It was all Gogh, Gogh, Gogh at GoodGym H&F as 22 GoodGym'ers ran 3km to whiten up a room!

The heavens absolutely opened half an hour before we were due to head off on our group run and we all feared the worst, a wet and soggy run! We seemed to have luck on our side tonight, we had an indoor task and the GoodGym gods had worked their magic to hold off the rain for a few hours.

A big welcome along to Michele who joined us for her first GoodGym run, and welcome along to our tourists tonight, JP, Courtney and Michelle. Lovely to have you all along! Thank you as always to my regulars who come whatever the weather....rain, wind, storms....hopefully we'll have some sun soon!

With everyone geared up and ready we headed outside to our nice and dry warm-up spot where we ran through the intros and a round-up of the week's news.

News, news, news

1. Race volunteers needed: Volunteer at The Big Half - Sunday 1st Mar and Hackney Half Aid Station Volunteering - Sunday 17th May.

2. Last Saturday of the month Community Mission with Fulham Palace Trust Volunteers. For all the details of the session on Saturday 29th February, click here.

3. Vitality Running World Cup - Represent your Country! First round begins on Thursday 5th March. Read all about it and sign up here. To join the GoodGym Team click here.

4. GoodGym Games 2020 - Oxford will be hosting this year! It will take place on the famous Sir Roger Bannister Running Track on Saturday 18th July. If you've not heard of the GoodGym Games then check out the report from last year.

Another nifty fifty 5️⃣0️⃣!

A big well done to Cookie for reaching his 50th good deed tonight! Not content with doing one good deed, he snuck in an extra good deed pre-group run to help move a hospital bed, furniture and fix a TV up in Camden. Top work! 🙌

No pain(t), no gain

With the warm-up complete and Stravas set we were ready to head off on our short 1.6km run down to our task tonight at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall, with Lucy kindly backmarking. En route there was a short group wall sit to enable everyone to re-group as we headed down off the main road. As the traffic lights changed we jumped up at the chance to cross the busy road as a group. Biscuits took the lead as we headed down the back streets near Barons Court tube station.

Another set of traffic lights against us allowed us to regroup a final time before we headed down the correct left turn - this was the third time I'd lead the group to Gibbs Green Tenants Hall and the first time we hadn't taken an unplanned scenic detour around the dead end that runs paraellel to West Kensington tube station....as they say, third time lucky! 😬

On the Monet

It wasn't long before we arrived at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall and were warmly welcomed in by Sara and Peggie. With the group gathered around, Sara briefly explained the vast range activities and engagment events that are provided at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall for the community – these include low cost yoga, meal provision from surplus food and hosting of parties.

Three years ago, GoodGym H&F group had visited and transformed the green walls of the main hall from green to white - Sarah and Biscuits fondly remember this as it was their first good task! Not the time to get emulsional though... Last year we returned and gave the main hall a fresh coat of white paint, however, with the main hall being so well used over the year the walls were now bearing some very visible dirt, scuffs and stains that needed a bit of GoodGym painting love.

Time to roll with it!

Tonight's task was simple, but big, repaint the main hall area walls with a nice fresh coat of white paint, a slightly different white - but, obviously it was hard to tell! With Sara and Peggie providing a wonderful selection of rollers, paint brushes and trays, the team quickly divided up and began distributing the white paint into the trays ready to tackle the big painting challenge. With so many helping hands tonight, Aine, Courtney and Cookie headed to the hallway to finish the tops of the walls that had been missed last time along with some fresh paint on the walls.

Painting down to a fine art!

Biscuits lived up to his name and tracked down the biscuits and chocolates, offering them out to the team as they kept rolling on with the painting, all GoodGym rollmodels.

Drop it like its squat

Brush hour

Paints and ladders

Many went up ladders, under ladders and stood on chairs to ensure that no hard to reach spots were missed. With so many pairs of hands quickly and efficiently painting the main hall walls and skirting boards, it wasn't long before everything had been painted and the team were spotting bits of the wall where the paint had dried, rather than been missed!

With a small amount of paint remaining the team decided to try and get the toilets painted as well. In slightly cosy conditions, JP, Chris and Annabelle began painting the walls in one toilet while Catriona, Beth, Andrew and Annabel began painting the walls in the other disabled toilet. As we neared the end of paint and time, many of us remembered that this was what had happened last time, and why there was still remnants of green paint at the top of the walls 🙈.

