It was all Gogh, Gogh, Gogh again as 24 GoodGym'ers ran 3km to white up a room!

On an unseasonably warm and Spring-like February evening - the kind of weather where everyone quickly locates their GoodGym t-shirts and shorts! - a fantastic 23 smiling GoodGym'ers greeted me at the Better Gym to run and do good. A big welcome to our 2 runderful new runners Libby and Sarah who joined us for their first GoodGym run, and welcome back to self-professed 'fair weather runner' Luis. It was also lovely to see so many runners back for their second and third runs, and of course my fab regulars - thank you all for coming along!

With everyone present and correct we all headed outside to our warm-up spot where I ran through a quick intro and round-up of the week's news.

News, news, news

1) Community Missions - Up for a weekend community mission? No DBS check is required for a community mission.

• Sat 2nd March from 12pm - help sort food donations for City Harvest in Acton, sign up here.
• Sat 9th March from 10.30am - help finish sort clothes donations for St Mungo's Reconnection Post in Hammersmith, sign up here.

2) Sunday 3rd March - Long Runs - Tower Hamlets Run Leader, Simon is leading a 21km run along stages 6 & 7 of the Capital Ring. For all the details and to sign up, click here. There is also talk of H&F long run as well, keep an eye on the WhatsApp group for details!

3) Volunteering opportunities - If you volunteer for either the Adidas City Runs 1 hour on Sun 7th April or the Hackney Half on Sun 19th May, you'll have a great day out cheering on fellow runners and earn yourself some nice freebies that include free entry to a future race, a t-shirt, and possibly even some jelly babies!

The 'artist part was finding the way...

With the news and intros complete we did a name and number count followed by a quick pulse raising warm-up and some dynamic stretches, that of course included some 'shooing of the chickens' and closing of the gate, all in the wrong order! With the warm-up complete and Stravas set, we were ready to head off on our short 1.6km run down to our task tonight at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall, with Jason as always being the trusty backmarker. Along the way there was a short group wall sit to enable everyone to re-group as we headed down off the main road. In a complete déjà vu of our last run to Gibbs Green Tenants Hall I took the group on a minor 'scenic' detour around the back of West Kensington tube station - don't say I don't treat you all to the sights of H&F team!

Water great place to come

It wasn't long before we arrived at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall and were warmly welcomed in by Sara and Peggie. Sara and Peggie had kindly provided water for the group which was gratefully welcomed. As the group rehydrated Sara briefly explained the vast range activities and engagment events that are provided at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall for the community – this ranged from low cost yoga to providing meals from surplus food.

The walls are all white now

Two years ago the group had visited and transformed the green walls of the main hall from green to white, however, over the years the space has been incredibly well used and as result was bearing some very visible dirt, scuffs and stains that needed a bit of GoodGym painting love. Tonight's task was simple, but big, repaint the main hall area walls with a nice fresh coat of white paint. With Sara and Peggie providing a wonderful selection of rollers, paint brushes and trays, the team quickly divided up and began distributing the white paint into the trays ready to tackle the big painting challenge.

Blinded by the white!

Many went up ladders, under ladders or even stood on chairs to ensure that no hard to reach spots were missed. With so many pairs of hands quickly and efficiently painting the walls and skirting boards, it wasn't long before the area that Sara and Peggie had originally prepped with ground sheets for us to paint, so as to protect their newly washed and cleaned floors, needed to be extended out a lot further and wider.

As always the half an hour quickly passed, and not wanting to leave the main hall looking unfinished the group pushed on for a few additional minutes until most of the walls were all completed, and there was no paint left to paint with! With the painting completed, equipment washed, and everyone fed and rehydrated the group posed for a fabulous 'jazz hands' group photo with the ever smiling, Sara and Peggie. We all said our thank yous and goodbyes as we headed outside to the nice grassy area for some quick fitness-based games. After enjoying the Sally squats so much a few weeks ago, Tom had requested more squats and so as to be fair to the whole group I ensured that everyone got to do lots of squats tonight - big thank you to Tom!

