Eight wonderful people joined me in Brent to boldy run in the rain and help put at Brent Mencap.

A nod to the pun... for the first time in what we think might be EVER, there were more men than women at a Brent run!

With the weather so bad we did our intro inside, welcomed Philip to his first ever GoodGym run and went through the task and health and safety.

We then headed out for a quick warm-up and then headed off on the short run down to Mencap. After an uneventful run down we met Wayne who left us to our tasks...

• Three tables to be broken down and taken from the 2nd floor to the outside area

• A variety of chairs to be taken from the 2nd floor to various areas around the building

• Vacuuming of the stairs and rooms downstairs

We broke out into teams and before we knew it everything had been done. With time to spare and with much chat of Liz's HIIT session from last week (most of us had missed it) we decided we should do it again. Big thanks to Liz for leading us and kudos to James who missed out on the HIIT fun after volunteering to finish the vacuuming.

With that all done we said our goodbyes to Wayne and then headed back to base, stretching quickly and outlining next week's session back at Mora Primary (with Claire in charge).

Cheers,
Pritesh

Seven lovely runners met up on a dark, windy and rather chilly February night, Storm Dennis the Menace had not quite left the building!! We gathered outside to do some much needed warm-ups, and found our circle getting smaller and smaller as we huddled like penguins to stay warm and keep out the bracing wind!

With Tabitha backmarking, we headed down to Cricklewood Library, which is yet to open to the public, but is looking like it will be ready soon, with cafe to boot. Clare and Giuliano met us at the task, taking our group to nine. Wendy greeted us there and explained the task to the group - to organise a room full of furniture (mainly a sea of disassembled bookshelves and chairs - see photos!), to create some amazing space for some more stuff, leaving a bit of space to walk around the edges thrown in for good measure. Wendy was really delighted with our efforts as she had been dreading having to tackle the job alone or with just a couple of volunteers, and also said we were really organsied and great at teamwork, so well done everyone! There still isn't an official opening date for the library, but it will be this year, and not only will there be a cafe for a Saturday post-parkrun cuppa, but also a yoga and pilates studio, so it all sounds very exciting! Keep watching this space.

We headed to the bottom corner of the park for some tempo runs and fitness drills, before calling it a day and heading back to the warm glow of the Queensbury to thaw out.

Thanks again everyone!

Seven super people joined me in Brent to help Mora Primary School and run 5km

Well done everyone who came along tonight, with the remnants of storm Ciara hitting just before the run and the temperatures plunging it wouldn't have surprised me if people had wanted to skip this one.

I was glad to announce that the task was indoors and in other news we talked about the newly announce Big Six races, GoodGym's search for new trustees and the Brent social this Wednesday doing the pub quiz at the Queensbury!

Once that was all done we headed off into the cold, dispatched a quick warm up and then off for the 1 mile run to Mora Primary.

Once at the school we met Kate the Deputy Head. She thanked us for our previous work and explained why the task was so helpful. This time around we had another cupboard to sort out but a smaller one which was good as we were a smaller group.

Once she had showed us what to do we split and took on different tasks. Mainly we got things out and sorted them before either putting it back in the cupboard or off to the other cupboard. With us working in the smaller cupboard it meant that it was hard to keep everyone involved but having been shown where the games equipment was kept I lined up a fitness game for half the group. We took some cones and spread them around the hall. Two pairs then fought to get as many cones either the right way or wrong way round. 90 seconds later and Tabitha and Karen won with one more cone that James and Samina.

By the time the game was over the cupboard was sorted and we all pitched in to get things cleaned up and everything tidy. Kate was suitably impressed with the work we had done and she thanked up profusely. We promised we would back to help more and then we headed off for a brisk run back to base to stave off the cold. We stretched and then retreated into the warmth of the Queensbury.

Well done all!

What a way to end GG Brent’s January! An incredible 19 people ignored the afternoon downpours and joined me to run 5km and help Mora Primary School!

Lucy, Molly and Giuliano joined for their first ever GoodGym run, Sarah touristed all the way from Bexley and we capped off the evening with a triple celebration of our own 5th birthday (yes we do celebrate all month), Claire’s actual birthday and Amy’s 50 good deed milestone!

Celebrations

As mentioned the afternoon had been super wet and this had then cleared to a cold evening – to combat this Liz led everyone on an epic warm-up session whilst I got held up by various trainer-type things! Eventually I joined everyone, took us through the news, health and safety and general intro.

• The main thing to remember is that we are going to the Queensbury on the evening of the 12th Feb to do the quiz (join for dinner from 7pm and quiz from 8pm!

