30 GoodGymmers and two tasks this evening.

Woodchips On The Old Block

Ten gallant goodgymers ran the 3.5 kilometers up to Girdlestone Gardening Club to continue our gardening tasks but arrived to find our host, Jan, stuck in the mulch in her wheelchair totally unable to move!

Like superheroes in a cheap American comic book from the 1940s we set to work freeing the damsel in distress and saving the day, or at least her evening. Heroics completed our real work for the evening began, weeding, tidying and most importantly the reduction of the level of the wood-chips to stop the wheelchair sticking problem reoccurring.

Job done, we raced down Archway road to arrive back at the baths exactly on time for a good stretch and a well deserved biscuit. Unfortunately the biscuit giver (name supplied on request) showed none of the loyalty expected from his heroic team and gave the entire other group their biscuits first. This was a blot on an otherwise excellent but standard Monday evening in Islington. Up, up and away.

Steve

The rest of us were over to Barnsbury Community Centre for a mix of jobs:

Sofa So Good

A few of us had to construct a sofa. The group grabbed the box with all the parts in and found the cushions easily enough, but couldn't find anything else. After much searching around and failed phonecalls they finally discovered the missing parts stashed away within the cushions themselves!

As a bonus a display stand was also made. Amazing what you find in a sofa these days.

Living In A Box

Alex also found something else in the box

Tile And Error

Another team had the job of laying white floor tiles out in reception. It took a little while to figure out exactly where the tiles had to go, but they did a terrific job.

Paint The Toilets Red

Caroline and Vicki put a second coat of GoodGym red paint on the cubicle doors in the ladies. Much less clearing up this week thanks to throwing the brushes away afterwards. It's looking very red in there.

Vinyl Messi

First timers to GoodGym Bella, Xun and Bryony were joined by Lizzie and had the easiest job of all: sticking a large sheet of yellow vinyl to the reception desk. OK, I lied, it was the most fidgety job ever. But they persevered and broke the back of it.

The Vinyl Countdown

While the vinyl team - now with a few additions - struggled for the last five minutes, the rest of us went into the main hall and did a circle of circuits: we stood in a ring and took turns to pick an exercise, alternating "easy" and hard ones. Burpees, plank, lunges, sit ups and squat jumps were just a few of the delights on offer this evening.

Nicely worked-out we grabbed the vinylers and headed back to the pool in two groups where the Girdlestone gang were waiting for us.

The Grass Is Always Greener

While munching biccies we voted on the best running surface: grass, running track, road, mud or woodchip. Grass won it, so everybody has to go out for a nice run on some cool wet grass this week.

Patrick is leading the group next week. Be there
Simon

It was a Force of July on this Independence Day as 32 GoodGymmers gathered round Highbury Pool ready to do good. We did our news (so much news) and welcomed Emily and Claire (already in GG t-shirts!) along for their first runs.

New Richmond trainer Mark got the gang nicely warmed up before we headed off for our evening tasks.

John and Graham took a small group up to Whittington Park for our fortnightly weeding session. Graham tells us what went down:

Whilst the main group of GoodGymers ran to Barnsbury community centre, a smaller group of us ran a total of 6k (8k including post-run Highbury Fields laps!) to visit Whittington park, sanding benches and weeding the one o'clock club garden.

The classic debate of what counted as a weed continued, and all were very happy to see that some potential weeds we left two weeks ago had grown flower buds - great display of horticultural knowledge from all involved! Meanwhile on the other side of the park, four enthusiastic sanders continued sanding down two flower-bed-containers, ready for varnishing and repainting. It's quite addictive, like watching a lava lamp. Most relaxing GoodGym task ever?

Post-run, we arrived back to Highbury Fields ahead of time (nice one John!) so decided to throw in an extra two laps, including a small bit of speed work on the second lap round.

More running. More sweating. More good. Top effort from all.

Graham

Meanwhile Simon and Mark popped over to Barnsbury Community Centre for some painting (which we hardly ever get to do at GG Islington) and assembly of flatpack (which we have NEVER done at GG Islington).

8 of us went off to paint the cubicle doors in the women's toilets a GoodGym red and the cubicle door in the men's toilets a freedom blue. We got the doors painted no problem, the difficult part was cleaning up: gloss paint everywhere and only one small bottle of white spirit between us. This meant we ended up running a little overtime, but nice to get the job done!

Over in the main hall the rest of the group had managed to assemble all furniture and Mark took them outside for a fitness session: jogging, side shuffles, lunges, planks, push ups, squats, wheelbarrow poses, deadlift and press, box jumps with a partner, step ups and star jumps to plyo jumps. Wow, I got tired just reading that. Looks like GG-ers in Richmond are gonna get a decent workout on the 18th.

Our cookies for the evening were Oreos: the most American biscuit available in Tesco Hackney Superstore and the debate was "What's the most American thing you can think of". Apple pie, Sweet potatoes and Marshmallow, TRUMP, Walmart, weird pronunciation, hamburgers, and mass shootings were all given as answers. But Andy and David came up with a wonderful combination that definitely wins:

"Uncle Sam, with an eagle on his shoulder, and a miniature Statue of Liberty on the dashboard, singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" while driving a Chevvy down Route 66 on his way to a baseball game, eating a burger and massive cup of soda that he just picked up from a diner."

Happy 7th of April everybody! See you next week

Simon