A December chill was no deterrent

It may have been a chilly night but that didn't deter 24 runners from setting out for two tasks tonight.

Yep, we were only due on one big decorating task at Oxford House, but I got a call from Catherine at Parkview this afternoon cheerfully checking we were "all good for this evening". Cue wide-eyed, head-scratching, panicked trainer.

But as always, Task Force came to the rescue and Leo led a team down to Parkview to help Catherine plant crocuses and cut out cardboard trees for this weekend's Winter fair.

In the meantime, I led the remaining runners to Oxford House, the beautiful community arts centre off Bethnal Green Road, where task owners Deborah and Jessica had prepared brilliantly the stairways ready for a big paint job.

It was all hands to the pump, as the team shuttled rollers, brushes, masking tape & paint trays between all 18 of us, getting stuck in in record time. They worked tirelessly getting the emulsion on those walls as quickly as they could, trying their hardest not to spill too much...

A toasty theatre for a tough tum workout

And then at 8 we all met in the toasty theatre for tonight's Cardio & Core session, where the runners whizzed through speedy plank leg sweeps, jumping single leg squats and the Pilates roll up-on-steroids.

An unreal evening's work, guys.

The messages following the tasks from truly appreciative task owners make for beautiful reading, "...they have done absolutely fantastic work", messaged Catherine by 8.15!

Thanks tonight, to Leo, and Kat, who brilliantly led the team to Parkview and back to Oxford House; to our photographers Leo, Kat, Steve, and Izzie, and to Joel for his usual brilliant pun.

A big warm welcome to Jo, who joined us from Exeter GG - what a treat! Lovely to see you Jo: thanks for being such an asset tonight, and we hope to see you very soon.

And hello and welcome to our first time runners, Johanna: thank you too, for being so hardworking, and for all the smiles, and we hope to see you really soon.

Next week, we're off to the Royal London

Yes, next week our very own Chi leads the crew to the Royal London where task owner Nancy, and the other Barts Volunteers have all manner of Christmas-y WARM, INDOOR tasks for you! Check it out here!

Until next time, have a brilliant week everyone: stay warm, stay smiling, stay wonderful.

21 runners headed to Catherine, Ros and little Connie at the lovely Parkview Estate this evening.

After welcoming tonight's first time runners, Laurie and Kate, and TH newbie, Nuria, we sped down Old Ford Rd to the lovely leafy Parkview estate where Catherine & co were waiting for us, exceptionally well briefed.

Armed with bundles of tools, the team wasted no time in dispatching runners to all four corners of the estate:

• Connie & Ros took one team and headed to the flower patch we'd dug at the front, over the summer
• Steve and Dave headed out front too, for some serious hammering work
• A team of 4 headed inside the gorgeous Glasshouse building to cut our Christmas trees for the winter fare
• Another team headed to the new wild flower area to rake and scatter seeds
• A further team were tasked with wheeling and shuttling compost to all sites
• ...while Rita headed up a team of 1 to deal with the Glasshouse planters

Yep, busy or what.

The team dug and weeded and cut and fetched and wheeled and planted and swept and mopped for over an hour. It was amazing what they achieved.

And before we knew it we were gathering inside, to a now pristine hall, where poor Rob made the mistake of saying he'd experienced a twinge. So, delaying the the outro and final team pic, I took it upon myself to offer Rob a standing quad stretch, which the GoodGymers then decided to take photographic evidence of. One word: karma.

We then made our way to our beautiful Bonner Gate spot where Steve led us through some very fast running drills before we made our way back to the hotel to call it a night.

THANK YOU TEAM FOR A WICKED NIGHT!

Special thanks to our wonderful task force who handle things so smoothly in the background, from overseeing the Glasshouse clean-up effort to taking lots of wicked pics.

Thanks to Steve for coming on board early on in the evening for the fitness part of our session; to George, Lieke and Dave for some great pics.

What a lovely evening. You make such a difference, not only to the two woman powerhouse that is the Parkview Estate Residents Association, but to the residents too, who see, appreciate and very much take on board what you're doing. So thank you.

Until next time, have a wonderful week everyone.