A fabulous sunny Sunday was the perfect back drop for SPCA’s joint Ukraine and Care4Calais fundraiser.

We help setting up gazebos, chairs and tables for the stall holders before they all arrived. Then on to finishing decor with their Golden Years group helping to blow up balloons.

Then it was on welcoming people at the entrance and also providing some security for children leaving the event.

30 GoodGymers got in the Christmas spirit last night for another week of running with GoodGym Camden!

We welcomed Laurel to the herd - hope you enjoyed yourself Laurel and found that GoodGym was as good as you'd hoped. Looking forward to seeing you with us again soon.

If you fancy getting ahead of the game and signing up for our last run of the year, get stuck in here!

As with all of our winter tasks, tonight was a double tasker; bed-making at the American International Church and Christmas-decorating at SPCA.

Hanry led the 10-strong group to the homeless shelter to help Jonathan and the team get 18 beds ready for those who needed a place to spend the night out of the cold and off the streets. It's such a worthwhile cause and I'm so glad we can lend a hand to C4WS over the winter when the cold really bites. Every time I speak to Jonathan, he keeps saying how grateful he is that we're doing what we're doing, so thank you everyone.

I took the other half of the group to the Saint Pancras Community Association in the other direction for some light-hearted Christmas decorating fun. We had our work cut out for us - Elaine had left us with boxes of decorations and a few instructions (think a Technical Challenge on Bake Off!) so we had a fair bit of creative freedom with it. The group split again into Team Downstairs and Team Upstairs and everyone got cracking on hanging paperchains, decorating the two Christmas trees, putting out the bunting and sticking snowflakes to the doors and windows.

There were a few Italian fiesta coloured banners which I think we styled out nicely and George did some great work tinseling up the bannisters. The photos tell the story better than I ever could.

After a quick team photo next to one of the Christmas trees, it was time to head back for a cool down stretch and then PIZZA!

It was so great to have so many of you out with us, eating pizza at Happy Face last night and I just wanted to say thank you very, very much for a lovely card and hilarious Christmas outfit. Special thanks to Rosie (and Helen from Scope) from being the organisers of this unexpected treat - the card is sitting on my desk as I'm writing this, I love it!

Thanks for being so welcoming over the last few months and I hope you're looking forward to what 2020 will bring as much as I am. If I don't see you next week, MERRY CHRISTMAS and I hope you enjoy some well-deserved time off with friends and family.

NEXT TIME

COMMUNITY MISSION: If you're free this evening (Thursday) from 6pm and would like to sing your heart out for a good cause, then join our very own Beth and some others from GoodGym Wandsworth for some good old-fashioned carolling at Kambala Cares in SW11 2LE.

OUR LAST RUN OF 2019: Next Wednesday's session is our last group run of the year and we're going to be sticking together to go down to C4WS as a one big team before we say goodbye ahead of the Christmas break. Festive wear is as close to compulsary as possible and there may well be fitness penalties for those in just regular running clothes - ye be warned!

THE CHRISTMAS BREAK: There will be NO RUNS on Wednesday 25th December or Wednesday 1st of January and our first run back in the New Year will be on the 8th of January 2020.

20 GoodGymers made it out on a cool November evening to do good in Camden on Wednesday night.

We had one newbie - woooooooo, welcome Bhakti!! (I hope to see you on a lot more runs with us over the next few winter months) - and after a quick intro and warmup we split up for this evening's tasks.

As always, if you want to sign up to next week's run already (you wonderful person, you!), here's how.

Our tasks

With me leading the C4WS Homeless Shelter and Louise with the SPCA group, we headed off in opposite directions and on to our tasks.

Louise and the SCPA team were leafleting tonight for a special event they had coming up soon. 75 leaflets were gone in a FLASH. Meanwhile, across town, wed arrived at the American Church to help set up the homeless shelter's beds for their first night running this winter. We were met by Jonathan and the team who told us a bit more about the shelter and what else they do for the local homeless community.

Tonight we made up 6 beds for rough sleepers. They have a typical capacity of 19/20 beds, but as it was their first night they didn't want to go all out just yet. I'm sure our task there will get bigger as the winter nights draw in even more. I don't know about you, but I feel that a task like this is even more meaningful than most other tasks we do as the GoodGym Camden group; making beds for the homeless is such a lifeline and I'm sure that - even though you might feel differently - our little task has such a big impact.

Over at the SPCA, after some initial confusion about where the leaflets are - we even got a slightly gratuitous mention that it was GoodGym who delivered the flyers - the team went on their merry way. Blitzing through their 75 in seemingly so many seconds, both groups headed to the fast favourite of Granary Square for a mini fitness session and time trial.

