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Nick went on a group run
Mon 24th Oct 2022 at 6:45pm
Islington Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
In between sporadic rain showers, Area Activator Simon caught up with a top crew of Goodgymmers (a mix of regulars and new starters- welcome Michelle!) outside the Arsenal Community Hub for our weekly group run. After a count-off to introduce each other (and to show off our favourite firework sounds to celebrate Diwali!), we ran approximately 1 mile together towards Elizabeth House Food Hub on Hurlock Street (utilising some hills on route!).
Upon our arrival, we found that Ernestas, Natalie and Natasha were already helping the super busy food bank crew with their half term operations. Elizabeth House Food Hub has been set up to act like a supermarket of donated produce that can be affordably purchased by the immediate community. During the holidays, more families and individuals require additional assistance with deliveries, so Goodgym Islington were asked whether would lend a hand. Half of our runners paired up together to deliver these essential parcels to households across the borough. The rest of our team assisted with cleaning and closing up the tables used for the food bank, and with loading any additional produce back into the kitchen (after some quality control). We finished off the evening with some recycling, and breaking down food boxes for collection.
The Elizabeth House Food Hub core yeam were absolutely thrilled with the amount of work completed within such a short amount of time, and asked is to definitely return in the future! Well done all!
Our final event of the night was the introduction of our monthly "Emirates Stadium Time Trial"- a personal test run with your fellow Goodgymmers to see how quickly we can run the 700m loop of the Emirates Concourse. It was so great to bring back this "Paul Bown" tradition to Goodgym Islington again.
NEWS
Highbury Quadrant Soil Shifting
On Wednesday 26th November, Area Activator Simon and Ernestas of Highbury Ward will be helping Octopus Community Network with filling up some newly constructed flower planters around the Highbury Quadrant Estate.
Sign up here to get involved:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/highbury-quadrant-bonus-shingle-and-soil-shifting
VI Guide Running at Emirates Stadium with Achilles International
Every Thursday, Achilles International will lead a group run for visually impaired runners and local guides at Paddington Rec Track or The Emirates Stadium. This week, we will be returning to North London for our session. Open to potential guide of all abilities, and for anyone up for a group run!
Halloween Hampstead Heath Headtorch Group Run
On Friday 28th November, AA Simon will be leading his annual Halloween headtorch run around Hampstead Heath- starting at the Bull and Gate Pub in Kentish Town, and looping around the gorgeous trails of North London. Costumes and trail shoes are advised, but not essential! Social group running pace will be the aim for the evening- please bring your own headtorch if possible.
Caledonian Park Junior parkrun Half Term Holiday Help
On Sunday 30th November, the lovely event directors of junior parkrun in Caledonian Park have asked if any of our Goodgym crew would be available to help with course marshalling, time keeping, tail walking or barcode scanning for their free weekly timed run for 4-14 year old runners. Volunteer numbers from parents and usual assistants tend to be down due to the half term break, so any help would be awesome!
Penn Road Gardens Volunteer Open Morning
After Junior parkrun, the resident volunteers of Penn Road Gardens will be hosting their monthly open morning for composting, mulching and garden maintenance near Holloway Road. A wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning with a potential Goodgym double task!
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/penn-road-gardens-open-morning-october
Nick signed up to a group run.
Mon 24th Oct 2022 at 6:45pm
This wonderfully busy community food hub has asked our crew to help out with neighbourhood deliveries!
Read moreNick went on a group run
Mon 17th Oct 2022 at 6:45pm
Islington Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
As the sun went down across the Islington borough, our Goodgym crew caught outside the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road, ready for our weekly group run. Great to see a mix of returning runners and new faces (congratulations to Paul after his recent marathon exploits!).
We ran together parallel to Holloway Road, and over to Compton Gardens past Union Chapel (a Saturday morning gardening community mission soon to listed on the site- watch this space!). After dropping down from Upper Street and Packington Street, we met up with Will, the head gardener for Packington and Riverside Gardens opposite the Arc Centre, and the rest of our Goodgym team.
Our main objective for the evening was to clear some large heaps of overgrown weeds and shrubs from the roots from 5 trees within Riverside Garden. These trees were originally donated by the Chelsea Flower Show, so we really want to make sure that they are well prepared for the Winter months. Meanwhile, Patrick, Francesca and Nick donned their headtorches and clip lights, and assisted with litter picking around the perimeter of the park (particularly in the bushes nearest to Regent's Canal- lots of bottles and cans rescued from this lovely green space!).
