RamseyFlowersN1 is a local guerrilla gardening group run by the residents of Ramsey Walk and supported by Greenspace, Islington’s parks team. It was created on February 2017 to tackle fly-tipping.

GoodGym Islington have been helping support RamseyFlowersN1 for the last few years. Two days ago, they sent out a last minute request to see if any GoodGymmers could help them today by spreading woodchip and cleaning up a path. Anne, Simon and I signed up to help!

Anne and I arrived around 15 minutes early after our prior mission together went without a hitch. With Simon on target to arrive on time, we cracked on with the task ahead of his arrival.

Our task was simple: we were to sprinkle decorative woodchip around some snowdrops and bluebells to make them "pop" out of the ground. This appealed to me very much, mostly because I felt like a fairy sprinkling magic beautifying dust as I went.

At some point (probably on time), Simon turned up and joined us, each of us dispensing two bags of mulch over the flower beds. Despite starting first, it seemed to take me twice as long as both Simon and Anne to sprinkle my two bags of woodchip (too much magic dust imaginings). However, they managed to occupy themselves after finishing by embracing the joys of path sweeping while I continued my gleeful tossing. Everybody was happy.

We finished up by taking a photo that got lost due to the peculiar combination of storm Ciara and Simon's cracked phone. Simon's broken phone aside, it's probably lucky for Anne and I that there's no photographic evidence of exactly what we looked like after being hit by some heavy rain at the end of the task! 😅😂

Before signing off, super congratulations go to Simon for his 100th good deed today: awesome work! You can celebrate his achievements by joining GoodGym Islington on their group run and/or monthly social tomorrow (or simply cheer on his profile 🎉😄🎉). Sign up details for the group run are here.

The Ramsey Round is the original Scottish endurance distance mountain running challenge, stretching for 58 miles over 24 summits (including Ben Nevis), reaching a total climb of around 28,500 feet. Key figures in the ultra running community have set records on this course (Nicky Spinks, Helene Diamantides, Jasmin Paris), and Goodgym Islington approached the Ramsey Round last night...

However, the "Ramsey Round" we are referring to is a double task group run on Ramsey Walk, a green neighbourhood in Canonbury. We were invited over by Ramsey Flowers N1, and Rose Bowl Community Centre- literally a stone's throw away from each over!

20 happy running folks joined us tonight (including new members Deirdre, Conor, Jack and Ashling- welcome!), and we saw the return of Taskforce member James after his New York Marathon running adventure- congratulations! Before setting off, we made a few announcements (listed in the news below), and asked the question: "If you could be an animal, what would you be?"

Our responses included:

• Red Panda
• Water Bear
• T-Rex
• Penguin
• Rhino
• Stick Insect
• Sloth
• Otter
• Dog... but I'm probably a Cat, really. Probably.

The Canonbury area is a 5km round trip from the Emirates Stadium, and we used the Drayton Park route to run along the back of Highbury Fields Park.

Upon arrival, we met up with Paola and Chris of Ramsey Flowers N1, a resident-led community garden project in St Paul's Park. Half of our group stayed to help with this task, which included raking leaves from various flower beds, planting small bulbs, trimming some overgrown bushes from the main walkway, and installing remembrance poppies onto the railings next to the Rose Bowl Youth Centre. We made sure we had enough time to gather and collect the greeen waste clippings and leaves before setting off, and deposited them all near the appropriate recycling point.

Our second group continued along to Rose Bowl Youth Centre to meet Dawn, the volunteer coordinator. One of our classic tasks- we raked and swept all of the playground surfaces around the centre to allow children to keeping playing outside in Winter, and bagged all the leaves up to keep everything looking neat and tidy. Really amazing how quickly an area is transformed when a big group of people start working on it- we have included some before and after photos in the photo reel.

We gathered up on Clephane Road, and before our return trip to the Emirates, we were treated to vegan cookies and veggie muffins from local baker Chris! Absolutely delicious- Thank you!

NEWS

Monthly CREOS Mission

Crouch End Open Space (CREOS) is a regular community mission hosted by GG Islington, and is a great one for new folks! Goodgym have been maintaining a wooded garden patch, just off the Parkland Walk for years now, and we are very proud of it. Working from 11am - 1pm, and always includes a picnic, chatting and dog spotting. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon (Sunday 17th November).

Sign up here.

Mini Mermaids Running Club x Goodgym - Highbury Fields parkrun Takeover

Mini Mermaids Running Club is an amazing charity set-up to encourage girls under the age 11 to engage in phyiscal activity and exercise in fun and engaging ways. Goodgym have been invited to help the Mini Mermaids to complete their 5km challenge (each of the girls have worked towards this over 8 weeks) at Highbury Fields parkrun on Saturday 7th December.

