Love your neighbourhood? You bet.

A large group of energetic runners, keen to do their bit for de-littering their borough, made their way to beautiful Victoria Park, to join the Council’s fourth borough-wide Big Clean Up, part of its ‘Love Your Neighbourhood’ campaign.

We were met by Richard, our task owner for the evening, and Mark, from Veolia, who wasted no time in dispatching us to the four most needed corners of the area, after kitting us all out with hi-vis jackets, litter-pickers and gloves, after our extensive health and sfatey briefing.

Festival goodies

As usual the Good Gym-ers covered an extensive area, heading deep into the park only satisfied as their bin liners began to really fill up. Post-festival litter was in abundance: a rather- well-hidden pack of Guinness was found under a bush, along with several strange looking vials and some er… undergarments. Thank goodness for litter pickers. As usual, the runners were loathe to be pulled away from the work: “Come on, come on, you’re late back”, prompted the response, “But there are so many cigarette butts.” This sums up Monday night runs for me.

Masterclass: Catch Becky and Core Lucky Dip

Before we knew it, we were saying farewell to Richard and his team and heading to the wooden canoe, the area that was to be our fitness playground for the next 15 minutes. Tonight we were playing “Chase Becky.” Becky headed out for a lap of the park with a 10-second lead, then Bryon headed up the team to catch her, before everyone raced back to the wooden canoe to play Core Lucky Dip. First and last runners picked a number between 1-7 from a delightful list of exercises.Thanks to Yesh for unknowingly picking the two-toe-touch plank; Sarah for the butterfly crunch and Leanne for the speed-skater-squat-on-steroids. Yesh then headed the chase back out of the park.

…And so to the thankyou’s

What a very busy evening. Thank you’s in abundance tonight! Thank you to Bryon, such a terrific task force member, for leading both the run to the task, the chase for Becky and for behind-the-scenes planning.

Thank you to Becky for being a brilliantly fast and fun real life greyhound hare, and to Yesh for an impromptu last minute sprint.

Thank you to Leanne and Domitille for back-marking, and to Sarah and Leanne, our brilliant task force members, for welcoming our first-time runners, and to Gabrielle for much-needed delegating, and organising the start of the run, following an unanticipated DBS delay.

Welcome to new runners Eszter and Karris - well done on a busy, and big workout, night for your first run. We’d love to see you again soon.

It was a mega-blast tonight! Thank you all so much: for your ideas and input; for being such fun, for being such determined litter-pickers, for working so hard at your fitness…The list is endless, as always. I just can’t WAIT to do it all again next week: sign up for water-carrying at Meath Gardens - AKA The Human Chain Task - here.

*Apologies for the limited photos from tonight’s run – an unprompted, mid-task, IOS update meant we’ve just got before and after pics this week.

It was Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue tonight as two of our longest standing task owners needed some urgent summer help. Becky and I led two teams off to two of our local community gardens, before meeting at Meath Gardens to attack our abs in earnest.

I headed up the Cranbrook Crew of 10 who ran to the local community garden, nearly a mile from base, where the team shifted un-moveable vegetable beds; made trellises, shovelled compost, cleared and lifted wood; swept and sawed. Not much for 40 minutes then. Amazing stuff. And brilliantly project-managed tonight by task owner Eileen, who rewarded the team for their hard work with rhubarb and leeks.

Meanwhile, thanks to yours truly giving incorrect location information to Becky’s team, the Hollybush crew ran to the wrong garden via a spectacularly pretty little oasis, full of fascinating flora, including a thoroughly cool monkey puzzle tree. Every cloud and all that. They then went onto enjoy an extreme upper body workout as they dug, weeded and edged flower beds all to a retro background playlist (Tom Jones), courtesy of task owner Michael. The team headed promptly to Meath Gardens where, upon early arrival, task owners were swapped for taskmasters David and Steve, who insisted the best course of action when arriving early is to squeeze in a lap of the park.

The Cranbrook crew arrived, armed with gifts of leeks and rhubarb, and playlist and exercise list. I was concerned Environmental Health might put in an appearance as tonight we were planking and single leg bridg-ing to music. Jess did little to allay my fears as she confirmed that ‘you only need 9 people for it to be classed as a riot.’ (I have Googled this on returning to my desk, and it seems that 3 is the magic number. To be continued, Jess…). The team completed their core and glute-activation work brilliantly tonight. I don’t know what was in the air but as they sailed through the scorpion push-up, Pilates roll-up-on-steroids, the single leg bridge-with-pulse, a hovering side plank, the seated sprinter and then the crab dance, I did wonder if the class content tonight was too easy. Again, to be continued…

And so to the thankyou’s

Thank you to Becky our utterly brilliant task force member, for heading up the Hollybush team; for planning (both before and during the evening), and for the lovely report and pics – and for getting the team to Meath EARLY. Oh, and for finding the correct location. Ahem.

Thank you to Nadia, Alys, Jess and Mi for tonight’s pun, and for my putting up with my scathing dismissal of all your previous fab suggestions (“No – no good. What else?”).

And thanks to David for overseeing sign-in, and for getting the post-run stretching started.

...And welcome!

A big hello and welcome to Jess , who just got so stuck in on her first Group Run, it was amazing! I feel like you’ve been with us forever. Thanks for the hard, hard work (“Are you task-less? Come with me…”), for the fun, and for joining the team so effortlessly. I hope you’ll join us again really soon.

And the fun continues...