The walls are all white now

As always, time flew, and not wanting to leave the toilets looking too unfinished the teams pushed on for a few additional minutes while Sarah, Maddy, Biscuits, and Tom started on the washing up of all the painting equipment. We finally called time and gathered for the team photo with the ever smiley, Sara and Peggie. The photo was wonderfully choreographed by Lucy and Speedy and was complete with ladders and the everyone making a lovely 'heart' symbol in support of GoodGym's 'Give it Heart' theme for this month.

Best spuddies

Sara and Peggie kindly offered the group some potatoes to take home in canvas bags, and Cookie tapped into a fabulous 'market seller' who was selling "lovely potatoes, nice and cheap, get 'em before they're all gone!". With everyone 'tatoed up we all said our thank yous and goodbyes and began our run back to base.

As we stopped at the crossing, the great escape occured with a potato rolling away before being quickly retrieved. On the home straight the team stopped for a voluntarily wall sit - two wall sits in one night, double the building of isometric strength!

It wasn't long before we all arrived back and were stretching off. Lucy had been very eagle-eyed and spotted it was Cookie's 50th so had baked some amazing banana and carrot cake, freshly made with bananas saved from City Harvest! (check out the recipe, it's the last in the long photo reel and in the WhatsApp group!).

Excellent work tonight all, hope you all had fun! By my calculations, 21 runners working for 45 minutes adds up to over 15 hours of work!

Next week's task is still TBC, keep an eye on the WhatsApp group and your emails! Sign up for next week's run here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend. Hopefully see you next week, remember it's Shrove Tuesday!

23 GoodGymers did some school running as they went back to school to lend a hand at John Betts Primary

It was a deceptively chilly night but this didn't stop 22 warm and hardy souls from joining me tonight to help out with a whole heap of jobs in Eloise's school, John Betts Primary.

Tonight we welcomed along, Mary, Venny, Sophie and Dan to their first H&F group run, thank you all for coming along and lending some extra hands tonight, hope you enjoyed it! 🙌

With everyone layered up and eager to get started we headed outside to our lovely and 'glamorous' cordoned off car park spot for the intros and news round-up...

Ain't it school news

1. January Challenge 2020 - we're into the last few days! We've completed 157 good deeds and run/walked 1,725kms, which smashes our 2019 totals of 107 good deeds and 1,627 kms. Check out the GoodGym leagues here.

2. Upcoming races - there's some great upcoming events that other H&F GoodGym'ers are getting involved with: Sunday 2nd February at 9.30am - Wimbledon Common 'Dash for the Splash' 10km and Saturday 8th February at 10am - Richmond Park 5km & 10km.

3. Cheer everyone! - there's a new '📢 Cheer all' button that enables you to cheer everyone who attended the session...although in a slight 'faux pas' tech error, it appears that you'll also give yourself a cheer too 😳.

4. 'Humans of H&F Exhibition' - a wonderful exhibition presented by United in Hammersmith & Fulham, on at the Lyric Theatre until 22nd February. Our very own H&F GoodGymer, Katie (K-A-T-H-R-Y-N 😉) Hodges is one of those 'humans' featured, see if you can spot her!

And....a big WELL DONE to Eloise who achieved TWO PBs at the weekend, one at parkrun and one at the Farnborough Half! 🥳🙌🏅

As a school of thumb

Following a pulse raising warm-up which involved some high knees, lunges, fast feet and a favourite of mine at the moment, the 'number exercise' challenge (great for warming-up both the body and brain!), we set off to John Betts Primary School with Cookie kindly backmarking, to ensure no one was lost en route.

Having successfully navigated our way around pedestrians and the streets of Hammersmith, we paused briefly to allow everyone to regroup, and much to everyone's delight had enough time to fit in a quick wall sit. Despite being a real 'quad burner' 🦵🔥, this exercise is great for runners as it not only builds isometric strength and endurance in the quadriceps muscle group, glutes, and calves, but also prevents runner's knee. I promise I don't torture you every week without good reason 😄!

Wall sit completed we continued on our run. It wasn't long before we all arrived at the front gates of the school and entered through the large main...well all aside from Cookie, who I may have forgotten to inform which door it was we had all disappeared through 🙈. The team were greeted in the main school hall by the school caretaker, Matt and his daughter, Emily. Matt explained that like many schools, due to constant funding cuts, any money available to schools goes directly into education rather than into general school maintenance and upkeep, so was very appreciative for all the helping hands tonight.

