We had plenty to lift our spirits in Wandsworth last night, as we did gourd and got fit at our special Halloween run!

Welcome to your first group run Jasmine and Emma! Give them a cheer, Goodgym.

A big well done to

Jo for doing the Chicago marathon and the Great South Run, and to James for his first half marathon in Germany. Great running!

Don't forget an important date for your diary:

It's the GoodGym Christmas party! Sign up here for all the details of the big bash on the 6th December.

After catching up on all the week's news, and with quite a few brilliant costumes on display, we headed outside to do our warm up. We had some Halloween themed moves - the pumpkin (touch the floor), the witch (tuck jump) and ghost (jump up) - and we discussed what scared us. It was an interesting mix of answers, which ranged from Trump, running in the cold and horses, to open water, buttons ('koumpounophobia' apparently) and kittens!

If you've got it, haunt it

After a mile run to our task, we arrived at Eden Community Garden. This beautiful space is for local people of all backgrounds to enjoy and it is also used to preserve bee habitats and make honey. It also happened to be part of a site where people who died from the plague and roundheads were buried - so a very fitting job to be helping with at Halloween!

We were met by Benny who told us about the history of the garden and how it is used by the community, and gave us some jobs to do. The main one was moving wood from the garden into the graveyard to build a big bonfire for the church's fireworks night on Saturday, while there was also compost shoveling and leaf raking to do as well.

Everybody got right to work, and before long there was enormous bonfire ready for the community event (if you would like to go along to enjoy the results on Saturday then check out the details here: https://www.stpaulsclapham.org/links), so after a team photo we waved goodbye and headed to the common for our spooky fitness session.

We divided up into teams, and competed against eachother for a treat or a trick. While the treats were sweet and chocolatey and were earned through relays and other challenges, the tricks varied from burpees, press ups and squat jumps. The spooktacular night was finished off with a run back to base, some stretches and a post-GG social meal. Fa-boo-lous!

Next week we've got more of the same, but with fewer bad Halloween puns. Sign up here for more doing good and getting fit. Until then, run happy!

What a night in Wandsworth, with some great news and sunny skies for a task planting hundreds of bulbs at a local estate!

There's been some brilliant racing over the past weekend, including some trail running from Helen, Beth, John and Emily, and a half marathon PB from Morag! We also welcomed back our marathon runners - congratulations Lewis, Sam, Nicky and Phil!

We had a wonderful milestone to cheer, as James reached that magic 50 mark! Well done to excellent James for all the good deeds and miles covered - fantastic job!

It was lovely to welcome Henry to his first GoodGym run - give him a big cheer!

This Saturday sees the monthly long run. With a choice of 10k or 19k starting from either Brixton or Crystal Palace respectively, this is a good chance to get out and stretch your legs. No one, as ever, will be left behind. Sign up here for all the details.

Light bulb moments

During our warm up we talked about the best things that have happened to us over the past week. PBs, meeting puppies, good roast dinners, job interviews, successful missions, stag dos, wedding invites, good books and watching Beth roll down a hill - what a week it's been!

We took a quick run down to our task which was only a mile away, and found super organised Kambala Cares chairwoman Donna waiting for us. This non-profit organisation, run solely by volunteers who are committed to supporting the local community,helps with local problem solving, running projects, taking residents on day trips and events and providing the very best help and support for the community. It's a brilliant organisation that is really making a difference to local lives.

We divided up into four teams - three to plant bulbs in the various closes, and one to weed the main raised bed. With so many different bulbs to be planted - gladioli, tulips and many more - the beds are going to look incredible and make the estate even more welcoming when they bloom.

After 40 minutes of hard work, and a lot of 'is this a weed? I don't know!' the bulbs were in, the (hopefully) weeds were up, and our job for the night was done.

We ran the short way to a local green area and kicked off with a quick ball game to get our heart rates back up. The competition was to get each ball and your whole team to the end of the park and back - and in true GG form, it was a dead heat! We then moved on to pyramid sprints, which are a true toughy of speed work, but totally worth the pain for the results you can achieve. High intensity speed sessions increase anaerobic endurance, can help improve the efficiency of your stride, and changing paces helps you think about your running economy. It was great to see everybody pushing themselves - and we even got a sneak preview of the school garden we have been working on in previous GG sessions!