Once we had gone through the intro and set the backmarkers we set off for the short journey to Mora. Once we got to the school we met Polly the headteacher who was amazed at the number of us and our general enthusiasm to help out. She was worried that we wouldn't have enough to do but as you'll see from the pics there was more than plenty! the task at hand was to empty out a stock cupboard and sort the items and then return them to the cupboard.

With such a large group I left everyone outside to assess the task at hand. As you'd imagine if you leave an energy filled group out in a playground they are going to play. My taskforce instigated a game of stuck in the mud goodgym style. To free those stuck three squats were due.

Playground antics

With the task set and a plan forming in my mind I stopped the game and split the group in two. Nine became the cupboard crew who were tasked with emptying everything out of the cupboard - human chains were very much the order of the day! The second team of ten became the sorting crew - they took everything that was taken out of the cupboard and grouped and sorted items. We had a hall adjacent to the cupboard and this proved the perfect space to get everything out and sort everything.

With such a large task we decided to go long on the task and get as much done as possible. After a good 40 minutes everything was sorted and we had started to return the items. Polly was amazed at how much we had done and I had to force everyone to stop - you guys are the best!

Polly thanked everyone and explained why it was really important to her and the help so appreciated. We said our goodbyes and Polly promised to invite us back for more tasks - we can wait!

With that we headed back to base, stretched and gave ourselves a huge round of applause - what a fantastic evening. We then went on to the queensbury for some cake and drinks to celebrate!

Get yourselves signed up for next week, can we get an even bigger group?

Cheers,
Pritesh

Brrrrrrr... that was a cold one!

13 brilliant people joined me in Brent to run all the way to Barnet to help NW2 RA and get Cricklewood cleaned up!

Well what a night, I arrived at the Queensbury to a large group ready and waiting to get fit and do good! We were joined by Paul and Freya who joined for their first ever GoodGym run and we were also joined by GG Lambeth regular Samantha who is embarking on a mission to run in every London GG area before the year is up - we're glad you went for the best area first!

With the Queensbury being rather busy we headed outside for the intro:

• The January Challenge - 10 more days to go - can we get to 8k deeds and 100k km run?
• Community mission tonight - get another deed with some clothes sorting in kilburn - details here
• Starter session on Saturday (25th) - tell all your friends - helping out at Clitterhouse - details here
• parkrun volunteer session - get another deed by volunteering at Gladstone parkrun or just come along for the run and then join us for the starter session - details to come!
• This was actually decided later but next Brent social is on Feb 12th, the Quiz at the Queensbury!

Once that was all dealt with we got ourselves warmed up and then we headed up to Cricklewood. We met Marie and the guys from B & Q who had lent tools and hot water. The task at hand was to wash down the painted sections of the bridge walls leading up to the station!

We split into two teams, one for each side of the road, split the tools and headed into place with our buckets of hot water. It was quite the sight to behold and the traffic going past certainly couldn't take their eye off us! A number of encouraging toots and people slowing down to take pictures and videos were noticed by us!

It was hard work, not least because it was so cold but everyone worked really hard and despite some initial hiccups with the equipment you could really see the difference we made! Well done for the effort especially as the night got colder and colder as we went on.

After some co-ordinated cross road photos we gathered ourselves and then headed back to base, stretched and then headed inside for some warmth, to head home or have a drink! Lovely stuff.

Cheers,
Pritesh

BOOM! Christmas has hit GG Brent and thirteen wonderful people joined me to run over 7km to help put up Christmas decorations for Kingsgate Community Centre!

We were joined tonight by Sasha who was on her first ever GoodGym run and we all welcomed her as part of the intro. In the news this week: Christmas party season is upon us with the GoodGym wide party on Friday and the Brent dinner after the run on the 16th.

Once we were all warmed up and everyone ready to go we set off for Kingsgate. It was a fairly uneventful run but we did have to contend with slippy leaves and a short blast down the High Road (too busy!).

Once at the centre we were shown what needed to be done - two main tasks: decorate the tree and put up lights across the ceiling of the main hall. We split in to teams and got to work. It was soon clear that there were a few too many of us to be working well in the small space and with only two tasks... so to the hills!

Look at us - for the second week in a row we had hill reps at GG Brent! I took a small team off to do some hill reps with James suggesting the roads with the better hills. Three reps working our way up the hill thinking about the right technique and remembering our arms, legs and posture. With that done we headed back to centre to swap over. For the second hill session we did a hill run rather than reps and wound our way through the streets heading up three hills to match the hill reppers!

And with that done, the centre beautifully decorated and many group photos done it was time to head back. We went a slightly different way to avoid the high road on the way back and before we knew it with everyone putting maximum effort in despite the freezing temperatures we were back at base! There we stretched and then headed inside for a deserved beverage!

Great work everyone - next week it's a short run to Cricklewood Baptist Church for (hopefully) some more indoor tasking. Sign up here!

Cheers,
Pritesh