Some observant regular attendees of Camden Goodgym might notice that Trainer Ben looked a bit different this week.

That is because this week’s session was actually led by Trainer Simon of Goodgym Islington, popping over to do some Goodgym tourism (we set off at 6.45pm every Monday from the Emirates Stadium if you were interested…).

14 intrepid runners met us at the St Pancras Living Centre last night, including John Shirley, who was celebrating his 5th year anniversary as a Goodgym runner (his first ever run was a Camden task in Chalk Farm, which involved lots of heavy lifting of compost. He still came back for more!).

Before we set off to our two tasks (C4WS and Cecil Sharp House), Trainer Simon asked the group for a film recommendation during the "Count Off". Our suggestions included:

• The Breadwinner
• Lights Out
• The Thomas Crowne Affair
• O Brother Where Art Thou
• The Revenant
• Parasite
• CATS (but only when intoxicated)
• It's Such a Beautiful Day
• Only Yesterday
• Grave of Fireflies

Genuinely excellent recommendations- and some very high brow options! You can see Goodgym Islington's recommendations on Monday's Run Report here.

C4WS American International Church (written by Beth)

“5 of us ran to the American International Church to make beds for the C4WS homeless shelter. With twelve beds to make we got to work straight away and had them all done in record time. The team work and focus on preparing the beds before the guests arrived was amazing - huge well done to everyone involved! The team from C4WS were particularly grateful that we turned up as a number of their other volunteers had not come in due to coronavirus. They told us a little bit about the guests they were expecting that evening and the difference the shelter makes to their lives.”

“On the way back we did a fitness session involving lunges, sprints, side steps etc. I hope you all enjoyed the adrenaline of tonight’s rapid bed-making task, especially Greta, whose first time it was this evening!”

Cecil Sharp House

Trainer Simon lead a team of 7 runners towards Mornington Crescent, and across to Cecil Sharp House, the home of English folk music and dance. Upon our arrival, we met with Susanna, the volunteer coordinator and were shown to the lovely back garden of the centre. Our task involved aerating the green turf to help the ground to recover after months of constant use, and our crew were given forks and very scary looking spiked shoes to achieve this!

The Goodgymmers spread themselves across the garden in a consistent line, and every corner of the turf had been moved and manipulated, and that the same areas were not treated twice. Hard work, but our team completed the whole task in 30 minutes (Susanna mentioned that it would often take her team half a day to achieve the same result)! We even had time to scuff a few cracks in paving slabs before making our return journey to the Somers Town Living Centre.

Upon our return, we were treated to special vegan chocolate brownie, baked by John Shirley himself, and a few refreshing beverages at the Somers Town Coffee House for good measure!

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NEWS

Compton Terrace Gardens Community Mission

Saturday 14th March, 10-1pm at Compton Terrace Gardens. A perfect post-Highbury Fields parkrun task!

One of our lovely GG Islington task owners will be leading a work day at Compton Terrace Gardens, a great green space right outside the union chapel. Mission expert Liz Mills has agreed to lead the session along with some of the neighbourhood regulars to assist with clearing, tidying, lifting and shovelling work- super outdoors workout fun! Sign up here!

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CREOS March

Sunday 15th March, 11-1pm at Crouch End Open Space, 85 - 87 Wood Vale, Crouch End. One of the longest running, and best, community missions. Come for the gardening, stay for for the picnic!

Crouch End Open Space is inviting the Goodgym team back to help with their monthly community green space maintenance project. Local volunteers meet up to keep the neighbourhood area as beautiful as possible, and to make sure that the pathways are accessible for everyone to enjoy this popular spot. All helpers will be treated to a great car boot picnic and hot drink afterwards! Sign up here to get involved!

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The Arc Centre Deep Clean and Free Fitness Session

Sunday 22nd March, 5.30-7.30pm at The Arc Community Centre, Islington

Goodgym have been asked to help out The Arc Community Centre with some bi-monthly cleaning and tidying tasks- a great indoor activity to wrap up the weekend. In return, we have access to the main hall and the accompanying gardens before the the task. Trainer Simon will be offering a free all abilities circuit training session before we start with the cleaning duties. Strength and conditioning are under valued pursuits for a lot of runners, and we will be introducing some simple body weight exercises you can do as part of a group (the best way IMHO!) or in your own free time. Sign up here for doing good and getting fit!

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Seeking Mermaid Mamas at Highbury Fields parkrun!

Saturday 28th March, 8.30-10am at Highbury Fields parkrun

Mini Mermaids Running Club are a lovely organisation set up to introduce under 11 boys and girls to running and the positive physical and psychological benefits of regular exercise. They offer an 8 week training program in local schools and community groups to help youngsters to achieve a 5km target (whether this be walked, run, skipped, hula-hooped etc).

We would love to have a great Goodgym support crew available on the day to cheer these young people on! And we are actively looking for 10 female Goodgymmers to act as "Mama Mermaids" for some of the young girls. Your role would be to guide your selected participant to their goal, running alongside them, and offering encouragement along the way.

For more information, and to sign up, click here!