Next week we're back at the community garden we've been busy transforming from an unused and unwelcome space into somewhere the community can be proud of - sign up here. See you then!

We had a huge task ahead of last night - four tonnes of topsoil to shift - but that didn't put off the 32 intrepid GoodGymers that turned up ready to add purpose to their run!

News!

A massive welcome to Matt, Sam, Izzy and Joanne who all joined us for their first run last night - give them a cheer!

There is a community mission going on for Evolve Housing, a housing and support charity, this Friday. This is one you don't have to be DBS checked for - it's on at Roehampton Vale's Asda - keep an eye out on the GoodGym website's mission listings for the sign up page!

Helen, John and Emily are putting on a fundraising Christmas lights run on the 11th and 19th December, check out their page here to sign up for what will be a Christmas cracker of a run!

An absolutely huge well done to James who reached a colossal milestone lastnight - his 60th month group run streak! That is five years of GoodGym. James, we salute you and all the good you do!

Festive Fitness

Our task last night was for a community organisation called Bandstand Beds, a volunteer group which runs a community garden in the middle of Clapham Common, aiming to provide an area for the local community to discover the joys and benefits of growing and cooking their own food. They have started a wildflower project,which involves a lot of topsoil - four tonnes to be precise. They needed some serious help with such a big job, and so asked us to come and give them a hand.

So, after heading outside to warm up, we did a quick head count and discussed what our fav thing about the festive season is. We're all about the food and drink, it seems, as mulled wine, chocolate and all the food topped the list, along with Christmas movies, putting up the tree and parties (of course)!

We were meeting Adrian and David from Bandstand Bed by the community garden on the common, so after a brisk run and a - ahem - small detour, we found them with a four enormous bags of soil, wheelbarrows and spades. Our job was to spread the soil ready for planting.

Four tonnes is an absolutely huge amount of soil, but it is no match for the sheer grit of GoodGym, and it took under half an hour to clear the lot. Amazing effort GG! If that wasn't enough, it left us loads of time to do a grueling fitness session, which started with getting our heart rates up with a game of clusters. We then moved on to a really tough pyramid interval session which focussed on our speed, change of pace, and endurance. To finish the session off, we did our weekly plank - this time starting with 30 seconds on each side.

After all that, we took a steady run back to base to finish off with stretches. That really was an epic job, team, well done for putting in so much effort!

Next week we have not one, but two, tasks for you to choose from. Check out what's on offer here and go for your fave on the day!

It takes extra special effort to lace up your trainers and get out the door when it's freezing and raining, so well done for making out tonight lovely Wandsworth gang!

There was a huge amount to celebrate tonight, but first let's a give a massive to cheer to our first time group runners:

Nick

Emma

and Anwen - who is the new trainer for Oxford.

Give them all a big welcome!

There was so much good stuff happening this weekend - a huge well done to everybody that took part in a very successful parkrun takeover on Saturday - it couldn't have happened without you. Yesterday was the Fulham 10k where so many GoodGymers put in great performances, cheered on by an amazing squad of supporters. Well done especially to Sian and Morag who both got brillient PBs!

It was also a big congratulations to Jessie for reaching that magic milestone - 100 good deeds!

Our job tonight was at Doddington & Rollo Rooftop Garden - a formally disused carpark roof which has been transformed into a beautiful community garden for local people to grow their fruit and veg. They rely on volunteers to keep the garden going, so when they got a giant 75 litre bag of compost delivered to the street below the garden, they knew who to call! Cue an increasingly damp GoodGym team turning up tonight, primed and ready to shift that soil.

Meeting Hadas, a regular volunteer, we grabbed tools from the shed, and headed downstairs to start the process of ferrying bags of soil up to the garden. If you've ever wondered how ong it takes 31 people to shift 75 litres of soil up two floors and across a garden - and of course who hasn't - then the answer is (drum roll) 20 minutes. Great work, team - a job that we got down so quickly would have taken the volunteers the whole day to do, so it was definitely an evening well spent.

