Oh how the lighter evenings are so much nicer for running...if only the warmer weather would follow suit!!! Tonight we were a smaller but perfectly formed group on a very fresh April evening. Amongst all my brilliant regulars, it was lovely to welcome along Helene and Mia for their second H&F group run, welcome back Lucy and GoodGym Lambeth tourist/mole (delete as appropriate!) Frances - thank you all for coming along!

It was also great to see Sapphire sporting her new shiny red GoodGym tee and weird to see Will in a GoodGym tee that didn't have his name on, how Will we know his name?! Good news, he'd like to be called "GoodGym"!

Without further ado, the news:

Firstly, a BIG BIG well done to Catriona and Jonny who both ran their first marathons in Manchester at the weekend and absolutely smashed it, both finishing in a sub-4 hours time and giving their legs a well-deserved rest tonight. Well done to Frances for got a parkrun PB at Dulwich parkrun and well done to Arba who ran the adidas 1-hour race. Some superb racing all round! 🙌🏼

1. Take the Bridge on Friday 26th April - the idea is that you hit a certain number of checkpoints throughout the city with your team on a 5km run - there are some great cash prizes on offer and a lot of fun to be had!
2. April London Long Run - Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath join Catriona on Saturday 27th April from 10.30am as she leads a scenic run loop around Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath followed by lunch.
3. Bath Two Tunnels Races 2019 and GG West Summer party on the weekend of 17th August we're looking to get a big group of us down to camp and run in one (possibly two!) GoodGym H&F 50km relay teams - post in the Whatsapp group/speak to Catriona if you're interested in being part of a relay team (other races are available if you don't fancy the relay), come along & join the fun, we'll also be celebrating Sarah's birthday month!

Two much of a good thing

Tonight we were going to be helping out TWO community organisations that provide wonderful and valuable services in the Hammersmith & Fulham area:

1. St Mungo's Reconnection Post - deliver the 'No Second Night Out' service and provide 25 beds to vulnerable and homeless adults with complex needs. They also work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community or repatriated back to their country.
2. Acknowledging Youths - a project that was set up to raise the aspirations and make a positive impact on the life of disadvantaged young people in London. They provide education and training to help prepare the young people for interviews and ensure they are ‘work ready’.

With the name and number count and short pulse-raising warm-up completed we headed up on our short 1.5km run up to St Mungo's Reconnection Post. Stopping briefly for our weekly walk sit where Johnny was very much ‘Johnny no mates’ on the wall he chose, we arrived in super quick time at St Mungo's Reconnection Post. Once inside we were met by one of the Reconnection Workers, Chris.

There were two tasks that we were going to be lending a hand with tonight:

1. Tidying & sorting a room full of unorganised clothes donations 👚👕👖👗
2. Revamping their garden aka weeding 🌳🌿🧤

To room it may concern...

The group efficiently divided up into teams and Chris led Team Room into the room that I can only describe as “the gift that keeps giving...” - those that have visited before will know what I mean!!

What do you weed to know...

Once Chris had gathered the gardening tools it wasn’t long before Team Garden were pulling up weeds from the flower bed left, right and centre, and clearing the moss from in-between the patio cement.

GoodGym didn't start the flyer...

While Team Room & Team Garden were getting stuck in, Team Flyering set off down Goldhawk Road to deliver some flyers for Acknowledging Youths 🏃🏼‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️📃 - they may have actually flown as they were all back, pretty much all empty handed in super quick time! In a case of 'many hands make light work' team flyering split into two and joined up with team room and team garden for the final ten minutes of the task.

Half an hour flew by as always, and with the light rapidly fading and temperature still dropping we decided to call it a night. Flyers delivered, a markedly improved and tidied room, and a wonderfully weeded garden, definitely a success all round! The group posed for the ‘much-loved’ jazz hands 👐🏼 group photo before we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Chris.

Running technique as per the brook

Once we were all warmed-up again (sort of!) we headed off on our short run down to Brook Green for the 1km time trial around the outer perimeter of the Green. We headed to the start of the Strava segment so that everyone's times could be logged and progress tracked. Andrew and Frances led the way, everyone displayed some excellent 'pockets to sockets' technique and good postures throughout, and post-lap everyone had significantly raised pulse rates, heavier breaths, with noticeably redder and sweatier faces. Brilliant effort all!