"Thank you, you lovely mad crazy people" - Matt

School's paradise

Matt and Eloise had drawn up a long list of jobs for the team to get stuck into, these included:

• Moving 10kgs of bagged wood chips to the climbing area 💪
• Sorting and labelling of school uniform for the PTA 📋🏷️
• Moving books from one room to another 📚 - with the bonus of stairs workout in-between!
• Moving two filing cabinets 🗄️🗄️ - again, with the bonus of stairs!
• Sorting the top-floor storage room 🗃

There was lots to keep the team busy tonight!

The team split into three groups to tackle the list of jobs. One group headed back outside to the climbing area with Matt, the second group headed up the stairs with Eloise and the third group stayed in the main hall. Within minutes, their were red and black GoodGym shirt both inside and out, and a real hive of activity.

Friends with benechips

Bev, Alice, Speedy, Andrew, Dan, Sophie R, Matt, Annabel, Milla and Cookie all got stuck in to the upper-body workout of wood chip shifting and mulching. Matt gave the first large bags of wood chips a helping hand over to make it easier and quicker for the group to scoop and distribute the wood chips to the 'danger' areas of the climbing area - the areas that needed more wood chips in order to be as 'fall-proof' as possible.

"We're all barking mad" - Bev

Despite the challenge of the cold and darkness, the team worked incredibly hard and efficiently to move the entire 10 kilos of wood chips! Some scooped, some carried and distributed containers full of wood chips, and others spread the piles of wood chips. Boom! One job done!

How much wood could a GoodGymer chip, if a GoodGymer could chip wood?

Book at them go!

Eloise headed up to the library with Marissa, Annabelle, Analiese, Tatty and Sophie C. The group had been tasked with the physical workout of the relocation of many books, where stairs had to be negotiated first up and then down while carrying a finely balanced pile of books. The team completed this with ease and emptied the shelves in super-quick time!

Time to run a file?

Next up was the job of moving two filing cabinets down the stairs. One proved a great deal heavier, thanks to some rather age-old paperwork that was removed then carefully placed back in once the cabinet had been relocated.

Off the cuff

The small but mighty team of Sarah, Lucy, Mary, Venny and Zanoubia set to work sorting crates of school uniform clothing: skirts, shirts, jackets, blouses all into the same age sizes and folded into nicely labelled bags. I jested that by chance, Sarah happened to be involved in the job that had not one but two of her favourites...bags and organising!

Once the wood chip group had completed their job they headed inside to the warmth of the main hall and gave a hand to those sorting and labelling the bags of uniform.

"What do you reckon, do I fit into this jacket?" - Speedy

Check out Alice, Sophie R, Zanoubia and Mary and Venny in the background, focused on sorting and folding!

"I feel like I've had the full GoodGym experience" - Sophie R

The sort end of the stick

Biscuits and Milla were given the challenge of the top-floor storage room which to begin with, which shall we say was a little unorganised. Trays and all kinds of items were everywhere! Milla even discovered a wonderfully crafted internal organ diagram. With some help from Emily, the storage room was now a place you could easily walk into, or in Biscuits' case, take 'Henry' the hoover for a quick spin around.

Check out the transformation!...

After forty minutes of lifting and shifting, organising and moving we called it a night once the final bag of school uniform was bagged up and labelled. There was just one last thing to do...have a team photo in Mrs. Nash's classroom! Much to the delight of many their were some fun coloured building blocks that were made into a lovely 'GG' prop.

With all the jobs completed and a team photo taken we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Matt and Emily, and headed back to base. Sadly, there was no time for a fitness session tonight, but we did manage to get in a few more 'squats' or 'spotty dogs' or as I conjured up 'squatty dogs' (now there's an idea!) on the run back. Once back at base we had a good stretch off back before heading home for warmth and food.

Top work tonight team! 😊

"You've all saved me many hours, if not days of walking back and forth, moving and sorting books which has been on my to do list since September 🙈" - Eloise

Next week we've got a new task up in White City for The Church of St Michael and St George. For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend. Hopefully see you next week!

31 GoodGymers ran 4km to help TRAID and The Masbro Centre

There was a real chill in the air tonight but this didn't stop a record-equalling 31 GoodGymers coming along to get fit and do good in their community on a special TWO-TASK TUESDAY!...with Chi briefly in attendance we did have a record, but sadly work called and in true Chi style he did his smooth disappearing act!

It was lovely to welcome Aine and Will along to their first H&F group run - hope you both enjoyed it!

Once gathered outside, we first congratulated this month's 'good deed machine', Helen on her 100th good deed and ensured she was dressed appropriately for the run...with her '100' wings of course! So much good done for the community, looking forward to seeing you repping your shiny new red GG tee with wings. Well done Helen! 💯🙌🥳 .