The job was perfectly/terribly (delete as appropriate) timed, as just as we waved our goodbyes and started our fitness session, the heavens opened. So we took an almost unanimous decision to abandone of glute-based session and keep warm with a run back to the BAC. By the time we had stormed up the hill, there had been a short reprieve which we seized upon, furiously bashing out sumo squats, before conceding our defeat. Rain 1 - Wandsworth GG 0.

Not to worry, we'll have another crack at it next week when we'll be back to finish off planting bulbs at an estate in Battersea. Get your thermals ready, and let's get planting!

With a backdrop of pretty colours in the sky and the smell of bonfires in the air, it was a cracking good group run in Wandsworth last night.

News, lovely news

So much good stuff to report on before our run! Here's a little roundup:

It was our very own Mr Christopher O'Driscoll's 50th good deed last night. That is a massive lot of gardening for elderly people, painting, shifting and lifting for community projects, and who knows how many miles covered! Give him a cheer next time you see him in his spanking new black tshirt for he is a GoodGym star.

Don't forget our Tooting parkrun takeover on the 17th November. We need as many eager beaver helpers as possible! There are a range of jobs to do and I'll be putting out the spreadsheet soon - sign up using the link above in the meantime.

Alyx told us about a great run she is leading soon from King's College. This women only run will be to the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, to sort and pack sanitary products, to be distributed to women via a charity that tackles period poverty. Sign up here

Don't forget it is the monthly social on Thursday - sign up here for more fun, puns and all things GoodGym!

Please give Peter, Alex and Andy a huge cheer - they came for their first group run last night! A huge welcome to the group.

After that bumper crop of news we headed outside to do our warm up, before running the 3k to our amazing task for the evening. But first, we did a poll on all things Bonfire Night - top of the pops came fireworks in our list of fav things about the night, then came bonfires (handily), all the goof food and hot alcohol, sparklers, hot baths and friends. Aaah.

After a nice steady run over to our task, accompanied by the whistle and pops of Wandsworth fireworks, we arrived at the Oasis Adventure playground charity. This is an amazing organisation that supports local kids, many of whom have disabilities. Oasis Play provides innovative and inclusive outdoor play and learning opportunities that enable disabled and non-disabled children and young people to lead happy, fulfilled lives and play positive roles in the community. It also has one of the areas most bonkers and brilliant play areas, and we had to stop ourselves getting stuck in for a good old clamber over all the fun stuff there.

We were met by David, who gave us a little background on the organisation and its history (and is well placed to do so after over 20 years at the charity!), and who had prepared tools ready for our big job that evening. Our task was to dig out a big area ready for swings and other play equipment. It was hard work - and a great upper body workout - but after just 40 minutes of work, the difference was huge. Check out the photos to see the massive hole we dug!

After all that digging we didn't have a huge amount of time left, but just enough to stop for a few minutes on the way home and knock out a quick but verrry intense tabata session. Nice frogging everyone.

Sweaty but happy we arrived back at the BAC for stretching - next week we're back to Leonard Cheshire disability charity to give them a hand with various jobs (including a wash down of those mobility buses, so wrap up warm!) . Sign up here for more Monday fun, good deeds and fitness.

oh well hello there...you all really decided that February was where you wanted to start the year off! A massive FIFTY SIX of you turned up to the Square Pig in Holborn...good job I booked that area for...er...thirty! Anyway, what I really mean to say is thank you, not worth doing this without you all :)

To the report...

Heroes

• Topping the charts for January, like the keen bean we know she is Egg Cameron managed 25 good deeds last month - what a legend! Check out the rest of the heroes here or on the photo above!

• People are amazing and January was a month for amazing people. 28 earned their black tshirts for 50 good deeds and 5 earned their wings for 100 good deeds. Give these lot a cheer: Clo, Michael (apologies to Michael who missed a shout out on the night!), Sarah, Sarah K, Stephen! Finally we had a few who reached even bigger milestones - Matt, Steph and Adele who hit 200 good deeds and Paul Becker who passed 300!!! Amazing - congrats and so much respect to you all!

