We've had a lot of balmy weather systems come through on Tuesday evenings recently, but luckily tonight we had the perfect conditions for a run. It was great to be met with lots of GoodGym'ers in their red and black tees at the Better Gym, and really lovely to welcome along Morwenna and Mable for their first GoodGym H&F run - thank you for coming along, hope you enjoyed it!

Before we headed off on tonight's run we headed outside to our makeshift warm-up spot and begun with the round-up of this week's news...

The weekly news 📰...

1. Big Half 2020 - There are a limited number of £10 community entries for the Big Half in London on Sunday 1st March 2020. If you are interested in a £10 place, please drop me an email (or see the details in the weekly fitness email that I know you all read 😉).
2. Rough Runner - at Finsbury Park, on Saturday 7th September where you can volunteer on the Saturday for a free place on the Sunday!
3. GoodGym turns 10! - GoodGym will soon celebrate being 10 years old! We want to know what GoodGym means to you and your community, please have a look at this link as we’d love to hear your story. There's also a big party in central London on Thursday 12th of September! - hopefully you've received the email with the link to register, please drop me an email if not.

Come flyer with me, come flyer come flyer away

For today's task we were going to be handing out flyers for the wonderful Age UK H&F. Nicely warmed up with some skips, side-to-sides and fast feet we headed off on our short run to down to their Activity Centre on Greyhound Road. As ever, we paused en route for the weekly wall sit, with many mumours of "it's actually getting easier" heard!

Johnny's got the key, he's got the secret...

We all arrived at the Activity Centre and Johnny pulled the keys out of his pocket to unlock the door and allow us to enter. As everyone gathered in the main room Johnny appeared with a big box of flyers, of course with biscuits placed carefully on top!

The AGE old question, how many leaflets can GoodGym H&F flyer in one go?

Johnny explained all the services that Age UK H&F offer for the over 50s, these range from home cooked meals to physical activity classes to IT classes, led by the man himself. Part of the programme Johnny is heading up is getting those in the community more IT literate, and one side of the leaflet promoted this service. The other side of the leaflet was a call for volunteers as at present, there are only 2 volunteers.

Leaf'let out

With the challenge of 2,000 leaflets and a map of the surrounding streets to target infront of the team we decided it would be most efficient to split into two smaller teams. One led by Lucy (after we confirmed it wasn't a competition!) and the other by Johnny.

Fully leafleted up we headed outside for a quick team photo before heading down and around the surrounding streets.

Baptism of flyer

We haven't done much flyering recently in H&F, but both teams implemented the efficient 'flyer chain' down all the streets with perfection. After 40 minutes of flyering had covered a substantial amount of the surrounding streets. As both teams regrouped and headed back to the Activity Centre we realised we were two red shirts down...where were Eloise and Sarah?! After a couple of calls, they were located safely back at the Activity Centre...obviously smart thinking to ensure they got a headstart on the biscuits before the biscuit man, Johnny!

The great flyer of H&F

As everyone placed their remaining leaflets back in the big box it was amazing to see lots of empty space due the number of flyers that were handed out by the team, as Johnny fantastically summed up "we've made a big dent on the box of flyers".

Once everyone had filled their boots with juice, water and biscuits we headed over to the green opposite for a quick fitness session.

The team had attracted a particularly friendly dog who enjoyed a quick game of fetch with Rob and Lucy. However, the dog was less keen to get involved with tonight's fitness challenge, the old favourite, Sally Squats! 3mins 25seconds of squatting, what's not to love?!

As always the team dug deep and triumphantly finished. With quads burning we called it a night and headed off on a gentle run back to base for a cool down and stretch off. Brillant work tonight all!

Special shout outs to...📢🙌🏼

• Lucy for her parkrun PB at Gunnersbury on Saturday - her second PB in a row!!
• Elizabeth for volunteered bright and early on Sunday morning at the PrideRun10k.

Well done both 😊.

Next week we've got a Two Task Tuesday and you'll have a choice of tasks: heading up to the Nubian Life Resource Centre to help out at their Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden - we'll be helping out with some weeding and sweeping of their pathways OR 2) Heading up to Groundwork to lend a hand with transferring bags of soil to their new wooden raised beds. Sign up here. Have a lovely rest of your week. Hopefully see you next week!

Despite heavy showers earlier in the evening - and the prospect of more to come - 16 dedicated GoodGymers joined our weather-proof trainer, Beth, for our weekly Group Run.

Beth welcomed first-timers Sarah and Lucy and congratulated Johnny on completing his 150th good deed as a GG tourist the previous evening and his 200th parkrun at Kingston at the weekend. Well done Johnny!

As usual we started with a warm-up and some new exercises evoked quizzical looks from passers-by as we first hopped on one leg then later scurried sideways like crabs along the pavement. Nicely limbered up, we set off on the 1km run to our destination at Loris Gardens. This is a community garden which is regularly maintained through drop in gardening days organised by Hammersmith Community Garden Association, with GoodGymers providing some extra help a few times a year.

Splash and Dash

Happy that the rain was holding off for our run, we splashed through the puddles and weaved our way through pedestrians with Lucy back-marking so that no-one was left behind. Not everyone stayed dry, however, as a car drove at speed through a giant puddle creating a tidal wave that doused us just as we were passing 🌊.

Just another brick in the wall

Breaking our journey for the obligatory wall sit, we were soon at Loris Garden and getting kitted out with gardening gloves, trowels and weed forks which had been provided for us to use. Our task was to weed the brick path and brush sand into the gaps between the bricks. Everyone cracked on with the task and it was great to see our red t-shirts dotted along the path.

Sand and deliver

Despite the instructions on the paving sand saying to use it in dry conditions, we went ahead and applied it into the freshly-weeded path. And what a transformation! Sadly there was only half a bag of sand, so we didn’t get as much done as we would have liked, but at that point the weather intervened anyway.

Here comes the rain again

It got very dark. It rained. Hard.

Most sought shelter under the trees*. Johnny cleverly used a garden waste sack as an umbrella. Catherine donned a lovely polka-dot raincoat which appeared from nowhere! When the rain eased a little we hurriedly cleared away all the equipment and posed for a group photo before heading back to base. A vote on whether to go back directly or incorporate a 1k time trial was inconclusive, but as the rain stopped we decided to do the time trial anyway and gathered at the starting point on Brook Green.

Ready, steady, go!

With Strava and sports watches set, the faster runners sped off on the one-lap route around the Green. Others took a more leisurely pace, and some preferred a core workout rather than a run. That’s the beauty of GoodGym – you can do things at your own level. From there it was a short run back to base for some stretches and a well-earned pat on the back for braving the elements to complete yet another good deed.

A BIG thank you to Sarah for the wonderful run report!

This week's news...

1. The GoodGym Olympics is this Saturday at Parliament Hill Athletics Track, if you aren't signed up to compete definitely still come along and support! The events start at 1pm on Saturday. There's also a veg and cake competition! The post-GG Olympics party is at The Vine, details here. Everyone can also get involved with the 1km 'race' known as "The Nationwide race", details here.
2. Next Thursday (8th) is the August GoodGym Social - location TBC!

Next week we're heading back up to Askham Court to lend a hand to resident, Mirko with some gardening and weeding work. Sign up here.

*But the heavy downpour did not stop either Sarah or Jonathan who carried on weeding regardless!