After 3 laps (or as many as folks could manage - it was quite a long run tonight when you combine all the different runs!) of the Square, while some of us were stretching and doing circuits, we all regrouped and jogged back to base.

Several stretches and more announcements later (more below!) we were all ready to go home or to the pub, and that's exactly what happened next.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSION GALORE! We've got not one but two community missions for you to get your teeth stuck into this week. 1. Tomorrow (Thursday), Abi and the Story Garden team will be heading over to Skip Garden (aka Story Garden's old home) from 5pm-7pm to help out. More information and the signup link for task is here. 2. We've also got another great community mission coming up on Saturday morning at the Russell Square Gardens - you'll be helping to plant some flowerbeds for David and the team. The task will be from 10am-12pm but if you can only stay for an hour or so it doesn't matter, I'm sure the team would be very glad to see you whatever the weather. They're aiming to plant 10,000 flowerbulbs over the course of the day, and there are 15 of you lovely runners signed up so far - click here to put your name down for Saturday.

LET'S GET SOCIAL! I've banged on about it enough, I'm sure, but this is the last gasp; there's a huge GoodGym 10 year anniversary (a little late, I know) party happening in Southbank this coming Friday night. At Bar Topolski from around 6:30, all the information you could possibly need is right here. Pritesh is going for an all-time GoodGym record attendance for this one, so I'm sure you'll be cheered into the bar on Friday even if you can only stay for a single shot or drink. It would be lovely to see you.

NEXT WEEK: We'll be splitting the task from now until the end of February; we're heading back to the wonderful people at the C4WS Homeless Shelter. We're going to be making the 10-15 beds they have for local homeless people to get a good, warm night's sleep and it could not be more of a worthy cause. It's currently a fistfight between Scope Charity Shop and Cecil Sharp House for the other task, but I'll know for sure by around Sunday/Monday - so look out for the Weekly Fitness Email arriving into your inboxes on Monday. SIGN UP TO NEXT WEEK'S RUN HERE!

That's all from me.

Until next time,

Ben

P.S. Yes, we are continuing with Week 2 of LOTR puns. I don't know how long this will continue, but stay tuned.

23 of us GoodGymers turned up for a night of do-gooding and running on another rain-free October night. We do run come rain or shine, but who doesn't prefer running in the dry, let's be honest!

After our introduction and our welcoming FOUR new runners (wooooooooooo!) to the Camden ranks with some big cheers and claps - welcome Leanne, Poppy, Abbi and Lucy - we stretched and got ready for the run! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves tonight and will be back at Group Runs and Community Missions with us very soon.

We had a split task tonight, with one team running to the Cecil Sharp House and another back to the SPCA to finish off what we started a fortnight ago. I led the first team to Cecil Sharp and Louise and John took the second half to the SPCA.

Team Cecil Sharp

After a quick 2km run up the road, we arrived at Cecil Sharp House. Susannah told us a little about the centre and some more of what we were helping with tonight, as a violin lesson and choir rehearsal were going on in the background. They'd just gotten some great news today that they'd won Camden's Best Business Garden and she was doubly grateful for the work we do for them. Well done for the continued weeding, clearing and raking efforts over the months - it's all paid off! We were set about clearing the gardens of the leaves, sweeping up the paths and sorting out their bin - extra big shout-out to CJ and Abi for going above and beyond with their task. If I could award double good deed points, I would. Tidying away 9 big bags of leaves and litter, we'd made the gardens neat, tidy and leafless once more and after a group photo on the steps, we said goodbye to Susannah and ran back to the Life Centre to regroup.

Team SPCA

Louise and John's team ran over to the Saint Pancras Community Association to carry on with the task we weren't able to finish last time; sorting and bagging up the rest of the garden waste pile that had been stacking up over the summer. After speedy teamwork and FIFTEEN bags later - excellent work everyone - the job was well and truly finished off. It was time to say goodbye, run back and meet up with the other team.

Thanks again - as we say most weeks now - to Hanry for being the official Camden Headtorch Champion. You're a hero and I'm sure we'll be calling on your help in the coming months.

Next week and other news

NEXT WEEK! We are going to be running to the Ashdown Crescent Sheltered Housing project to give them a hand with keeping their gardens in check. There may well be a fitness session next week, so we'll make sure you keep warm!