Off in squat pursuit

We started off with a fun but tough game of championship knee tag, with lots of squat action and good tactical game play on display - well done to those who were victorious! Next up was a game of squat, squat, goose, where it transpired that many had never played the childhood classic of duck, duck, goose - what madness! After ironing out the rules we had a quick few rounds, all of which were very closely run. With the squat fix not quite acquired we finished off with three exercises to improve our strength, flexibility and balance: pistol squats, alternating supermans and squat thrusts. Great effort all!

Fitness session complete we all began the short run back to base for a cool down and stretch. Cool down and stretches complete we all headed off home our separate ways, with some going via the pub for the monthly social. Excellent work tonight all, hope you all had fun and hope to see you all again soon!

Next week we're heading back to Flora Gardens Primary School to continue our big painting challenge task, sign up for next week's run here. Have a great week!

A run that wasn't for the paint hearted...24 GoodGym'ers ran 3km as they went back to school to tackle a big painting challenge

Another Tuesday evening where there was no rain and snow, what a treat! Despite it being a great deal fresher than it was last Tuesday we were not complaining, plus we had the bonus of an indoor task where the team would be doing some cathartic painting!

A big welcome to Becky, Hannah, Jonathan, Katie and Lily who all joined us for either their first EVER GoodGym run or first GoodGym H&F run - hope to see you all again very soon! It was lovely to have so many new faces tonight amongst the ever wonderful regulars, thank you all for coming along.

Tonight my voice was pretty much MIA so Catriona kindly helped out with the intro and round-up of this week's news as we formed a unformidable double act, Ant and Dec be very afraid! (or not!)

You snooze you news...

1. February Long Run - This Sunday, starting at 9.30am or 10.30am depending on the pace you would like to run from Brixton Station. For all the details and to sign up, click here.
2. Morden Hall Park - Trust10 Trail Run - Also on Sunday, meet at 8.30am near the White Bridge in Morden Hall Park. Sign up here. It is FREE - there are no admission charges at Morden Hall Park.
3. Community Missions - One this Sunday, from 12pm, help finish the painting at the sea scouts HQ in Putney, sign up here and another on Saturday 9th March, from 10.30am - help finish sort clothes donations for St Mungo's Reconnection Post in Hammersmith, sign up here. No DBS check is required for a community mission.
4. Mission Changes - Make sure you read this week's 'Goodweek' email about how they are changing and also check your settings to make sure you're ready for the call-up! If you'd like to get involved with missions you need to be DBS checked - please sign up for a doc check and bring along your documents for checking.

As we went to start the name and number count, Sarah and Catriona put a hold on proceedings as they completely surprised me with their own announcement and the reappearance of the wings from last week. Wings successfully attached and first aid kit now with Sarah after the humourous comment of "Ooo you're quite small, Beth" - yes, it's hidden well...!

School runnings

With the name and number count and short pulse raising warm-up completed we headed off on our very short 1km run down to our task tonight at Flora Gardens Primary School. It wasn't long before we arrived at the school gates and were buzzed inside by the school's Business Manager, Jeanette who was waiting for us inside. As a group we all walked through the outside area of her school, admiring the massive outdoor area that was kitted out with ping pong tables, basketball hoops, a bandstand, amongst other fun kid's activities everywhere, it was huge, what a fab place to go to school!

The breakfast grub!

We were warmly greeted in by Jeanette who briefly explained the age range of the school, the meals they provide for breakfast so that no child goes hungry and how unfortunately like most schools they were facing tough financial pressures so did not have the Monet to pay for full price paint and professional redecoration. Thanks to Community Repaint, a brilliant scheme that redistributes leftover paint into their communities at around a third of the price, Jeanette had managed to source around 60 litres for under £150 and the many helping hands of GoodGym runners. What a steal!

We had it covered...

