A good-sized group!

What a turnout for our last group run of 2018! A great sized group of us made our way at a speedy pace to our favourite city farm just over a mile away from our hotel meeting point.

Ha y & herding

On arrival, task owner Tom wasted no time in telling the team what was expected: mucking out the goat pen and herding goats. As you would expect in the middle of East London. And what fun it was.

The teams completed tasks ahead of time as usual, and so proceeded to the second pen to do the same all over again. Floors were swept, bins emptied, hay wheeled and piled high into compost bays, goats herded (sort of - they did nearly escape despite being surrounded by 28 runners. #YouHadOneJob).

We were all soon gathering for tonight's fitness session, The Great GoodGym Glute Off, where Chi and I led the runners through a fine selection of glute exercises leaving no buttock area untouched. The runners performed amazingly, none more so than Alfie, who effortlessly whizzed through speedy reps of pistol squats putting even the most decent of our infinitely shallow-er single leg squats to shame.

And then we congregated in the barn where Tom suggested a nice position on a neighbouring ledge, the other side of the stable, for he & I to take a couple of pics. After some nail-biting gate-climbing, we were soon perched on, well, the wall, it seemed, but we got some good pics.

We then promptly said our cheerios and headed back to the hotel, where Chi had brilliantly brought a selection of some of the finest spirits for us to savour alongside Sarah's delicious mince pies.

This week’s shout-outs

So a great big hello, and welcome, to Pistol Squat King Alfie,whose first GG run it was, and a massive hello to Debs and Paul, who joined us while visiting from Bristol. Lovely to see you both.

Thanks to Chi for delivering a fab fitness session, and for organising and supplying the most post-fitness fun we’ve had in a long time.

Thanks to Leanne for backmarking this evening, and a big thank you to everyone who brought food and snacks for tonight’s social.

And so to 2019

...when we'll be kicking off the New Year with a brand new task! Details are here.

Until then, have the happiest of Christmases, a wonderful rest, and I really hope to see you in the New Year.

21 runners on a damp December evening

A good-sized group headed back to The Royal London today to get stuck into a variety of very different tasks...

Perfect planning by Barts Volunteers team

Wonderful planning in advance by Nancy, and her team Marufa and Bernadette, meant that every last bit of kit and supervision was ready to go by the time we arrived.

A whopping FIVE tasks!

Nancy took 6 runners off to the volunteers office to give it a much needed coat of paint, while Marufa took 4 runners to various wards to hand out newspapers to patients. Bernadette took 4 runners back to the dementia wards, where the lucky runners, who'd previously completed the training at the hospital, got to chat and sing to appreciative patients. A fourth group of 4 runners were tasked with wrapping a hefty 26 staff presents.

It wasn't long before the reliable, productive runners had completed all tasks well ahead of time. The present-wrappers and paper-distributors gathered outside the volunteers office and proceeded to get stuck into an impromptu litter-pick. This task was soon hijacked by Chi, who kindly stepped in to offer a fitness session. Gloves were temporarily removed and the runners wasted no time in hitting the wet tarmac for the ultimate ab attack.

Great British Squat Off

And then we were gathering in reception for our cheerio pics, and another impromptu fitness session: while the runners queued for some last minute form filling-in, Chi and I challenged the team to a Squat Off ("Whose squat version is tougher - mine or Chi's?") and then we were racing back to base for some final stretching, tonight targeting psoas and biceps femoris.

What a night! What productivity! What a smiley, energising start to the week!

Thank you’s and shout-out’s…

Fantastic to have new runners Harriet and Laura join us this evening – well done for accomplishing so much on your first run, and we really hope to see you very, very soon.

Thanks to Chi for leading our impromptu abs fitness session on the steps of the volunteers building, and for tonight's wickedly cool pun.

And congratulations to task force member Leanne who hit 50 good deeds (two weeks ago…ahem).

Take a look at our exciting December line-up…

We've got some brilliant additional activities lined up for you to get involved with this month...

• We're making lanterns for the Aldgate Winter Parade, with Aldgate Community Events, this Wednesday evening, from 6.45pm. Task force member Becky is leading this, and the details are here,

• ...while on Sunday afternoon I’m heading to Cranbrook Community Food Garden from 3-5 to give a hand clearing leaves in advance of a big bulb delivery (and we’ve been invited to their Christmas party, which is happening on the same day). Details and sign-up for that are here.

• Meanwhile, next Monday sees us heading to our last trip of the year at Weavers Adventure Playground, where no doubt Alex will have us tearing our hair out with various furniture-building tasks, while Danny will be leading the HIP HIP HOORAY workout at the end of the task, so do come and show your hip flexors some love in this strength and flexibility session. Sign up today to come and be part of our penultimate Monday run of the year!

Okay, that's it from me this week. Have a great week, everyone, and really hope to see you soon.