THREE TASKS!

We enjoyed a whopping three tasks tonight in Tower Hamlets!

Isabelle headed up our new task, to see Khanh & co at the Columbia Road Youth Hub. Writes Isabelle, "The team was split into two: 5 of us were given a leafleting task, to head out to local areas where the youngsters the centre is targeting, can be found. The remaining runners were tasked with painting the centre, to the sound of Sean Paul. And, IMO, this was one of the best tasks we've been on!"

Yes, having visited the Hub several times, I can confirm it's a lively place, with a huge drive to do what it says on the tin. And we must thank our great friend, Bablu Miah, of Trapped in Zone One who created this task for us, and got the ball rolling with Khanh. Thanks, Bablu!

Meanwhile, Leo took another big team to Cranbrook Community Food Garden where new task owner Freya had lovingly prepared a lot of leaflets and amazing maps for the team to distribute around the estate. The team were busy in and out of the garden, and dropping fliers and blitzing all the work laid out for them in record time.

And I led a smaller crew to Catherine at the Parkview Estate where she too had lovingly prepared hundreds of crocus bulbs to be planted, and had pruners ready for raspberry bush trimming too! Our small team of four blitzed the gardening tasks and had a little time for some post-race stretching in the squished office space too.

TWO TEACHERS...

And so we headed back to the base where the others had already congregated and Sarah had got the team off to a splendid fitness start with high knee jogs and jumping jacks! Lucky team - two teachers! We continued our fitness work in the rain, eeking out every last fitness component ("One last nice calf stretch") until Charlotte, speaking for the entire team, wailed, "Can we stop now, Laura? We're freezing.") Good call, Charlotte.

Ad so we headed inside to warm up and prep for the pub.

Big thankyou's & shout-out's tonight...

Tonight we must thank our wonderful task force yet again. Leo and Isabellewho enabled our three tasks to go ahead. Your Task Force team are always in the wings, advising, planning, and helping lead and carry the area. We get a growing number of task requests and it's because of our Task Force we're able to fulfill them all.

Thanks too to the entire group tonight, for getting so much done in horrid weather and with such big smiles. You're amazing, and it's no wonder our task owners speak so highly of you.

Thanks for our report contributors, Isabelle and Leo; to Bryon for pun-assistance and to Katherine, Leo and Isabelle for pics.

Thanks to Leo for leading and heading up tonight's social.

Let's not forget a huge shout-out and pat on the back to our very own Martin who tonight reached his 100th deed. Thank. You.

And a big warm welcome to Jessica, whose first run it was. You did splendidly and we hope very much you'll join us next time!

And what's coming up...

• Next week we're back to the Royal London to join Nancy & co for some more hospital high jinx.

• And don't forget the GG legend that is Danny Cane has lined up some fabulous race volunteering for you, in exchange for free race places! Yes, you can join Danny’s new Hackney Half Broadway market aid station or volunteer with him at one of the Adidas City Run bag checks.

Right, that’s me for another week. Stay dry, everyone; enjoy your week, take the greatest of care, and hopefully we’ll see you very, very soon.

Two teams; two truly magnificent tasks

Two teams headed out to two tasks tonight, with two totally brilliant task owners.

Our wonderful task force member Leo was heading up the big crew to Limehouse Town Hall, where the fabulous Brian had all manner of tasks for the GoodGymers to enjoy.

Writes Leo, "We set off promptly, very aptly led by Dave choosing to take us on Kat's special scenic route making excellent progress to Limehouse Town Hall, where we were met by task owner Brian who was ready & prepped for our arrival with a tasty line up of tasks to tackle.

The 23 of us split into two groups, with Chi especially keen to tackle the moving of the magnificent bar. He was joined by a group so enthusiastic, it was deconstructed and carefully transferred to the other end of the room in no time.

The rest of their group turned their hand to moving the stage in the opposite direction (yes, you read that right). It was exceptionally well coordinated, with the group making it look very easy despite MANY moving parts.

Remaining runners were tasked with cleaning some particularly grubby skirting boards; removing errant wall plugs and covering up the resulting holes with sufficient polyfilla to prepare the walls for a future paint job. The group enjoyed their tasks: in particular, Tracey, Becky & Emily seemed to get an inordinate amount joy out of cleaning (and the results were blindingly good).

As time drew to a close, we gathered for a photo behind the majestic (and successfully reassembled) bar before some very appreciative closing words from Brian to send us on our way back to the hotel - another fun and fulfilling evening."

Meanwhile, I took a small team of 5 to the local Parkview estate where Catherine had boxes of leaflets for us, lovingly prepared by the small TRA for the residents, with not just the monthly newsletter but also details of the exciting Climate Conversation Cafe taking place this weekend, in the gorgeous Glasshouse community centre. We split into two teams and blitzed the estate before heading to beautiful Bonner Gate in neighbouring Victoria Park for some fab fitness, including Bulgarian split squats against the railings and pavement planks.

We all met back at the hotel, to finish the chocolate and biscuits, discuss our upcoming GoodGym plans and say cheerio for the week. It was a thoroughly lovely February night.

Welcome's. And thank you's

A massive big warm welcome to tonight's wonderful first time runners, Mags, Patrick, Emily, Kieran.

And a huge thanks to task force supremo, Leo, who led the big team and big task; to our photographers, Leo, Charlotte, Suraj, Chi, Becky and Kat - you've helped create a lovely report! Thank you.

Also, a big shout out this week to our other task force hero, Isabelle, who on Saturday reached 50 good deeds. Thank you for all you do, Isabelle, and congratulations.