Tonight's task was to make a start on painting the walls of a room used for the children's breakfast and after school club and Jeanette's office upstairs in a bright 'Gilbert Green' or 'Heavenly Horizon' colour. As space and paint brushes were limited Sarah had kindly planned a circuits session outdoors in the playground so the group split into two groups which rotated after 20 minutes.

Jeanette had been really organised and had all the paint cans and paint brushes at the ready for the team, she even kindly provided some cereal bars as a thank you and some large L'Oreal t-shirts that had been donated to the school for when the children do arts and crafts - tonight they proved very valuable in covering everyone's GoodGym tees and sportswear. T-shirts on, all the prep that was left was some masking of the fire alarm and the covering of the floors with some recycling bags. As Sophie and I headed upstairs to scout out the size of Jeanette's office room they stumbled across another secret stash of cereal bars, which they decided to keep quiet from Will and Johnny!

Abs fab!

With half the group efficiently painting away in the warmth of the indoors, the other half of the group were being put through a tough circuit session that consisted of lunges, supermans, burpees and other beneficial core exercises to improve fitness and ultimately aid our running, rumour was that Sarah had based this on one of the fitness sessions run by GoodGym Trainer, Ana...thankfully for the group, not Mr Abs on Tour, Chi!

A blue green that was all white!

With the rotation of the groups seemless, the walls were quickly being transformed from their original white colour to the fresher and brighter blue and green colours. Unfortunately, as always the time had flown by and it was time to call it a night. With all the paint brushes put down a quick team photo was captured in front of the room's windows so that the fantastically painted walls of the room were visible. With the final handwashes completed we all regrouped outside and headed off on the final part of our run down through Furnival Gardens, along the towpath and back to base - with a couple of bonus squats thrown in when we regrouped.

Cake to cake our day!

It wasn't long before we were all back at base for our cool down and stretch. Cool down and stretches complete the class were dismissed to enjoy some delicious and moreish homemade treats - a biscuit cake made by Johnny and chocolate brownies made by Catriona in celebration of my 200th good deed!

Thank you for all your hard work at the task tonight, hope you all enjoyed the cathartic painting and run. Next week we're heading to Gibbs Green Tenants Hall where we will be doing some more painting! Sign up for next week's run here. Have a fab week and hopefully see many of you next week where I will hopefully be a little more vocal!

Thank you so much for the winged surprise and all the cake based treats, I was totally blown away. You're such a lovely group and an absolutely joy to lead, big love and thanks to you all!

It was a rather feisty westerly wind that was keeping the clouds away today and also blowing us all towards Ham Lands for our monthly visit to help the Friends of Ham Common! Every month we’re bramblein’!

We were tackling a different area of the common today: our mission to create a path through the undergrowth!

Sounds simple? Not when you are greeted by a thorny mountain of brambles and prickly undergrowth. Twists and tangles of barbed brambles and vines needed to be cut so we could break free to get us through to the other side.

We were joined by a great selection of GoodGym faces. We had excellent eager new joiners Dom and Lily on their first ever GG outing, and they quickly embraced the GoodGym spirit and got stuck straight in! We were also joined by some tenacious tourists from across London in the form of Fran, Mike and Jess who brought brilliant energy to the mission, plus some fantastic familiar GoodGym Kingston faces. It was a very merry bunch battling amongst the brambles today!

We divided and conquered with one group tackling the bramble barricade to the main path and the other group helping to widen the inner path.

It’s always amazing how much of a difference can be made when the GoodGym Thornado arrives! While we chatted about the different ways we had all discovered GoodGym, the brambles were quaking in their prickly boots and the path width was doubling in size. The barricade team created a scene akin to that of the channel tunnel engineers, chopping away at the undergrowth until they had their bramble breakthrough! They were through!

As one barricade was taken down another mini one was created to help protect local wildlife from being badgered.

To celebrate our achievement we all proudly headed home out through the new path we had created. It was true, you could now see the wood through the trees!