Well on June 30th 2018 many things were happening it was National Paddy Day of Nepal, Edmonton Royals beat Toronto Nationals by 8 wickets in the 20Twenty and the Nation sat down to watch Nick Knowles hosts the quiz for people who can't resist a list in another cracking episode of Who Dares Wins. Meanwhile in leafy Hampstead Heath Park dog walkers, parents and local residents were making reports of strange behaviour, incidents included lots of cheering, signs of red thunder, folks running with eggs on spoons and a sea of flags. Not only was the behaviour incredibly positive they were also plying spectators with these delicious homemade cakes, what these folks were witnessing was Olympic fever GoodGym style. So as reported, June 30th 2018 was the 2nd ever GoodGym Olympics. The day brought together 24 different GoodGym area, ranging from Lambeth, the South West to Colchester. The events on offer were a range of events varied from the egg and spoon, 400m to the elimination race. The events were varied but the competition was not and every race brought a bigger and bigger sea of cheers, particular highlights for me was the epic finish of the elimination mile between George Bright and Richard Dowling, Folks flipping pancakes, listening to our two wonderful commentators, the GoodGym relay madness, and human tunnel finish that welcomed the final 5,000m runners brought a tear to my eye that did. Not only were the runners being judged but we also had a torch parade before to show off each boroughs creative sides and although it was a fierce competition. All in all there were 18 different events which each borough their own brilliant moments. This year to even the field I placed the areas in two different leagues due to levels of runners from each area. So up for grabs was the Hunter-Sidhu Shield and the Kerry-Barnard Cup named after our two fantastic commentators, John Hunter and James Kerry-Barnard.

I could write about this for hours however I think picture would do a far better so I will leave some of Tom Hunters and Sarah Rajabalee fanatic shots up and will post a link to more when they come available.

These events don’t work without a band of helpers and I have to say a massive thanks to all the all members of taskforce and GoodGym who have gave up their time to volunteer, help time and marshal on the day and general mean that I didn’t have to do too much, it was amazing there are just too many of you to write down but again thank you it was really a truly lovely and special day, thank you all and here’s to next year. If you have any feedback please let me know on tomb@goodgym.org. I will be putting together a committee of people to help out and organise next years, if you would like to be considered please drop me a email too.

Nice one, Tom

Race Results please click here on the link below. Please note we did not record heat times and some events do not have times or positions as these got put away during the tidy up. Please accept my apologies if this affects you.

Here are the rest of the results we https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WR3tnGIEXq6ylA-JhZEduRuGKiW5SgD4alhfHJqJFWY/edit#gid=0

Here were the final results

Kerry-Barnard Cup

AREA	PLACE
Lambeth	1st
Wandsworth	2nd
Camden	3rd
Hackney	4th
Lewisham	5th
Islington	6th

Hunter-Sidhu Shield

AREA	PLACE
Greenwich	1st
Brighton	2nd
Hammersmith and Fulham	3rd
Colchester	4th
Southwark	5th
Barnet	6th
Hounslow	7th
Tower Hamlets	8th
Haringey	9th
Croydon	10th
Bristol	11th
Brent	12th
Newham	13th
King's College London	14th
Redbridge	15th
Westminster	16th
Waltham Forest	17th
Ealing	18th

Torch winners: Big shout out to team Islington for their Stella effort combining biscuits with a fantastic touch. Highly commended goes to Tower Hamlets, Bath and Brent. Well done everyone.

26 Camdenites ran between 5-10km to help Abbey Community Centre and Cecil Sharp House

No newbies this week but lots of lovely people as always - thanks for coming as always.

In the news this week:

1. This month's long run is on Sunday 24th June with either 11km or 16km options - all details here
2. Danny is organising volunteering for the British 10km, with a GG team taking over an aid/water station - in return you'll get a free entry for a Virgin Event. See full details here
3. Kat is organising track sessions at the Regents Park Track every Thursday from tomorrow. Meeting for 6.30pm and starting the session from 6.45pm.
4. Well done to Chris Howson who hit 200 good deeds last night, Chris has been coming to GoodGym Camden for nearly 5 years and has made a huge difference in that time.

After the intro we set Pritesh's group off early to head the 5km out and back to help Abbey Community Centre with watering the garden. The group got the work done in amazingly quick time and enjoyed the run up Primrose Hill - nice views :)

Folking around

The rest of us headed to Cecil Sharp House to do our monthly gardening for the home of English Folk Music. The venue has a big event in the gardens at the weekend so our work focused on making sure everything was tidy and weed-free.

We split into two teams with one looking after the garden and walkway entrance and the other group taking care of the car park. The weeds had nowhere to go but in bags for mulching :)

A beautiful and very tame Robin joined us by flying and bouncing around all the activity. Over 30 minutes we did what is equivalent to 10 hours work for Susannah - she is very appreciative of our efforts.

Before heading home we did x3 hill sprints up Primrose Hill to focus on building our strength and aerobic base.

Thanks all as always!

Sign up next week here when we will be helping Sheltered Housing.

PB out

27 Goodgymers ran 6km and helped Kentish Town City Farm

Welcome along to newbie - Ramon

This week we returned after helping Kentish Town City Farm prepare for May Day celebrations last Wednesday. Our job was to basically pack up everything we put up last week.

Many hands make light work!

A team of 13 were tasked with emptying and putting down the marquee. This involved team work, clear instructions from Chris and no one getting stuck underneath as it came down.

The rest of the crew packed up two gazebos and carried down 12 hay bails, stocks, scarecrows and everything else that was up there.

Once we were done Frances put me in the stocks and everyone fed the goats.

Last but not least we wanted to say a huge well done and congratulations to Sophie Hedges for hitting her 300th good deed. Fantastic!

Nice one! Come back next week when we have three tasks!

PB out.