What's coming up in the next week...

Now, next week we're back to the Poets Corner Community Garden and back to Michael and Margaret at Hollybush, who've been in touch to say they need you. So come on board for that, why don't you.

And don't forget the Mini-Mermaids incredible mission this Thursday. Honestly, it's a game-changer, so make your excuses, take an extra long lunch hour and come and join Leo and the crew for some fablous, feelgood fitness cheerleading.

Well, until next time, take the very best of care: have a great week, stay warm (won't be long before the clocks go forward), stay well and stay in touch.

A tremendous January turnout

It was a lovely sized group of 39 who divided into two terrific tasks tonight for our first Group Run of 2020.

We met in our intimate little hotel room, warm and welcoming, before heading outside to say hello to our new runners, run through our tasks for tonight, give the January Challenge a big shout-out (thank you, Kat & Becki and warm up for the evening's activity.

Two tasks, of course

Task force member Lieke was leading a group of 8 to help Cranbrook Community Food Garden clear a huge Christmas leaf backlog, while I was leading a team to Oxford House where task owner Jess had a big variety of tasks ready for us.

The Cranbrook crew cleared and bagged leaves and repaired netting from vegetable beds, and generally worked tirelessly with task owners Janet and Eileen until the whole garden was FIXED, before clocking up some extra miles, as they raced to join us at Oxford House in time for our fitness session.

Meanwhile over in Derbyshire St, the multiple Oxford House teams set about: litter-picking in front of the arts centre, scrubbing stone steps and window sills, and touching up all the walls of the building. Busy, busy bees.

...And two trainers

At 8 we met in the theatre for this evening's fitness session, where we were lucky enough to be joined by Chi, who started the runners off on a brilliant but tough warm up. He then handed over to me for a lower body and abs interval before re-taking the reins and blitzing abs and upper body a bit more.

Before we knew it, it was time to finish our last rep, and re-join Jess in the reception area for our cheerios and pics, before heading back to the hotel, for a final stretch for the evening.

An incredible night. What a start to the New Year.

Big, big January shout-out's

Big thank you's to our incredible task force who stepped in both over the weekend to lead the second task, and to help plan tonight's run, as the sign-ups just kept on climbing!

Thank you to Chi for fabulous fitness instruction, and for some wicked pics. And thank you to Lieke and Isabelle for fab pics too.

And a HUGE warm welcome to our new runners, Pauline, Alison, Alex, Ellinor, Mathew, Jess and Lucy,. Thank you for being SUCH an asset to our first run of 2020, for doing so much, and for the smiles and fun. Please, please join us again soon.

What's coming up...

On Saturday, we're running an additional session. Yep, this is one for all our regulars, but is especially for our new runners! So, if you're new, or reading this and contemplating joining us, this is your session. It's one of our longest established tasks, it's an amazing gardening task and we have a full and varied fitness session to follow, catering to all fitness abilities, so please do sign up.

Until then, have a great week, and hope to see you very, very soon.

23 runners headed to the phenomenal community arts charity Stitches in Time this evening to help the team out with a huge variety of fabulous tasks!

We headed down to Limehouse in two groups: Bryon headed up the runners who wanted to enjoy a speedier pace, while I led the crew who’d opted for a more conservative pace (although according to Charlotte, it was a fairly speedy pace too, that had been mis-sold. #youhadonejobLaura).

HOW many tasks?

On arrival at the task, we formed multiple different teams of the following:

• Dismantling shelving units in the studio
• Dismantling benches in the hall
• Shuttling large panels of wood to the basement
• Filling in wall plaster
• Sorting through haberdashery rubbish
• Drilling wood floors
• Clearing and cleaning the performance hall
• Scrubbing and cleaning in the studio

…And that’s just off the top of my head.

It was a brilliantly organised task by the Stitches in Time team, Paul, Esther, Brian and Sam, who had new tasks ready and waiting every time one job was finished. And all the work was accompanied by the best snack stash in East London: gingerbread men, Chupa Chups, bananas and flapjacks. Truly something for everyone.

The town hall was a hive of activity and before we knew it, we were gathering by the resplendent staircase for our cheerios and some fabulous pics.

MORE running

We headed back to base, beautifully navigated by Kat, via churchyards, and the quietest streets – thank you, Kat! What another glorious GoodGym night, full of fun, productivity, and fitness gold. Well done everyone.

Shout-outs aplenty this evening…

Thanks to our wonderful task force, who help behind the scenes so much, from route-planning to run-leading, making new GoodGym TH adventures possible. Thanks to Kat, for backmarking, route navigation this evening. Thanks to Bryon for stepping in over the weekend to help plan, and for leading the faster runners. Thanks to Isabelle for brilliant route-planning and navigation.

Thanks too to Philippa for extensive route-planning on arrival at the hotel; thanks to Leo for great pics. Thanks to Jo for brilliant and steady back-marking.

And a huge big welcome to our first-time-Tower Hamlets runners, Philippa and Flavia – please do come back and see us again very soon.

What’s coming up…

Guess what? You don’t have to wait until Monday to do it all again! No – our Lieke is running another Community Mission at one of our best established tasks, Cranbrook Community Food Garden, this Saturday. You’re in for a treat – Janet and her dedicated team have got all manner of gardening tasks lined up for you, from digging over veg beds to painting benches. Do come and join in this fab task if you can.

And next Monday we’re headed to Meath Gardens to try out our new outdoor lights as we help Joanna with some digging and other serious gardening projects! Come join in the fun?

Until then, have a really good week won’t you.