• Finally the area heroes! So we've got a bit of an issue as I've realised that Bristol have a Saturday run that mean they're always topping the attendance charts...well done those areas that have beaten them previously. I may look into rectifying this or just let it be more even impetus for you to get the runners to your areas! So congrats to GG Bristol with 313 attendances in January and congrats to GG Southwark who had a whopping 48 new runners in January - amazing!

January Challenge

• So results are in - we had two challenges: 5000 good deeds and 50,000km. We did amazingly well and everyone deserves a huge pat on the back. Distance we totally smashed with a recorded 68,218km, we probably ran more as many of you don't use run trackers - utterly incredible - that's further than London to Sydney and back twice! Deeds, well we fell a little short recording 4640 but it's bigger than any other month we've had before and massively bigger. Well done all of you and keep it up!

• In the divisional competition you can see how you did here but congrats to GG Bristol who had the most good deeds overall with 382 and GG Lewisham who topped distances with 4363km. Well done all!

(At time of social the figures were correct)

News

• The biggest news from January surrounded someone for whom there are frankly no superlatives left. I don't really know what to type but show some love to Beth Hoskins who last month was recognised by the Prime Minister as a Point of Light. Amazing! Congrats and can you stop it now ;) only joking keep doing what you're doing - you're an inspiration to us all.

• We have some new trainer announcements - from the 12th February Pritesh Mistry(yes that is me) will be leading GG Brent and Laura Williams takes over at GG Tower Hamlets. From 14th February Lucy Jeczalik takes over at GG Southwark. Go support them when you can (mainly me please)!

• We'll have new areas opening in Waltham Forest, Kingston, Liverpool, Newcastle and Portsmouth - do let people you know in those areas about how awesome GG is and how they can and should get involved.

Races

Well it was a race themed social but it probably didn't feel like we talked races that much. I know that lots of you know about them but just an FYI on the Big Six and Europe trip below. I'll continue to bring the races QR code sheet to the social so you can scan and find out more then.

• Colchester Half Marathon - 25 March

• Great Welsh Half and Full Marathon - 15 April

• Euro Trip - Bucharest - 12 - 15 May

• ** Lakeland Trails** - 03 June

• WSR East Farm - 25 - 27 August

• Rutland Marathon - 16 September

• Yorkshire Marathon - 14 October

Please note that all races offer options on distances aside from Colchester which is a half marathon only. Click through for details.

• Don't forget GoodGym Race Team. The UKA affiliated run club - join up before 31st March to maximise your membership. It's £25 for the year and you get a GG running singlet, £2 off at all races and in London you can enter the cross country running team too!

Guest Speaker

Big big thank you to Stephen Corry who spoke so passionately about how GG Lewisham had grown to be a second family to him after his move from Ireland and how he's gone from no races ever to running four marathons this year! Amazing. I hear on the grapevine that he'll be writing an article based on the speech for the GoodGym websites. Keep an eye out on the stories page for that!

Interational Pun of the Month...and YEAR!!!

What can I say - the competition grows stronger and stronger, the voting is more and more frenzied and you lot don't have complain a lot about things still! Anyway... here we go... It was a strong field this month, 5 of the 10 puns hit double figures for votes but... taking it... with 20 out of 101 votes, the winner... of Internationa Pun of the Month for January is...

Rake me up before you go go from GG Wandsworth

Congrats to GG Wandsworth - that is three months on the bounce - wow! Time for us to up our game, or vote more tactically...

Now to International Pun of the Year... this was the crème de la crème of 2017, twelve absolute monsters...the winner, you just can't keep a good area down... but taking it by one from March with 11 out of 75 votes, 2017s pun to rule all puns is...

Adjustin' Timber-ache from GG Bristol

Well done GG Bristol - that was a monster!

The reports aren't getting any shorter are they? Oh well, thanks as ever to all of you that vote and come along and are involved - there'd be no social without you. Thanks for humouring me with the QR codes, I'll bring both pun and races along next month where hopefully you'll have more room to check them out!