Off to our hoppy place

Time trial lap completed all that was left between the group and the monthly social (or home!) was a very short but gentle cool down run back to base, and a stretch off.

For most of the group post-run refreshments were in order as we headed to The Hop Poles to round off the night, where we joined by Catriona who was thankfully not hopping post-marathon. Great night all, thank you for all your hard work, energy and smiles!

Too cool for school?

Next week we’re heading back to Flora Gardens Primary to finish off the final coats of paint in ‘The White House’. Sign up for next week’s run here. Have a fab week!

With Beth on holiday in Slovenia, she trusted me with the Hammersmith and Fulham crew for the evening.

After a little welcome, and chats about upcoming half marathons like the Ealing and Oxford halves (come and cheer on fellow GoodGym runners at either of them if you can!) and the GoodGym Social next week, we made our way outside for a warm up and introductions. I wanted to find out the best things about Hammersmith and Fulham, so we got everyones ideas. Fitting for a running group, the most popular thing turned out to be the running route along the river, so I'll be sure to come back and try that out some more!

After the warm up we headed out to Maystar Estates, a local housing area where they have some communal green areas that need looking after and lots of smaller individual gardens. Despite back-marking being one of his favourite things (sorry!), Jason did a splendid job leading from the front, and got us there safe and sound. We met Pauline there, who got us all armed with gardening tools and bin bags and set us to work. We also caught up with some of our friends from the Chelsea FC Foundation, who we helped out last week, at the task.

The Task: To turn a grassy area into a patch of turned over soil, ready for planting some bulbs, to give the communal space a bit of colour. Plus we also had a couple of individual gardens to tend to, cutting back their hedges and doing some weeding on of their grass.

Everyone got stuck in quickly, and so before we knew it the task was completed and we found ourselves eating biscuits in their community hall - what a treat! After a group picture, and goodbyes to Pauline and the Maystar reps, we jogged off to the famous riverside to do some sprint training. Using a small length of the path, with some handily placed street lights, we focussed on different factors of our sprint to try and improve our running techniques.

• Socket to pocket (focussing on driving that elbow backwards!)
• Lifting your torso upright, imagining a helium balloon pulling you up
• Increasing your cadence to maximise speed

After a tiring little session, it was time to call the run to an end for the night, so we made our way back to the Fitness and Squash club for some stretches and chats about next week's run, which you can sign up to here.

Don't fear, you'll be back to normal next week when Beth returns. Hopefully see you all soon. Thanks for having me H&F!

Tuesday night, it’s H&F GoodGym night! And to add to the excitement tonight it was part I of the H&F GoodGym 2nd birthday celebrations and a two task special. Tonight we were first heading up to St Mungo’s Reconnection Post and then up to White City Adventure Playground.

To get both tasks completed I required lots of runners and pairs of hands, and thankfully a wonderful 22 GoodGym-ers joined me on a humid autumnal evening for this party run, to do good, twice over! It was lovely to have Alice and Imogen, Mitzi along for their first GoodGym group run and to have Larissa and Jenni from GoodGym Ealing and Michele from GoodGym Hounslow doing some GoodGym tourism! It was also great to have one of my favourite GoodGym trainers, Ana, of GoodGym Wandsworth and Hounslow join the fun – extra great to not be on the other side of her fitness sessions for once!

As always everyone congregated in the Hammersmith Fitness & Squash Centre, however, this week being the party run, Sarah and Johnny were on hand to provide party hats and the homemade banana cake for the post-run celebrations. Much like GoodGym’s group run disclaimer “you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do” some opted out of wearing a party hat, understandably their aerodynamics would’ve been altered and it would’ve slowed them down. Party hat’d up we headed outside this week for a round-up of the weekly news (my voice vs a motorway I think there may have only been one winner, so for those of you who missed any of it…

1. GG London-wide 'Hamingslow' Social – This Thursday!! GG Hammersmith, Ealing and Hounslow will be uniting and hosting the social! It'll be in Hammersmith upstairs at The Rutland Arms! Sign up here.
2. GG H&F's 2nd Birthday - On Tuesday 11th September, part II of the birthday celebrations with a post-run social at The Draft House! Important pre-social request - Please email or whatsapp a photo of yourself aged 2 to Bex before the date for the baby photo quiz round!
3. September Long Run – 22nd September. This month the long run will be the Wandle Trail led by yours truly and Andy from GG Hounslow. There will be two pacing groups and the option of a shorter start point along the way. Sign up here.

