn't his favourite film?!) received his well-earned winged t-shirt for his 100 good deeds.

Next week it's part one of H&F's 2nd birthday celebrations, we will be off on a party run to St Mungo's Reconnection Staging Post to help give their garden a revamp – sign-up here.

Thank you all for pitching-in on another garden task and for entertaining my photo posing requests and the questionable group selfie attempts! It was lovely to see Joyce, Luke, Sophie and Missie repping their nice and new (yet to have paint splashed on) red GG-tees, great to meet and welcome along James and Clare, hopefully we will see you both on another group run soon! And lastly, thank you to the GG tourists, my three-legged race buddy, Katie and Greenwich's finest, Aistle.

Ramble done, have a fantastic week all and hopefully see you either on Saturday or next Tuesday!