Right, two dates to get in the diary: On June 9th, we’re partnering with Mile End Parkrun for the pacing event - all speeds and levels much needed! Details and sign up are here.

…And next week, our Bank Holiday Bonanza, sees us popping to Aldgate to flyer for the Aldgate Square Festival, before running to Weavers for a wicked workout (running and resistance work – tick multiple fitness boxes with this one). And then Mother Kelly’s at 8:45pm for a quick Bank Holiday bevvy. More details and sign-up are here. Come for as much (or as little) of the evening as you fancy!

Okay, that's it from me. Well done for another truly brilliant night of multi-tasking, and I CAN'T WAIT to do it all again next week.

Let's hear it for warmer, lighter Monday evenings

It was a very enthusiastic group of 31 runners that headed out to popular task location, Weavers Adventure Playground, this evening, where task owner Alex was well prepared for a large group with a total of 4 different tasks. We had a lovely run to the task, with a quieter, more scenic route planned and led by Bryon.

Something for everyone...

On arrival, the team were divided up into: the heavy lifters (as it sounds); the saw-ers (is that a term?) for those fancying their hand at chopping up large planters; the soil crew (or 'the dirt group', as they became affectionately known during the evening) for shifting large amounts of soil, and the creative-thinking group for designing and building steps around the new slide. With team leaders appointed for each micro-task, Alex divided his time between all teams, project-managing and working with the lifters to shift heavy white goods from 'out back'.

The return of the Tower Hamlets signature snack

Half time means Lucky Dip Pick'n'Mix time here in Tower Hamlets - this week, most runners made a beeline for the HobNob bars, with the more health conscious snapping up raisins and - get this - oatcakes.

Pl-anks to Alex, for the use of the hopscotch area

...And so, freshly-fueled, we moved to our fitness session, where, as usual, abs proved to be a particular favourite area to focus on, so well done for putting up with the side-plank crunch and tuck'n'roll demands that were made on your abs, all on the slightly-softer-surface of the playground's hopscotch area. A particular well done to Rhys who, on his first GoodGym run, ended up planking on a hill (albeit accidentally in an attempt to stay at the back of the class), thereby giving his abs a double workout...

Happy customers

We headed back to base, both runners and task owner very much the very satisfied customer. A massive well done to you all, your efforts were clearly very much appreciated by Alex - as he explained, you really helped lighten the load this evening. Thank you for being such fun, so creative, and for persevering with all the tricky tasks, and for not stopping for a second for nearly 45 minutes.

Thank you shout-outs to Bryon for navigating and leading runs to and from the task; Dave for stats; Isha for being co-photographer and for some really fabulous pics, Leanne for brilliant backmarking, for always staying in sight, even with some last minute twists and turns!

...And a very warm welcome

...to our first time runners tonight, Savina, Rhys, Nick, Brian, Yesh, Georgina and to Mi (whose first time it was with the Tower Hamlets crew). You lifted, you lugged; you shovelled, you dug…You were amazing.

...and a very Happy 6th GG Birthday to Pete

Thank you to Pete who joined us for his sixth GG anniversary - was really lovely to see you on your GoodGym birthday.

Well done again Team Tower Hamlets - what a thoroughly upbeat, lively, satisfying and productive Monday night out that was, and I can't WAIT to do it all again next week!

It was a bright-eyed crew who hit the streets of Bethnal Green ready to take on a physically demanding task this evening.

We were over the moon to be warming-up in daylight - it seemed surreal to be working through our dynamic stretches on the Town Hall steps actually able to see one another.

On arrival at the Adventure Playground, Zaffer, our task owner for the evening, wasted no time in briefing and dispatching the group to several different outdoor tasks. One group was tasked with weeding, clearing and filling a statue-area with woodchip, while two other groups shovelled woodchip, before wheeling it over to a tyre-mound where an all-female crew proceeded to build a woodchip-and-tyre mountain, getting the outside play area reading for an exciting Easter holiday activity line-up.

The team rose to the challenge marvellously, loving the physically demanding nature of the task. Bryon, Steve, Dave and Alex impressively ran across a tyre-strewn terrain with loaded wheelbarrows. And Alex was on his first GG run too!

Well done to Nadia for impressively filling a bin-liner with some very patient litter-picking.

After 45 minutes of non-stop work, the crew assembled on the large hall porch for Part II of their evening's workout. "Shout out a body part" included requests for abs (thanks, Keri and elbows - naturally (thanks, Dave). After 15 minutes of hamstring curls, straight-leg dips, our fave forward gliding plank, Pilates roll-up, arms-to-palms (I'm sorry for arms-to-palms but you were BRILLIANT) and a single-leg bridge to finish ("Let's finish with a pulse...Just focus on the clouds") we took a slightly longer route back and finished with our time-honoured static stretches, everyone in fabulous spirits.

A big welcome to first time runners, JennyPolly Simona and Alex. You worked tirelessly, without stopping, it was an unbelievably brilliant first run from you all, and in such good humour - thank you.

Thanks to Leanne for such steady backmarking, and co-hotel-key keeping. Thank you to Isha for fabulous photos; Becky for precise, detailed running data and to Bryon for local knowledge know-how, and co-navigating.

Can't WAIT to do it all again next week. Sign up for next week's run here, when we'll be weeding and digging, and foraging for chocolate at Hollybush, before working it all off on Middleton Green when we recruit the glutes with a vengeance... See you there!