We are looking for:

"Mama Mermaids"- female Goodgym runners who would be willing to be an accompanying adult for a Mini Mermaid during their 5km run. This would include offering support and encouragement to help them achieve their goals.

parkrun Volunteers- Goodgymmers willing to marshal, cheer, support and help with the general running of parkrun from the sidelines. Or to come and run and represent Goodgym!

Sign up here for more details.

Official Goodgym Christmas Party

Huge Christmas Party for all of Goodgym, hosted at Stephen's House (a bar, not the house of a poor guy called Stephen) in Finchley. Drinks, dancing and celebrations- Fancy dress contest included.

Friday 6th December. Only 38 tickets remaining so grab them quick! Sign up here

Have an awesome week. See you next Monday!

Double deeds! It's a two task combo!

Absolutely gorgeous evening for running and doing good last night- We had 19 runners at each of our tasks (including first timer and local runner Julianne, who spotted us running past her house a while back, and decided to see what we were about! Welcome, and thanks for coming down!). Massive congratulations to our race participants last weekend- Task force runners Patrick and Steve C for running PBs at the Yorkshire Marathon (and Steve winning his overall age category!), and Kike for running and cycling the Cowman Duathalon. Awesome and inspiring stuff, folks!

Before heading off to our task locations, we discussed our podcast and listening habits, particularly whilst running- lots of podcast suggestions from the group (surprisingly no running podcasts!). Some top options included:

• Reasons to be Cheerful
• Passenger List
• My Dad Wrote A Porno
• 99% Invisible
• The Brexitcast
• Anything by Brian Ferry...

(please add other suggestions in the comments below!)

We proceeded to perform a few warm up drills on the slope next to the Emirates Hub (leg rotations, open-close gates, lunges and leg swings), and then we separated into two groups for our tasks.

Mildmay Community Centre

Steve Coman lead Group 1 over to Mildmay Community Centre, near Newington Green, meeting Mustafa, the volunteer coordinator and head gardener at the door. The centre itself is an award winning "Passivhaus", or completely eco-friendly site, operating as a hub for the North London community- looking forward to working on their new cafe investment next year- watch this space! Our Goodgymmers set to work on clearing ivy from the surrounding fences, and brushing up the leaves from the main entrance and exits to the centre. It was a relatively quick turnaround, so our group was treated to tea, biscuits and bombay mix, before taking a slightly extended fun jog back to base.

Ramsey Flowers N1

Group 2 was lead by trainer Simon, Frances and Steve Lee, approaching Ramsey Flowers N1, near St Paul's Walk. We had a variety of tasks around the gardens and around the connecting public footpath- the area needs to be ready for the group's annual Pumpkin Carving event for the local children. Our team set about planting lots of fresh plants, recently picked up from Columbia Road Market, and then sweeping and raking all of the flower beds and pavements to clear the path for local residents. All of the green waste was then collected and dropped off next to the Rose Bowl Youth Centre (another one of our regular tasks).

Amazing work everyone, we made a real difference to both of these locations!

News

Social Pizza and Drinks next week!

After our task at Single Homeless Project next week (sign up here, you are welcome to join us for 2-for-1 pizza and drinks at the Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road.

GG 10 Year Anniversary Social

Talking about get-togethers, there will be a big party on 8th November, celebrating 10 years of Goodgym, and marking Pritesh Mistry's final event as social secretary. Sign up here, and give him an awesome send-off for his years of organising good times!

Halloween Headtorch Run

Tis the season for spooky stuff! Come and join Trainer Simon for a dark, creepy but ultimately stunning run around Hampsted Heath on Halloween night, setting off from the Bull and Gate pub in Kentish Town at 8pm. 7 miles total distance- headtorch required! If you have never run in the woods with a torch before, it is great fun, and this would be a perfect opportunity to try it with Goodgym friends. Sign up here!

20 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help Ramsey Flowers Group and Mildmay Community Centre!

Welcome along to Haus, Amelia and Heather whose first time it was last night - woop woop!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Graham who did Finsbury Park 5k on Friday and Sally who did the Maverick 15k on Saturday!
2. This Saturday is the Night of the PB's - more details here and sign up to volunteer here.
3. We've got a couple of Community Missions coming up: helping CREOS and Notting Hill Genesis

Mildmay Community Centre Report:

A group of us ran to Mildmay Community Centre where the very well prepared gardener took us out to the garden where we'd be working. After everyone eventually found a left and a right glove we got to it - weeding around the edge of several planters, removing ivy from a fence line, and clearing the ground around a rare apple tree then surrounding it with fresh compost.