AND a big well done to Jason who completed the Spitfire 10K and to Sarah who came 5th (3rd) with her triathlon team at the weekend!

While everyone was gathered in a circle we did a quick name and number count and everyone answered the “what do you like to do on your birthday?” question. The answers ranged from having drinks in the pub, spending the day with friends, having a lie in, eating lots of cake, doing GoodGym to the wonderfully decadent cheese on toast for breakfast.

Following a quick warm-up and the loser of the bus vs walk judgment tonight, Sophie we all headed north on the short 1.5km run to the first task at St Mungo’s Reconnection Post. Despite the group throwing me a ‘red herring’ as to where the actual entrance was (I of course 100% knew where it was…honest!), we arrived at St Mungo’s and were greeted by Philippa, the Deputy Manager who explained to the group the services they provide to vulnerable and homeless adults in the community – as well as providing housing, they work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community.

Need for weed

The task tonight was simple, tackle their garden – tidy as much as we could in the half an hour we had with them. Everyone gloved up, tooled up, and prepared the 3 large garden waste bags for the filling of weeds and cuttings. The group got to work tackling the garden as briefed and with all hands either on deck or on the tools providing a much needed weed and/or prune to the plants around the garden. In what is becoming a weekly tradition, Sarah posed with a bag and Sophie posed in various stances on demand. Chris, Michelle and Jason also got involved in the fun too…check out the photos! Amongst the photo opps the group put in a hard gardening shift and quickly filled the 3 large garden waste bags. The time flew by, as it always does when you’re having fun…as Fiona wonderfully exclaimed, “that’s been half an hour already?!” and it was time to down-tool, tidy-up, empty the bags, and pose for a couple of group photos along with Philippa. Task one complete! We said our thankyous and goodbyes and headed off on what was meant to be a short 1.2k run up to our second task at White City Adventure Playground.

Lost-term memory

In a nice trip down memory lane back to the first couple of weeks when I got the group lost and lead on a ‘magical mystery tour of H&F’ I managed to lead the group down not one, but two blind (well closed) alleys…

Following the minor detours and bonus running up to our second task we eventually arrived at the wonderful White City Adventure Playground and were met by Rob from the Play Assocation. He explained to the group that the Play Association were a non-profit charity based in Hammersmith & Fulham that deliver after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years and specialise in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and children with complex needs. Unfortunately with the summer nights well and truly drawing in it was too dark for the group to admire the outdoor adventure playground in all its glory but I can vouch for the fact it is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! A kids dream!

Skip to it

Our second task of the night was another simple one, load the skip they had ordered in which was currently sat empty and being collected Wednesday at 7am with bricks, old timber, and everything both to the side of the skip and in the outdoor storage unit. The group split off into different groups and began to fill the skip in double-quick time! A human chain was formed to get the old timber and storage unit completely emptied, much to Rob’s amazement! One final sweep by Lucy and pick-up by Michelle, Joyce, Johnny and Sarah ensured no scraps or Uno cards were left behind. Answering the old age question of “How many GoodGym-ers can you fit into an empty storage unit?” everyone piled into the unit for a brilliant group photo, party hats still mostly in-tact!

With the skip completely filled and the darkness upon us it was finally time to say goodbye to Rob and head back on the 3km run back to base. Once back at base Rachael waved everyone in with the tall feather-like plant she had very usefully run with from the first task – a very handy beacon throughout! After a quick stretch out and round-up of the night there was only one thing left to do…eat the delicious homemade banana cake and all the sweets! (….obviously in moderation!)

Hat's all folks!

Part I of the H&F 2nd birthday celebrations completed! What a great and fun double-task night. One skip that would’ve otherwise gone back empty filled to the brim and a garden a lot less weedy and overgrown. Apologies for getting you back a ‘touch late’ but I hope you all enjoyed it! Great running and a big welcome to the ladies from FOX and the National Geographic: Alice, Imogen and Mitzi – 6km run, 2 tasks completed, awesome stuff! And thank you very much to Jason for as ever being my trusty back-marker and to Ana for leading one group back and Jo for providing the navigational expertise back from the second task. Have a lovely week and hopefully see you on the group run next week!

Next week we’re back to Askham Court to help out in the residents community gardens – sign-up here.