A COMMUNITY TASK! Abi never stops good deeding (she really doesn't) and will be back at the Story Garden on Thursday 10th from 5-7pm if you'd like to help them out in one of the polytunnels - a sort of indoor-task if you squint at it for long enough - you can click right here and come on down!

LET'S GET SOCIAAAAAAL! It's almost time for a good old GoodGym social! There's already 29 friendly GoodGymers signed up to the social on Thursday 10th October, so why don't you too? It's going to be at the Islington Town House from 6:30pm - come one come all. It's also a potentially final chance to celebrate International Pun of the Month, as Pritesh is stepping down from this wonderous role. Get in touch with him if you'd like to find out how you can take up the mantle and carry on this hilarious GG tradition.

That's all for now, but I hope to see you all on next week's run.

Happy running,

Ben

22 intrepid runners braved the surprisingly mild evening to take on our two tasks on Wednesday night. The first, just around the corner from our meeting point, was shifting and sorting wood with some litter-picking at the Story Garden, led by the wonderful Louise. The second - slightly further afield - was ripping out some flowerbeds and tidying up garden waste at Saint Pancras Community Assocation, led by myself and Pritesh.

We had not one, not two, but THREE new runners joining us tonight, Elisabetta, Meghan and Bettina it was great to have you with us! Hope you enjoyed yourselves and I'm looking forward to see you on another run with us all soon.

After the introduction and our warm-up stretches, we split up and headed out to our tasks, hoping that it wouldn't rain. It seems that a winning combination of Abi's self-confessed good luck charms and Steve's weather optimism that it wouldn't chuck it down was really all we needed for a rainfree run, so thank you both!

As with many GoodGym runs, several of us pondered 'What really is a weed?" as we were getting through our tasks, but we managed to fill 10 bags up over the 30 minutes we had to get it done. There's more to do so I'm sure we'll be back very soon. Over at the Story Garden, the sorting and stacking of wood went brilliantly. Hats off to all!

Once we'd finished off our tasks for the night, we headed on to Granary Square - with the Story Garden team joining us along the way. Here, we played a game of Rock, Paper and Scissors (fitness edition), with sprints for the winners and planks for the 'losers'; everyone is a winner when it comes to fitness! After a quick two laps of the square later - increasing our speed on every section, we headed back, cooled down and a few of us went on to the pub.

Looking forward to seeing you all next week for what will be my first (eek!) run without the brilliant Pritesh leading us on. You'll be greatly missed, but will always be welcome back whenever you'd like!

Have a great week and see you next time.

Happy running,

Ben

*28 Goodgymers ran 4-11.5k to help SPCA and St Mungos! *

Welcome along to newbies Emily, Ellie, Catherine and Ellie - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. There are Community Missions helping Somers Town Community Festival next Saturday - details here and here!
2. It's the Night of the PB's this Saturday at Hampstead Heath!
3. Monthly Social today in Kilburn from 6.30pm; go along and have fun! Full details here.

St Mungo's Long Run:

Fourteen brave GoodGymers volunteered for GG Camden's longest run ever! I did the intro early and rather fast (Steve said it was my best ever haha) so we had more time to get over to West Hampstead. We set off on an adventure, up past Cecil Sharp House, around the side of Primrose Hill, over to Swiss Cottage and then up Finchley (lands that I've never been before). We kept a really good pace and everyone did brilliantly.

Perfect amount of task

We arrived and met Janice who gave us gloves, bin bags and water. Our task was to weed and clear the entire back garden. It was overgrown and clearly unused by the residents of the St Mungo's hostel. This fantastic homeless charity helps house and support people from across the community. Our help will mean they can now use the the garden and perhaps even plant some flowers/veg.

Over 20 minutes we made piles and piles of weeds, debris and dead plants. People took in turns to empty bin bags in the green recycling bin out front. In no time at all we were finished, group photo done and then we headed back home along the same route.

Leafleting task for SPCA:

Fifteen awesome GoodGymers, led by Frances, went to leaflet for the fantastic St Pancras Community Association (SPCA). We've helped these guys lots before with Christmas decorations, dancing and even a core class! This time we were leafleting over 400 flyers for their Community Festival which is happening in late July - nice!

Greece Lighting!

The group first ran 1km to the centre, collected the leaflets from Nicola and then split into groups of 4-5 to deliver them across the designated areas in Camden. After successfully delivering all of the leaflets the team collected together and headed to Granary Square along the canal, where they suitably got distracted by Greece showing on the big Wimbledon Screen (fair enough guys)

Another brilliant night of GoodGym, sign up for next week's run here when we'll be helping Story Garden!

PB out