I'm pleased to announce that we now have a full line-up of socials for this year - check the info in the photos. Next Month we are back on tour, I'm delighted to say that GG Greenwich are hosting, 8th March at the Greenwich Tavern from 6.30pm... you can find all the details here. Hope to see plenty of you there!

Thanks so much and as ever do send me any feedback (other than "get a bigger room")!

Cheers, Pritesh

p.s. Thanks, as ever, to John for additional photos.

p.p.s. Don't forget the unofficial goodgym facebook group - we chat all things running, socials and everything else you might expect from the burgeoning GoodGym community. You can join here but please don't forget to answer the question about your area or we won't accept you!

WELCOME!

This week we welcomed 2 fantastic new runners to the @GGSHEFF crew. Please put your hands together and welcome

• Elizabeth Townsend AKA BEANY
• Emily Stoker

Give em a cheer!

TASK TIME

This week we set off on a slightly longer run to another site under the supervision of Heeley Development Trust called ASH TREE YARD.

Finishing on a tough hill we met FANTASTIC FRANK who gave us a brief of the evenings task which was to fill 5 tonne sacks full of wood that has been sat in the yard roting away and creating access for a spate of break ins. Heeley Development Trust have secured funding to develop the site and are therefore clearing the space so it can be put to better us in the community.

The @GGSHEFF team got straight to the ROOT of the task, quickly forming a human chain to twist and pass logs from person to person creating a fantastic TRUNK workout! A small team quickly TWIGGED we had a few too many people in our chain and soBRANCHED off from the main group to tackle the big logs using some fantastic teamwork to lift and shift the heavier logs using a wheelbarrow. Did you CEDAR ammount of wood we shifted?

WOOD you BELEAF it, we smashed the task and managed to fill all of Franks sacks in the alloted time! A really strong team effort with no DEADWOOD to be seen.

Oaky kokey SYCAMORE jokes? time to move on from the puns and onto the...

FANTASTIC FITNESS

With a slightly longer run this week we had limited time for group fitness, however we did get some good work in with some on route loop backs with great efforts from SENSATIONAL SAM & DANGEROUS DAN.

Once we got to the light of a park we got paired up and did some JOHN PEEL PAIRED SPRINTS followed by a DEAD ARM HANG CHALLENGE with MAGIC MIKE taking the crown this week alongside his PUN MASTER title!

On return to the Showroom we finished with the HOWARD ST STRAVA SEGMENT SPRINT for those that fancied it, stretched off and headed inside for liquid refreshment and puntastic conversations.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

We will officially be 1 next Mon! To celebrate we are going to go out for some food after the run so won't be running straight back to the Showroom after the run next week.

You can let us know you are coming to the meal by completing the Doodle Link here

Until next time,

Happy Running!

With OPHELIA howling around the Steel City, blowing road barriers in our path and breaking Tom's camera, the @GGSHEFF crew still stood (and ran) firm last night.

With our planned task with Regather at Lynwood Gardens being in a wooded area, we thought it best to re-arrange this task for a more clam future night so headed of from the Showroom over to Mount Pleasant to see the infamous Jonny Douglas who gave us a brief about the Save Mount Pleasant project which for which we were flyering that eve.

After a brief sit on Jonny's comfey corner sofa and explanation of the project and it's plans we headed out into the wind with flyers tightly clutched destined for peoples letter boxes.

We split into two teams with 2 team captains* Bombacious Bash* and Sensational Sam (who was on his 50th good deed that night - Horrah!) The two teams the split themselves accordingly to ensure that no letterbox was left out and we smashed the following roads:

• Sharrow St
• Hobart St
• Salmon St
• Club Garden Road

We then headed for shelter from the wind in the Park Hill Flats complex which offered shelter, fantastic views of the city, famous historical public proposals and lots of letter boxes in a row!

Following the tactical completion of operation Park Hill we headed outside and onto the newly lit Cobbled Killer where some of the group ran hill reps whilst some other took on the Steel Steps and then we re-grouped at the top before returning to base to stretch, hear news and grab refreshment.

Until next time,

Happy Running :)