Weed-free

There was talk of a competition to see which of the planters could be rendered the most terrifically weed-free, but in the end it was pretty obvious that we'd all put in a winning performance. Nice work team.

Ramsey Flowers N1 Report:

Ten of us headed to Ramsey Flowers N1, which are a local group who look after the area behind the Rose Bowl - including St Paul's Walk. We met Becky who gave us a few tools and bags, and then tasked us with wedding and sweeping the park area.

We focused a lot on generally cutting things back and tidying up the borders of the flower beds. During our tidy up we saw Dawn and people from Rose Bowl, they are lookikg forward to us helping next week. Over 30 minutes we got tons done, bagging up 7 bags of weeds and debris.

Next we took on a conditioning and sprints game, took a group picture and ran home. An all around great evening of Goodgym!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping the Single Homeless Project and Rose Bowl.

PB out

17 GoodGym runners helped Ramsey Flower Gardens tidy the path and plant bulbs on a cool Monday evening.

Ramsey Flower Gardens are a guerilla gardening group who maintain three gardens in Islington, keeping paths free from fly-tipping. They rely on volunteers to do the paths, so our efforts made a big difference!

After a short run there featuring the delights of the New River Path, we focused on one of their gardening spots: the Rosebowl alleyway, which Ramsey maintain with Islington council.

After meeting Paola from Ramsey at the task, we set off to work in two groups: team leaves, and bulb squad. Both dived straight in and achieved a lot in our 30 minutes there. Team leaves almost looked like they were going to run out of bags for leaves early! They also got a great bonus fitness task in the form of crushing bagged leaves down to create mulch. A great way to reuse garden waste cluttering the path, and a great workout for balance and core stability. Team bulbs meanwhile set about digging out the ground to plant new bulbs. Also a great workout for the upper body, and muscles we don't often use when running. Look forward to seeing the fruit of their efforts next year.

Whilst we were at the task, an additional couple of tasks cropped up. A few runners chopped back some plants and bushes with garden shears. And in a creative twist, a few runners - led by creative director Al, and, erm, supervised by Aidan - used stones to recreate a heart adorning one of the garden patches. Indulging their inner Kevin McClouds, the final product was the grandest of designs. Excellent work all round.

Tonight was also a particularly special night for GoodGym Islington, featuring a rare double-biscuit special, starting with homemade biscuits at the task courtesy of Ramsey, and finished off with a variety of post-run oreos.

Before we had those second post-run oreos, there was, of course, a fitness session. Stretching our legs on the way back, we ran back via Shoreditch park for a good ol' fashioned intervals session at 80-85% effort. Running short fast intervals is a great way to improve your pace for 5k-10k races, as they push you just above the point where your muscles produce lactic acid. When your run at this pace, your body learns to process lactic acid faster, your muscles become more efficient, and you'll be able to run faster for longer. A super effort from all with a great 60s-90s-60s set, with 30 second rests. For a nice intro on incorporating intervals in your weekly running, check out this Runners World article.

We then ran gently back to the start point, finishing with some easy stretches for the calves, quads, glutes, and hamstrings. A few then popped down to the Wenlock and Essex for our monthly social after. Art, biscuits, intervals, and drinks. What more could you want from a Monday?

25 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Rose Bowl and Ramsey Flowers Group N1

Welcome along to the newbies - Emma, Matthew, Juliette, Nikky and Konstantina - thanks for coming guys!

In the news this week:

1. September's Long Run will be led by Beth Nelson and Andy Cowan - full details here.
2. Cross Country Season starts soon and we'd love for you to join, there is one race a month from October to February for £5. See more details here.
3. We are going to Sofia in May 2019 for racing, spas and buffets - come join us here.

After all the news and various questions about biscuits we warmed up ready for the evenings activities. Then we were off, through the Emirates and over Highbury Fields while it was still light.

Our tasks were luckily next to one another, first there was Ramsey Flowers N1 Group which look after a public park and wildlife area, next there was the Rose Bowl Community Centre which provides services to the local community. Splitting into two teams, with Alix and James leading the Ramsey Flowers group and Steve and Graham leading the Rose Bowl squad, we got to work.

Where the panda's at?

The leaves are certainly starting to fall, over both areas teams swept and bagged them up. Steve, Graham and Frances got to work in cutting back and clearing away lots of the Rose Bowl's bamboo - apparently Islington's panda's hadn't been by in a while!

Over 30 minutes everyone did a fantastic job of weeding, sweeping and clearing both areas for both non-profits - totalling 8 rubbish bags and 2 large sacks of leaves, debris and of course bamboo. After a group picture we headed back to the Emirates where we did time trial - nice! Everyone was rewarded with biscuits - yum

Next week we are off to help Thornhill Square Gardens (and another task probably) - sign up here.

PB out.