Within 45 minutes of graft, working with portable lights, we successfully completed our garden maintenance help, and really made a difference. After a catch-up chat, our team set off back home via bike, tube and on foot, and Area Activator Simon lead a group back to The Emirates via an alternate route past Essex Road, through Highbury Fields and across Drayton Park. Wonderful stuff- Thank you for joining us, everyone!
Upcoming Goodgym Islington Events
GROUP RUN- Elizabeth House Food Hub Half Term Helpers
Next Monday (24th October), we will be leading our weekly group run (starting at The Arsenal Community Hub) over to one of our favourite community mission spots. Elizabeth House Food Hub have requested our help with delivering additional supplies and parcels to the local community over the school holidays. A smashing way to spend a Monday evening, and one that will make a huge difference to many people.
Sign up here to get involved:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-elizabeth-house-food-hub-half-term-helpers
Mildmay Community Centre Evening Gardening Workout
Area Activator Simon will be helping Head Gardener Dom on Friday evening (21st October) with an evening of weed whacking and foliage clearing (using electric strimmers and rakes) on the sloped gardens in this unique carbon neutral Passiv Haus project.
Really good fun! Sign up here:
Halloween Headtorch Run on Hampstead Heath!
Back by popular demand, Area Activator Simon will be leading this year's Halloween headtorch run around Hampstead Heath. Starting and ending at The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, we will run about 10km around this gorgeous green space in the dark, following the lights from our fellow runners! Friday 28th October, from 6.30pm- all abilities and running paces welcome- this is a social run.
This will be an absolute blast! Sign up here:
GROUP RUN- Thornhill Square Gardens SPOoOoky edition!
Yes! Goodgym Islington will be out for our weekly Group Run on the most terrifying night of the year- Halloween!
We will set off from Arsenal Community Hub at 6.45pm, and run together to Thornhill Square Gardens. Costumes recommended!
and afterwards we plan to enjoy our monthly social with a trip to The Horatia on Holloway Road for delicious Bao baps, traditional pub food and a full range of refreshments.
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/spooooky-social-post-group-run-trip-to-the-horatia
Highbury Quadrant Soil and Shingle Shifting
On Wednesday 26th October (6.30pm onwards), Area Activator Simon and Frannie from Octopus Community Network will be out at Highbury Quadrant Estate Gardens, filling a collection of newly constructed flower planters with soil, ready for winter bulbs.
Sign up here to help out:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/highbury-quadrant-bonus-shingle-and-soil-shifting
Achilles International Guide Running Group Runs at The Emirates Stadium
For the past few years, AA Simon has been coordinating guide running sessions in Green Park and at Paddington Rec Track on Thursday evenings. This year, we have been able to introduce our sessions to The Emirates Stadium concourse over the Winter months (every fortnight).
We will be meeting our runners at Arsenal tube station on Thursday 27th October at 6pm. Guides of all abilities are welcome- we approach the evening as a group running session, but with visually impaired runners included!
Sign up here to get involved:
Nick signed up to a group run.
Mon 17th Oct 2022 at 6:45pm
Helping The Arc Community Centre in Angel with their ambitious planting project!
Read moreNick went on a group run
Mon 22nd Jul 2019 at 6:45pm
Wandsworth Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
It was GoodGym Monday Magic last night in Wandsworth as 48 runners covered just under 5km, helped out at a residential home for hearing impaired, talked about our happy places and did a mexican squat wave to the sound of bagpipes!
A big GoodGym Wandsworth welcome to all our first time runners tonight - put your hands together for:
The night began with some bits of news, including
Cheering Helen after her epic 80 mile night ride from London to Eastbourne and still found it in her legs to come along to GoodGym!
And all the parkrunners smashing that 5k across the city
Fancy a lovely trail run in a National Trust park? Then check out this event in Morden Hall Park this Saturday. It's even free!
If you fancy a free timed 10k from Chiswick Bridge, then check out this race which is held every last Sunday of the month. There are even spot prizes!
We then crowded into the nearby carpark to do our warm up while our normal area is having something complicated done to it, and got our heart rates up ready for the run ahead. We also had a discussion about our happy places - there are a lot of nature lovers among you - the forest, by water, the beach and gardens were very popular. As were beds, Tooting Lido and the pub!