AND, apologies that I forgot until the end of the evening, well done to Mr ‘Speedy Jonzales’ Jonny Knight on his 50th parkrun! 5️⃣0️⃣🙌🏼.

I guess that's why they call it the news...

1. January Challenge 2020 - With 113 good deeds racked up so far we've officially beaten our 2019 good deed total of 107!! Great job team! 🥳 Will we beat the 1,627kms run/walked?! You check on H&F's progress in the GoodGym leagues here.
2. GoodGym H&F Starter Session - Saturday 25th January at 10am - Not just for those who are new to GoodGym! Please come along after Fulham Palace parkrun and lend a hand weeding the historical moat at Bishop's Park. Please click here for all the details and to sign up.
3. Up & Running 10k - Meet at Chiswick Bridge at 8.45am for a 9am start.
4. Ragnar Run - weekend of 19th September - 1 more person is needed for the 10 man team. Please speak to 'Speedy' for more information.

Following a quick-warm up which included high knees, jumping jacks, spotty dogs and a fully mastered brain body warm-up combo with different moves for each number, the team split into two groups. With Helen completing all the poses for the 'gram both teams set off in the direction of Shepherd's Bush.

Task 1 - TRAID Shepherd's Bush

Catriona led 10 runners on a short run up to TRAID Shepherd's Bush. TRAID is a charity working to stop clothes from being thrown away - they believe clothes should be resused and recycled to reduce the environmental and social impacts of our clothes.

Hopefully this isn't too fabricated

Once inside, the team set about moving clothes from the clothing racks to boxes and stock the old display clothes into lots of cages 👕👚. Check out Lucy in action!

Some of the clothing was superbly modelled as they worked away, Matt with a cream dress (definitely your colour!) and Katie with the red trousers was a personal favourite!

With such efficient team working the job was completed, all that was left to do was to take a lovely team photo infront of the 'fully clothed' cages. TRAID's Store Manager was very impressed and thankful for the extra pairs of hands tonight. Good job team!

Task 2 - The Masbro Centre

The rest of the group headed up to the Masbro Centre, a slightly scenic way so as to get in those kms! With Tom and Alice neck-and-neck in the distance rankings for the month both were very amusingly at every opportunity trying to get in those extra few steps over the other.

Despite a slightly longer route, it wasn't long before we arrived at The Masbro Centre, which is the hub of all the Masbro Community Centres. Masbro offer a total community service from early years to older people – with arts and cultural events, sports and fitness classes, adult learning, help with gaining employment, and much more!

Sweep thrills

Tonight we had been tasked with giving the back garden, front garden and car park area a bit of a tidy-up of leaves, plants and weeds. Once we'd got some light, bin bags and a few tools the team gloved up and set to work. Helen set to work sweeping, and the rest of the team began some manual weeding and leaf collected. There was also a few bits of wood that needed a quick chop. Arba and Aine bravely held the wood, though turned away in fear as Biscuits began to chop with his shears. Thankfully, no fingers were lost, and no eyes harmed 😬.

With so many pairs of hands the back garden was completed within minutes, although Arba, head of quality control noticed one patch that had not been cleared of leaves up to standard. Once these leaves had been bagged the team walked through the wonderful inside of the Centre around the 5-a-side football pitch to the front garden and car park area.

Sweeping up appearances

Helen and Bev formed a powerful sweeping duo as Helen swept with the broom while Bev used the dustpan and brush to collect piles of leaves 🍁🍂. Cookie went deep into the depths of the garden area to weed and pull out the dead plants, while Luis and Rosie moved benches to ensure every inch of the car park was covered. Matt and Phoebe carefully nursed the rather split bin bag, continuing to fill it with the last few weeds.

We called it a night and with the other team arriving through the gates managed one big team photo around Helen and her wings. Tools returned we set off back to base with Cookie leading the way.

Drop it like it's squat!

Back at base, I decided to let Helen have the final say on tonight's fitness session....to be, or squat to be? The decision was one of the team's old favourites, 'Sally Squats'! 3mins 25seconds of squatting, what's not to love?! In what resembled a strange camp-like gathering, we formed a circle around 3 phones co-ordinated to start the song Flower by Moby at the same time. Everyone went very quiet as we all felt the burn! Top work team. Check out the song here if you'd like to get in some extra squat practice!

We finished with a stretch off and some well-deserved banana bread made by Helen, with bananas saved from the City Harvest Community Mission at the weekend. Absolutely delicious. Thanks Helen!

Next week we're heading to Eloise’s school, John Betts Primary to lend a hand with a whole range of INDOOR jobs! For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend. Hopefully see you next week!