Mon 31st Jul 2017 at 6:30pm
Wandsworth Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
What a year it has been. Last night 50 runners celebrated 51 runs, which is a colossal 102 hours of doing good, in Wandsworth. We've been to schools, cancer charities, community gardens, food banks, independent theatres and refugee support groups. We've covered an enormous 295 kilometres together, have run races, made wonderful friends and have done too many squats to count. You've made GG Wandsworth the wand-erful place it is, gang!
We had a whole bunch of ace new runners join us to celebrate, people of GoodGym give a huge cheer to Steph, Nick, Georgia and Cathy! There was some lovely GG tourism - hello Patrick, Katie, Pritesh and Andy - and we even shared our anniversary with birthday boy Dan. So much good stuff!
To mark this special run we were heading back to our very first task at the Katherine Low Settlement, an amazing charity that works to tackle poverty and build stronger communities. They run a range of community projects to support children, older people and refugee communities in Wandsworth. And we love them! But first we had some warming up to do. After a few dynamic exercises we found out what makes everybody happy. From cheese, to puppies, Goodgym to birthdays, we really a cheerful bunch.
Like a small do gooding army, we set off for KLS and smashed out the 2k run in no time. While half of us headed inside to wash down walls, deep clean the kitchen, clear the cellar and scrub windows, the other half got busy outside with a fun fitness session. We played planking lions, pass the parcel, and a moderately successful musical workout to Squats and Shots. We swapped teams, and then finished off the night with a monster game of Clusters.
To run back we divided up into three groups depending on pace, and finished up back the BAC at pretty much the same time. Great running, team. After a few stretches, there was a very beautiful collage of happy memories, and we headed up to the common to see off the night right - with a quiz and a picnic. Well done to the winners who won with a brilliant visual representation of GG Wandsworth, and also guessed the Snakes on a Plane quiz question correctly.
Here's to an amazing year - bring on Year Two of running and doing good in Wandsworth! Let's kick it off with a cracking run next week.
Tue 1st Aug 2017 at 2:41pm
Massive thanks Ana and Wandsworth - can't wait for the year ahead!
Tuesday 27th June 2017
Matt Walker has done their first good deed with GoodGym.
Matt is a now a fully fledged GoodGym runner. They've just run to do good for the first time. They are out there making amazing things happen and getting fit at the same time.
Mon 26th Jun 2017 at 6:30pm
Wandsworth Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
It's not always easy to take the plunge and try something new, which is why we should say a massive welcome and well done to Matt, Kate, Vicki and Jess who all made their GoodGym debut last night. Give them a cheer!
A hat tip also goes to all our park runners who raced on Saturday - if you haven't heard of them these are a series of free, timed 5k runs all over London which are super fun and great for improving your speed, ask if you have any questions! - and to Jack who did a 10k race on the weekend.
We kicked off the night with a nice, meaty session of dynamic warm ups. We also found out what everybody's super power of choice. As suspected, to be able to fly was top of the list, but we also had a lot of people wanting to breathe underwater, to have selective invisibility and to be able to teleport. We had a couple wanting 'Bernard's watch', but the prize goes to Emily, who would cleverly choose to be able to nab everybody's super powers in one go. Of course!
Tonight we had a respite from the heat of last week, thank goodness, and a nice 2k run down to Alderbrook primary school in Balham. We took a shortcut across the common, and with Will doing a bit of extra work figuring out where the entrance to the school was, we arrived in no time at all.
We were greeted by Linda, who led us to the three areas that needed painting. It was all really helpfully already set up for us, with piles of paintbrushes, sheets and buckets of paint ready and waiting. We divided up into three teams and set about giving the walls a lick of white paint. With 40 pairs of hands - that's 80 hands and no less than 400 fingers (don't even start with the whole 'a thumb is a finger but a finger is not a thumb thing') people - we got the job done in less than half an hour. Just enough time for Sophie, Luke and Alex to play the bat/bongo/music thing outside, and for Sarah, Jo and Matthew to give the climbing frame a go. A jolly good time was had by all.
We sprinted back up the hill to the common, where we found a nice little spot for our fitness session. This week we were attempting the 7-minute work out, which features all manner of exercises including jumping jacks, planks, press ups, high knees, and a whole squat-load more. Then we gave Will's military challenge ago, seeing how many press ups we could do in a minute. So tough!
Session smashed, all that was left was a quick run back to the BAC, with the Wandsworth playlist as our soundtrack, and a few stretches. What a group, what a night. Same again next week?