17 GoodGymers ran 3km back to school to help out John Betts Primary

It was another chilly night but this didn't stop 16 hardy GoodGymers from joining me tonight to help out again in Eloise's school, John Betts Primary. Much to everyone's delight, all the jobs tonight would be indoors in the warm!

After coming along to our starter session last month, it was lovely to welcome along Shauna to her first Tuesday H&F group run.

Que Ciara, Ciara

As we headed outside, there was no sign of Ciara, and Dennis was running later than Katie 'I'll meet you at the task'! 😉 - jokes aside, if you’re planning a Saturday run I’d recommend you get it in early doors to avoid the storm!

News, news, news

1. The 'Big Six' Races - They've been announced for 2020! Check out the list here.

2. January Challenge 2020: 'Extraordinary Task' Award - read more about the award here. Submissions are open until midnight on Wednesday 12th February.

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

4. 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.

5. Vitality Running World Cup - Represent your Country! First round begins on Thursday 5th March. Read all about it and sign up here.

School runnings

Following a pulse raising warm-up which involved some high knees, spotty dogs and ‘dancing feet’ (out out in in) we set off to John Betts Primary School, with Lucy kindly backmarking to ensure no one was lost en route.

Having successfully navigated our way around all the pedestrains, we paused briefly to allow everyone to regroup and much to everyone's delight Alice’s exercise of choice was squats, rather than burpees or press ups!

The naughty children, Matt, Jonathan and Katie had sped ahead and whilst waiting for us at the entrance, decided to do a self-imposed wall sit - a wise decision to prevent further punishment!

The great divide

We entered via the large front door and were greeted in the main school hall by the school caretaker, Matt and his daughter, Emily. Following a quick brief with Eloise around the numbers and how to divide the group, Matt explained the tasks for tonight:

• Help sort the library books with the PTAs 📚
• Help sort the maths equipment 🧮
• Clean the staircase and skirting boards 🧽

The chill in the air makes us numb, but maths makes us number

'Team Maths' headed upstairs with Eloise to one of the classrooms and were faced with lots of different coloured trays all filled with very unorganised maths equipment - a sign of children having far too much fun learning maths?! With an attentive GoodGym class, Mrs Nash explained all the sorting that needed to be done. Coins, cubes, rulers, clocks and scales were among those that needed sorting. The final aim and the pièce de résistance was each classroom having the same coloured trays rather than a mix of colours. Oh the satisfaction!

Biscuits had far too much time on his hands as Lucy addressed the scale of the problem.

Andrew was in the money, Alice was the new kid on the block, while Helen proved she ruled at winding up all the measuring tapes.

Not all maths puns are terrible, just sum!

Mo arrived just in time to see Speedy's cone above his wonderful sorted shapes as he got stuck into the tray sorting, while Eloise and Lucy ensured there was some child's play amongst all the hard work...

Sorting complete, the team headed downstairs and armed themselves with cleaning cloths and products. Venny, Biscuits and Sarah gave the stairs a good clean up while Shauna, Andrew and Matt got down on their hands and knees to give the skirting boards a deep clean - and they were sparkling once they were finished!

Ready, steady, book!

'Team Library Books' - Tom, Bev, Cookie and Katie went with Matt across to the Library where the PTAs had made a start on sorting all the library books according to their sticker colour. Each sticker colour was linked to a specific genre, these included Green 📗 = Nature, Blue 📘 = Science and Technology, and 📙 = History.

All the library books were once upon a time grouped by genre in the library but over the past few years had become very jumbled up. It was decided that a complete sort of all the books was required.

The small but mighty team grabbed handful after handful of books, sorting them into their correct genre piles - some of which became slightly precariously balanced as the evening went on.

We'll do this job by the book!

As the team sorted through the books they couldn't help but have a quick read through some, Tom brushed up on his history, Cookie picked out the classics such as Thomas The Tank, Bev learnt more about trees, while Katie sought some top in-line skating tips!

With all the jobs completed, Lucy choreographed a throwback 'school' team photo on the benches complete with a trophy. Fun and games over we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Matt and Emily, and headed outside. Sadly, there was no time for a fitness session tonight, but we did manage to get in a few more jumping jacks and spotty dogs to warm-up before we began our run back to base. Once back at base we had a good stretch off back before heading home or to the pub. Class dismissed!

You stay classy GG H&F!

Wonderful work tonight team! 😊

Shoutouts 📣

• Thank you to Katie and Lucy for their extra snaps, and to Lucy for both backmarking and for posting on 'gram live from the task!
• Well done to Sarah, Biscuits, Eloise and Matt for completing an undulating Richmond 10k.

Next week

We've got another indoor task! We'll be painting at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall, sign up for the session here. Have a great rest of your week!