Thursday wet session at the Olympic Park Stratford - not because of the pool where we were based but because of the rain. This didn't stop runners and guides to be out there and perform great session around the Olympic stadium. Even Mario the dog was present but he stayed indoors with Mark(wise dog)

For one last time as a Goodgym Area Activator, Simon met at the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road to meet a huge group of keen runners, ready to help at Caledonian Park this evening. It was truly a joy to see familiar faces from years gone by (including awesome folks who attended Simon's first session 6.5 years ago at Mildmay Community Centre - I'll find the link!). Also thank you to Astra for attending your first Goodgym session- I heartly recommend attending more sessions soon- we have wonderful people in this community!

After a short (but necessary) warm up, we ran together up McKenzie Road and the Market Road slopes to the wonderful Caledonian Park Clocktower, to meet up with Miriam and Gail, our local task coordinators.

Our objective for the night (with our 26 volunteers on hand!!!), was to shovel piles of crushed rock fines into wheelbarrows, and then transport the loads over to the forest pathways on the West side of the park. This is a lovely wooded walk, that is often frequented by children, families and wheelchair users, and we want to keep this area as accessible as possible during the Springtime months.

We separated into multiple groups to cover the whole area. Team 1 shoveled the ground fines, Team 2 pushed the barrows across the park and Team 3 raked and flattened the ground around the amphitheatre (carefully avoiding the grassed surfaces and paved sections). We also had a 4th team on hand to transfer soil from builder's merchant bags, ready for Spring planting later this month.

This is a massive task, and our crew did an smashing job over the 45 minutes we had available. 26 hands, all working in tandem, really makes a huge difference. Well done!

As we closed up our evening, Area Activator Simon lead a running group back to the Emirates Stadium, while Emily and Louise lead a walking group to The Tollington Arms on Sobell Road- a great local pub that serves incredible Thai food. Together, we celebrated Area Activator Simon's final fixture as a leader, but not his final Goodgym adventure for sure!

Lovely chat with Ms M about a range of issues. Nice to meet Louise for the first day and we worked well together to get through all the messages quickly. Learnt a lot about Chinese medicine which is fascinating even if I’m a little sceptical. Would happily go back again.

Over the January Challenge, Area Activator Simon has been hosting weekly early morning run sessions in local parks (Islington and Tower Hamlets based) with Track and Towpath Run Club.

These workouts were developed to build our runners towards the Runthrough Victoria Park 10km on 1st February- great for building fitness over the difficult Winter months. We completed timed intervals around Emirates Stadium, hill reps in Finsbury Park, speedy laps of Bartlett Park, Poplar and tempo effort loops of Meath Gardens, Mile End. Always followed by hot drinks, snacks and socials (and before we need to head to work!).

To find out more, feel free to tale a look at our Strava group for future fortnightly sessions:

https://strava.app.link/G9QbhbBqp0b

On the day, we were lucky to be treated to really excellent running weather (mild, not windy, a pinch of rain here and there- pretty good for February!). The Runthrough Victoria Park race series hosts a half marathon, 10km and 5km on the same course, but at different start times, so we were able to cheer on fellow racers in the half marathon before we kicked off at 10am sharp.

Congratulations to Kim and Laura for clocking personal bests today!

And to Lucinda and John for achieving their season's best times too!

Keep your eyes peeled for more Track and Towpath race meet ups soon.

First time doing a Good Gym session & really enjoyed the gardening session at Whittington Park on Tuesday 27th January 2026. Got to plant trees for the first time and stayed around for a chat afterwards with other volunteers.

Goodgym Islington Area Activator Simon hosted an annual running kit swap and donation evening on Tuesday night, booked at The Horatia pub, Holloway Road.

This is a collaboration between The Green Runners and Preloved Sports CIC, in an effort to keep quality sports kit away from landfill for as long as possible. Who needs new kit for messy Goodgym tasks anyway?

Thank you to Kim, Emma and Harvey for offering kit donations and for the nice chats!

https://thegreenrunners.com/

https://prelovedsports.org.uk/