Having looked at the weather forecast in the morning I was slightly trepidacious that the weather would put some runners off, I mean who wants to run in torrential rain and snow?! Turned out I needn't have worried as a massive 27 GoodGym runners in Hammersmith & Fulham were keen to do precisely this in order to run to do good in their community. It was great to see so many new faces, a big welcome to, Alice, Georgina and Claire who all joined us for their first GoodGym run. Hope to see you all again very soon, hopefully the weather will be kinder next time! It was also lovely to have along GoodGym tourists, Mathilde, India, Jen and Africa who joined my wonderful regulars on a very cold winter night with adverse weather conditions! Thank you all for coming along.

Since the rain was coming down with some force we sheltered under the Better Gym car park for the intros and a quick round-up of the week’s news.

The news this week, a run stop shop

1. JANUARY CHALLENGE 2019! - We're into the last few days of the January Challenge. The GoodGym targets of 6,000 good deeds and 80,000 kms run are in touching distance, will we make it?! As a group we hit BOTH our 2019 targets for good deeds and distance run last week and have a trophy for each as a reward. We're also sitting very nicely at the top of Division D. Awesome work H&F team, great team effort! Track the January Challenge progress here.
2. The Vitality Big Half (10th March) - GoodGym has some £10 community entry places for the Big Half. If you're interested, please email bighalf@goodgym.org Deadline for applications is Wednesday 30th January. Names will be drawn at random from those who want a place.
   
3. London-wide GoodGym social - Thursday 7th February at the The Prince Arthur Pub, near Old Street - Celebrate GoodGym, Heroes of the months, January IPOTM (International Pun of the Month), IPOTY (International Pun of the Year) and January Challenge Results! Sign up here.
   

Lots of racing at the weekend too, big well done to Tom and Chris in the very muddy and hilly Maverick Trail Race down in West Sussex and to Johnny and Sarah who ran the Morden Hall Trust10 Trail Run AND ran their 50th different parkrun! Impressive! Well done all, great running.

Following a name and number count we headed out into the heavy rain to get ourselves warmed-up (well sort of!) and headed up on our short 2km run up to St Mungo's Reconnection Post. Stopping briefly for some jumping jacks and squats when waiting to cross the roads we arrived in super quick time at St Mungo's Reconnection Post and were met by one of the Reconnection Workers, Marcia. As Marcia located the keycard for the room that we were going to be working in, I briefly explained to group about the valuable services St Mungo's Reconnection Post provide to vulnerable and homeless adults with complex needs in the community, such as the 'No Second Night Out' service – as well as providing 25 beds, they also work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community or repatriated back to their country.

All-sorts of clothing, snow many clothes!

Tonight's brief sounded simple but in reality was quite a challenge. We had been asked to help organise one of their store rooms which had become filled full to bursting, quite literally, of a fantastic array of donated clothes by the public and previous residents. A few weeks ago we made a start on the room but due to the sheer volume of clothes and bags within the room had only been able to get so far. This week we were back to (hopefully....maybe) finish the job off!

A different kettle of squish

One bonus of tonight's task was that it was inside, however, we were very limited with the space in which to work and with 27 GoodGym bodies we had to be both creative and extra efficient with all our sorting. With the group divided up between two rooms and along the corridoor it was time to sort. Jason provided a brilliant contact point between the two rooms and corridoor, and even participated in the well known challenge, just how many coats can one person carry?! With excellent co-ordination, communication and all round teamwork it wasn't long before the room started to look clearer and the shelves fuller with neatly folded and stacked clothing - plus we could now see the floor! Half an hour flew by as always and the task came to a nice natural end point, for now!

Too clothes for comfort

Since we could now get in the room I decided this was the perfect opportunity for a group photo, despite it being a tight space everyone got up clothes and personal, well neatly packed in and we managed a great team photo in the room we had sorted. Andrew also providing a brilliant photo op - check out the photo of him sat on the throne (chair) admiring the wonderfully sorted and folded clothes now on the shelf and in boxes. In just two half an hour bursts it's amazing what you have all achieved, the room is unrecognisable from our first visit - well done all, great work!

Check out the transformation...

Snow joke, the weather really was that bad!

We said our goodbyes to Marcia and headed back outside into the driving cold rain. With many shivering and with snow just starting to fall we unanimously decided to forgo the fitness session this week and head straight back to base. With base only a short 2km away it wasn't long before we were all back and having a quick stretch off inside the warmth of the Better Gym Leisure Centre. Cold and damp to the core it was time to call it a night and we headed off for our monthly social which comprised of drinks, food, chats and general merriment - a perfect way to end the night.

Thank you all for coming along, hope you had fun and have now all warmed-up and dried off! Have a great week. Sign up for next week's run here.

Thank you to Jason for backmarking and many thanks to Catriona for the extra photos and for organising the social!

10 tough GoodGymers braved the sub zero temperatures to spread their creative wings with s Spray paining task with St Abdrews Yourh club and a gym clean.

Great session guys!! Really great to have you along for the group run! A bit different that our normal physical Wednesday task we go super creative!

A chance to learn and spray paint with the amazing young people of St Andrews youth club which is still going strong after 153 years of providing a safe, fun and friendly place for Westminster’s young people.

Grabbing a canvas are stencilling, free painting watch and learning from all the St Andrews members, be shout out to Sven who helped us not get in too much of a mess showing us the spray painting ropes.

Some brilliant designs produced with some awesome skylines and GG logo’s which we got to keep and added a little to the run back wind resistance!

With just enough time to give the very well used gym a little clean so it is fresh for the members to increase their fitness.

Rounding us up nicely to 5k for the evening we bounded back to base keeping the pace strong to keep warm!

Thanks for coming along and hope to see you for the Starter session on Saturday Lunch time in Little Venice and next Wednesday for our Homeless donation run around town.

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

16 of GoodGyms finest ran 7k around Westminster to get Easter started by give out 200 Hot Cross Buns to the boroughs homeless community.

Starting the session like it was raining Hot Cross Buns! Thank you for everyone bringing along such generous food donations!

With bun mountain needing taming we had to get creative as someone (me, sorry!!) didn’t bring enough bags. So we paired up the buns and armed ourselves with 200 sweet smelling Easter inspired food ammunition!!

Getting into our stride as we navigated our way on our nearly 7k route around town. Keeping a eagle eye out for those in need of a little nutrition and a smile on the chilling fake Spring evening.

Making our way through Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Charring Cross, Big Ben, Victoria and Green Park spreading the Hot Cross Bun love far and wide!!

Everyone we met seemed really appreciative of our efforts and definitely had a little smile on their faces as we run by.

Thank you all so much for coming along and making it such a positive evening. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Be great to see you next week for our visit to the American Church to make beds up for the final Homeless Shelter of the Winter season.

Next month (18th April) on our Food Run we will be giving out Easter eggs. Be great to have you along for that run to!

Smooth Running

Joel

p.s Thanks to my wife for her first ever pun (only asked her 200 times)