At the nineteenth hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 15 Richmond runners ran 6km in the moonlight to help out an 'old soldier' and sow remembrance poppies .

The warm up got us running in circles trying to keep up! #goodgym #richmond #runninggroup #volunteering #gooddeed #exercise #fitness #runningdrills pic.twitter.com/wpY0R9FyRJ

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) November 12, 2019

Recently rediscovered during the ongoing woodland conservation work at Petersham Common , our 'veteran' was a 500 years old Field Maple, one of Britain's Ancient Trees. Very elderly, it is in need of a bit of extra help in order to thrive, so Goodgym were on hand to help with 'haloing', clearing a circle around and underneath the old tree so that it no longer has to compete with quite so many other plants for water and nutrients.

We had a tree-o of tasks. One group set to work on the 'halo', wielding loppers to cut back ash saplings that were sprouting under the ancient maple. A second group used spades to disturb the ground ready for the final task of sowing thousands of poppy seeds.

Tree hugging, led by Kate, was definitely in order at the end. A really worthwhile evening of environmental work and a poignant task on Remembrance Day.

Find our amazing maple tree on the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Inventory at: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/tree?treeid=187469&from=3523&v=1629481&ml=map&z=18&nwLat=51.44836903366834&nwLng=-0.3018287464918057&seLat=51.44670408446299&seLng=-0.2963355824293057#/

With thanks to Lenka for back marking and to Mark for Leadership and Photography. And congratulations to Ciara who completed the Richmond half- marathon recently as well as Cathy on her first park run in bushy, while Kate was hitting 50!!

Thanks Ken, our task owner as well for being so prepared for the task and all the knowledge he shared with us!

Next week we are at Vineyard for Christmas prep - see you then!

There was a creepy chill in the air on Monday evening as a fa-boo-lous fourteen assembled in Richmond town for a breath of fresh scare and some ghoulish do-gooding! Our mission for the evening was really pumpkin to talk about – creeping it real with a wicked combo of bulb-planting and leafleting for our lovely f(r)iends at the East Twickenham Neighbourhood Association.

Before setting off to ETNA, we celebrated HallowQueen Salwa’s 50th good deed then headed over to the Green for a warm-up. Mark had some devilish drills to run us through, including some scary spider walks and menacing monster walks, which really lifted our SPIRITS. Our very own Jack-o-lantern took care of back-marking, accompanied much of the way by Lewie who had picked up a nasty bug and spent much of the evening coffin...

Our run took us up Kings Road to the top of the hill, then back down and across the bridge through East Twickenham. At ETNA, ghostess with the mostest Vanessa greeted us and showed us around the jobs to be done. Most of the team were put on gardening detail, freshening up some beds and planters around the centre with some bloodcurdling bulbs, while the rest were assigned to leafleting for a Richmond CVS recruitment event for charity trustees, the East Twickenham Christmas Lights switch-on, and ETNA’s own weekly what’s on planner. At first we thought it was witch-ful thinking to delivering such a large number of leaflets, but we came frighteningly close to getting through them all. Definitely no lazy bones in the team.

Back at Whole Foods after an evening of skele-fun, we had a wobbly cool down and then (trick or) treated ourselves to some cake to celebrate Salwa’s 50th deed – well done again!

Rain...what rain? Whatever rain there was it didn't stop 27 of us running to do good in East Twickenham this evening.

The rain didn't even stop us having our usual warm up fun on the Green either. Tonight the game of agility and speed were at play trying to get a pair of gloves from one end of the group to the other. Despite it being slippery we all managed to stay upright and sturdy underfoot -all set to run and walk to the task!

Tonights task was to help prepare the garden at St Christopher's Fellowship. They have plans to plant a number of bulbs creating new flowerbeds to brighten up the living space for both residents and staff at this awesome charitable house catering for young people in care.

Our duties involved a mass de-weed, large scale pruning, and removal of shrubs, and we even managed to make a clean sweep at the front of the property cleaning all the leaves so the place was left looking ship shape and ready for the next phase of gardening.

Our run tonight was 6km (approx)and despite being soggy and dark was as ever, an absolute delight due to the great company that we run with. Enhanced also by the addition of 6 newbies to Richmond. We welcomed Rob , Carol, Carrie , Emma, Jo and Harry!! And whilst they celebrated their first run with Richmond our own (awesome report writer) JP became 50 good deeds old tonight! Huge congratulations were given for all the good deeds he he has done and for being a great member of GG Richmond.

Well done also to Jenny for running the Lochness Marathon yesterday and we salute you for turning up to lead the Walking Group today too!

Finally well done to all , we were such a large group and you were so super organised and coordinated at getting the task done whilst keeping together as a team.

Look forward to seeing you next week as we raise the stakes!!

Well, what a turnout. No fewer than 28 GoodGymers – including GG visitors, faces we’d not seen for a while, and a couple of new folks – crowded round a table in Wholefoods ahead of our Richmond Group Run. After the briefing, we headed over to the Green to warm up (how many more times will we get to enjoy a warm-up on the grass this year?), with Mark taking us through our paces with a variety of (pretty complex and confusing) exercises in motion.

GoodGym Richmond gets moving on a Monday! #warmup #moves #crab #squat #dance #fun #volunteering #runninggroup #Richmond pic.twitter.com/w1qwKyPVw4

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 3, 2019

Suitably warmed up, the main group set off for the undulating hill run up the Church road – down the Kings and up the Queens … Nearly a full house! Chatting was constant until we hit Queens Road and then we experienced the HUSH ON THE HILL. It was like I had gone deaf as the runners set there sights on the top and made focus strides to conquer the hill (last dulation). Meanwhile the walkers power walked through the remains of Richmond Palace (learning a little of the local history on the way), along the river front and up Richmond Hill to the Vineyard, resisting the temptation to pop into the pub next door on the way...

Running drills where try to leave each other , but none of us really want to! #staytogether #runtogether #runninggroup #goodgym #volunteering #richmond pic.twitter.com/d2VsURdKU7

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 3, 2019

So, what does The Vineyard do? Pretty much everything you can imagine to support the needy in the community: a morning drop-in for people in crisis (through homelessness, addiction or mental or social difficulty), a foodbank providing emergency food for local people in need, a skills and training social enterprise for those hoping to move forward from crisis, personal health advice towards appropriate treatment and care, and a charity selling clothing and providing clothing support for rough sleepers and household goods for those newly homed after being on the streets. It really is a mega-charity right here in Richmond.

It was December when we were last there, doing a combination of clothes sorting and leafleting, and this time is was nice to spend a balmy evening in the garden. It was lucky there were so many of us because the task was a BIG one. The centre had been closed for some weeks of building work and with the new season fast approaching, had their work cut out to be ready in time. Enter GoodGym. Lists of jobs were handed round and the group divided into small teams to conquer each one. As is our way, everyone rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in – sweeping, sawing, shoveling, compost-spreading, dismantling, lifting, stacking, leaf-blowing (when the plug wasn’t being pulled out by mistake…) and generally tidying the place up inside and out.

It’s amazing to see a team working in harmony and ploughing through the tasks, and before long the garden was looking fantastic – as far as we could tell as dusk descended on us, anyway! Before sending us off on our way back to town, task owner Desiree surprised us with an amazing reward of more delicious Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes than even 28 of us could manage. After a quick photo on the benches inside, we headed back to Wholefoods to warm down, before gathering in the Tap Tavern for our monthly social.

Welcome to Ciara and Naveed on your first Richmond run and welcome back to Jon for his second run with us. Wonderful to welcome over two Hounslow folk Remy and Michelle as well. Hope to see all of you back soon!