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Mighty Mighty Market Road Gardens

Saturday 28th March, 11.30-2.30pm at Market Road Gardens, Caledonian Road

After the excitement of your local parkrun (and some social coffee time afterwards), we will be hosting our regular gardening task at Market Road Gardens, a lovely green space set up by Octopus Communities that Goodgym have almost completely renovated over the past 6 months!

The gardens are looking to host an open day in April (with the intention of procuring a friends trust for ongoing maintenance), and are hoping to invite our Goodgym community to assist with some finishing touches to the gardening project.

Sign up here for more information. It will be a good one!

7 runners met for a lovely lunch time outing to Newham City Farm for the first GoodGym session taking place in the Beckton area

A few regular GoodGym members from all across London were joined by first timers Kaya and Deniz, students from the university, who were keen to find out what it means to do good and get fit in the area.

After a brief warm up and introduction we took a leisurely one mile route along the Capital Ring and Beckton Corridor, lovely green spaces that were new discoveries to us all. It was lovely to chat to everyone on the way and find out all the reasons we run and what everyone has got planned. Good luck to Sarah who is running a the Hampton Court half marathon on Sunday and good luck to Tom who is running The Great North Run in September and is fundraising for The National Autistic Society.

Time flew by and it wasn't long before we arrived at Newham City Farm where we had some fun tasks and lots of animals waiting for us!

"I had no idea this was here!" - Basically everyone who took part proclaimed!

And that's what GoodGym is all about, connecting you with the communities you live, work or study in. Boom, mission accomplished.

The task:

So our job for the afternoon was all about making the pigs a bit more comfortable in their pens. With all the recent rainy weather the mud pits (they love so very much!) had become a bit too boggy and needed a bit of mulch to dry them out and help the pigs enjoy them even more. It was a case of collecting wheelbarrows of mulch and working in a team to spread it in the muddy areas.

With lots of extremely cute animals distracting us along to way it's a wonder we got anything done but in no time at all we'd covered all the muddy patches needed and the pigs seemed very happy with their new baths!

After some very diligent hand washing we headed back to where we'd originally met for a quick stretch before parting ways.

It was great to meet so many new, friendly faces and hope to see you all out GoodGyming in other areas soon. The full list of group sessions can be found here and you can filter by area and join in anywhere you'd like!

15 awesome runners attended our Islington group run last night (including new starters Stephanie and Tom- welcome!), and braved a wet and windy trip to Sunnyside Community Gardens near Crouch Hill.

Also- congratulations to Hanry for running 100 good deeds last week. His celebrations were at GG Camden, but he is a certified GG Islington runner too!

Before layering up to sustain the rainfall, Trainer Simon asked the crew for some film recommendations (after being blown away by Bong Joon-ho's multi-oscar winning thriller "Parasite". All of these great suggestions have been included here:

• For Sama
• Call Me By Your Name
• Moonlight
• Little Women
• Okja
• Snowpiercer
• Alien Covenant
• Jojo Rabbit
• Precious
• Dark Waters
• The Witch
• Harriet (soon to be released in the UK)
• The Green Book
• This Year's Love (because it is all based in Camden...)

Sunnyside Community Gardens

Our team made their way up Hornsey Road after a quick warm up, with Steve Lee assisting as the backmarker. Upon arrival, we politely disturbed the meeting of the Sunnyside Gardens Trustees and met up with Anna, the volunteer coordinator. We wheelbarrowed a vast array of forks, spades and shovels (and gloves, of course) to the upper end of the gardens, and began work on creating compost for the upcoming spring planting season.

A small group started sieving woods and twigs out of the finer dirt and soil, before distributing the contents into different piles. Other goodgymmers used clippers to break down larger branches and small dead trees made the green waste into useful mulch, leaving the rest of our crew to lift the chips into a designated compost pile. A smooth production line was established, and we made significant work out of this large ongoing task!

We packed up after 40 minutes of solid work, and enjoyed the downhill jaunt back to the Arsenal Community Hub. Aidan lead a series of stretches and cool down exercises, whilst Steve Lee offered us some authentic holiday Turkish Delight, and Trainer Simon brought out some Biscoff biscuits for a job well done.

As we regrouped, we made our way to The Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road for 2-for-1 pizza, drinks and good times, as part of our monthly social.

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NEWS

GG Islington Cover at Goodgym Camden!

Trainer Simon will be leading a one-off group run with Goodgym Camden this Wednesday, setting off from The St Pancras and Somers Town Living Centre in Somers Town. Great opportunity to try out some GG tourism, and to meet up with new and familiar faces getting involved with some new tasks!

This week, we will be visiting Cecil Sharp House to assist with various gardening and weeding tasks at the home for English Folk Music and Dance, with a second group running to C4WS- a homeless shelter set up in the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road.

Typically followed by drinks and a meet-up at the Somers Town Coffee House pub, opposite the Crick!

Sign up here and come on down!

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Compton Terrace Gardens Community Mission

Saturday 14th March, 10-1pm at Compton Terrace Gardens. A perfect post-Highbury Fields parkrun task!