After a very warm run to Harding House, a specialist care home in Wandsworth that provides 24-hour support to deaf and/or deafblind men and women over the age of 18. The people they support have a range of diverse and sometimes complex needs, including learning and physical disabilities, mental ill-health and low emotional confidence, and they have a big garden to enjoy which was looking a bit overgrown.
With such a huge number of us, we got started with all the jobs including cutting back bushes, weeding, sorting sheds and watering, and it didn't take long for the place to look a lot more welcoming. So after 25 minutes of work, we waved goodbye and headed over to Wandsworth Common for our fitness session.
Because it was sunny, and I'm not going to see your lovely faces for a couple of weeks, it was running games week, which started off with a truly epic game of British Bulldog. It was good natured and gentle but very real carnage out there on that common, which saw a few individuals battle it through to the final stage with Alexander M very almost making it to the finish line! Next up was Squat Squat Goose, with Matt valiantly sprinting but just missing his spot not once but twice! Finally we attempted a huge multiplying group squat which finished in an enormous squatting mexican wave - check out the video here! It was doing good and having fun from start to finish...
Next week run leader Chris is leading you guys down to wash mobility buses and other jobs at the brilliant Leonard Cheshire disability charity. Sign up here to get your weekly dose of doing good and getting fit! I'm looking forward to getting back to you in a couple of weeks time. Until then, have fun, do good and run happy everyone!
Hide comments (1)
Tue 23rd Jul 2019 at 12:16pm
Well done everyone - that was a hot run. Big thanks Ana!!
Nick signed up to a group run.
Mon 22nd Jul 2019 at 6:45pm
Nick went on a group run
Mon 15th Jul 2019 at 6:45pm
Wandsworth Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
A beautiful summer's evening, lot of lovely faces both returning and new, and a task in Paradise (cooperative garden...!) all added up to a fantastic night of GoodGymming!
Welcome to:
- Emily, Imogen, Amy, Natalie, Ashlyn and Maurice, who all came for their first GoodGym run last night!
And in case you need a reminder of the news we started off the night with, then here it is:
If you're looking for a beautiful 10k trail run then check out the Morden Park Trail Run - every last Sunday of the month in this lovely National Trust park - it's even free!
We've got an aid station at the British 10K on Sunday 21st July from 7.30am - volunteers get a free place for the Oxford Half, Hackney Half or the next London 10K. Sign up here - today is your last day to sign up so get in there quick!
Well done to Oliver who did the Shoreditch 10km on Saturday, to all those who volunteered there, and to all our parkrunners too!
After a warm up outside and a quick survey on our favourite breakfast dishes - eggs well and truly topped the pops, but there were also votes for waffles, rice crispies and of course bacon sarnies - we set off for Paradise Cooperative garden, and arrived 2.5km later to find chairman John waiting for us with a list of jobs.
This organisation aims to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening, and has transformed an overgrown and derelict site owned by Wandsworth prison into a beautiful space which includes an orchard, poly-tunnels, raised vegetable beds, a fish-pond, bush-craft area and community celebration area with pizza oven and running water. All this takes hard work though, so we are happy to lend a bit of GoodGym muscle!
The first group got straight on with shovelling gravel and woodchip, unloading bags of clay, shifting pallets and logs - all amazing upper body work! Meanwhile, the weeding team tackled the raised beds and paths and watered, while the third group spread the new pond liner and started filling it.
After 40 minutes loads of jobs were done, and John said that we had achieved a month's worth of work for them in our time there - many hands make light work! For all that effort we were rewarded with beautiful fresh basil, carrots and herbs which as well as being delicious, made for an unusual and highly fragranced run back!
But first we stopped at Wandsworth Common to do our fitness session - I had planned one that featured running drills, but the tasks at the garden had overtaken us a bit, so this was replaced by some high octane tabata instead. It was only 4 minutes of hard work split into 20 second segments, but it was tough! The idea is that you raise your heart rate during this time which increases aerobic performance and burns fat effectively. Those frog jumps though...
We finished off the evening with a motivational hill sprint led by Chi, and some stretches back at base. Next week we're going to Harding House, a residential home for deaf people to help sort out their garden. You can find out more and sign up here. Until then, have a week of happy running GoodGym!
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