One of our lovely GG Islington task owners will be leading a work day at Compton Terrace Gardens, a great green space right outside the union chapel. Mission expert Liz Mills has agreed to lead the session along with some of the neighbourhood regulars to assist with clearing, tidying, lifting and shoveling work- super outdoors workout fun!

Sign up here!

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CREOS March

Sunday 15th March, 11-1pm at Crouch End Open Space, 85 - 87 Wood Vale, Crouch End. One of the longest running, and best, community missions. Come for the gardening, stay for for the picnic!

Crouch End Open Space is inviting the Goodgym team back to help with their monthly community green space maintenance project. Local volunteers meet up to keep the neighbourhood area as beautiful as possible, and to make sure that the pathways are accessible for everyone to enjoy this popular spot.

All helpers will be treated to a great carboot picnic and hot drink afterwards!

Sign up here to get involved!

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The Arc Centre Deep Clean and Free Fitness Session

Sunday 22nd March, 5.30-7.30pm at The Arc Community Centre, Islington

Goodgym have been asked to help out The Arc Community Centre with some bi-monthly cleaning and tidying tasks- a great indoor activity to wrap up the weekend.

In return, we have access to the main hall and the accompanying gardens before the the task. Trainer Simon will be offering a free all abilities circuit training session before we start with the cleaning duties. Strength and conditioning are under valued pursuits for a lot of runners, and we will be introducing some simple body weight exercises you can do as part of a group (the best way IMHO!) or in your own free time.

Sign up here for doing good and getting fit!

24 GoodGymers were out on a wet and windy Wednesday night, doing good in Camden!

We had a new runner join the herd tonight - welcome to Ash! I'm glad you rose to the challenge of finding out the four ways you can get involved in GoodGym while you were out on the run. You're welcome back anytime!

While you're here, why not sign yourself up for next week's double-task extravaganza? We're going back to Cecil Sharp House (outdoors) to help tidy up the gardens, and C4WS (indoors) to help make the beds for the homeless.

It was also a HUGE night of [hundreds] celebrations - not one, not two, but THREE Camdeners reached 100 Good Deeds last night; George, Freya and Hanry! Well done you wonderful trio - let all of those Good Deeds (and cheers!) sink in. GoodGym's only ever going to be as good as the people who keep coming back to help in the community, and it's a brilliant personal achievement that you've all stuck at it so consistently.

Talking about consistency, we have an even bigger Good Deed number - and wonderful human - to cheer; Abi had her 300th last night too! You really are in a lap of the gods now, and firmly in the hall of fame. Well done, well done, well done x 300 for everything you're doing for Camden and for GoodGym - it wouldn't be the same without you.

Before I get to the cake-geddon that seems to be happening more and more lately - something I'm all for by the way - we'd better talk about the tasks too.

C4WS Report (written by John)

John took 10 runners to our weekly winter task to help out at the homeless centre at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road. The Helpers there are kept busy making meals for the centre's users, so GoodGym's assistance is vital in putting together their beds. We were told that several people whose beds we'd made in recent weeks had gone on to find work or accommodation with the help of the centre.

Afterwards, the GoodGymers headed off through the drizzle and puddles of St Pancras, for a fitness session at Granary Square. The options were either two or three laps around St Martin's College. Hanri did four!

Scope Report

The rest of us hit the pavement and headed up to Camden High Street to see the inimitable Helen and lend a hand sorting out the shop. As ever, she was ready with her written out list of tasks that needed doing and we were all put to work. There was donation tagging and sizing, sorting and prepping, fancy-dress wearing (looking at you Rosie!), jewellry sorting, dusting and cleaning and tidying up the back office. Everyone got stuck in for a good 40 minutes and what a difference we made.

As the clock struck 8, it was time to wrap up and head back to the Living Centre for what can only be described as the blaze of cake. Both Liz and Abi had been baking some vegan cakes for the festivities. There was a delicious ginger and lemon cake, an 'experimental' - according to its baker - lavender cake that melted in the mouth and a rocky road cake covered with strawberry lace wrapped into a big '100'.

In good Camden fashion, a group of us ended up walking over to the Coffee House pub for a few drinks to celebrate all the hundreds. We couldn't even finish all the cake in the end! Madness. Camden, you're great. Keep on coming back and doing what you're doing.

NEXT TIME

AGE UK COMMUNITY MISSION: This Saturday, there'll be a group of us braving the cold (and hopefully not too wet) to help out at the Age UK Great Croft Day Centre garden between 1 - 2:15pm. We're fully booked at the moment, but please comment on the community mission, text or email me if you'd like to come along as well!

NEXT WEEK'S RUN: We're going back to Cecil Sharp House (outdoors) to help tidy up the gardens, and C4WS (indoors) to help make the beds for the homeless - put your name down now if you fancy coming along.

Happy running between now and then.

Seven GoodGym runners, including brand new runner Elise, undeterred by rain, helped Story Garden with some classic GoodGym tasks this evening. These tasks included spreading woodchip onto the waterlogged paths and moving heavy sleepers that will soon be constructed into new planters for local community groups.