18 Goodgymers ran 5-6km to help Mildmay Community Centre and Waterside Adventure Playground!

Welcome along to newbies - Lauren and Sean - great to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to all the Big Halfers yesterday - great work.
2. Join the Community Mission in Camden this Sunday - full details here.
3. We are going to visually create the number 9 next Monday through various artistic licences as we were the 9th area to start and GG is celebrating all 50 of the areas in the UK. Get thinking!

Good-chip at Waterside: spade in full by GA:

On a cool Monday evening, nine hardy GoodGymmers (your author included) ran to Waterside Adventure playground to turn over woodchip at a local playground. Beating previous GoodGym records by a country mile, we turned over all the woodchip within 25 minutes - a task that would normally take the playground staff a whole evening to do!

With so much time to spare, we had a quick go on the equipment. Just to test it. Obviously. We then ran home a different way, enjoying the sights of the Regents canal to Angel. Plus we had chocolate hobnobs - what more could you want?

Still spotting Christmas Tree's in March!

Mow-down - Mildmay Community Centre Report:

Nine of us headed east via Highbury Fields, Canonbury and Newington Green to help this wonderful community centre. The main task was to mow the lawn - Steve began doing a great job but after 5 minutes the mow-robot was down and out - we think a fuse or something.

Everyone else got to work pulling up weeds, dead plants and grass in general. We used heavy rakes and some kinda medieval tool which was fun. After around 30 minutes we finished up, had some biscuits and headed back to base for a stretch.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Thornhill Square Gardens.

PB out

19 Goodgymers ran 5-6km to leaflet for the Met Police and help Waterside Adventure Playground!

Welcome along to Frankie, tourist from Hackney. Thanks to you all for coming along on such a cold evening.

In the news this week - it's all about Saturday's double - people are doing Finsbury Parkrun and then coming to Islington's Starter Session - come join :)

Waterside Adventure Playground:

Eleven of us headed south via Higbury Fields and Essex Road to help the wonderful Waterside Adventure Playground. This awesome play area is on the canal close to Angel and has been part of the community for years, as has Dawn the Manager we met.

The task was simple but essential, each armed with a fork we dug and turned over the woodchip/soil to loosen up the hard ground around the climbing frames - this makes it safer for the kids when they jump and fall. Upon arrival quite a few of the group didn't expect for us to be able to finish the whole task but with ever better fork skills it was only 15 minutes that we'd covered the whole area.

After a group picture everyone had a go playing on the equipment and having some fun! We took a slightly different route home and were awarded with our efforts with home made biscuits from Meg - yum!

All about safety last night!

Leafleting for the Met by Steve Lee:

The GoodGym Islington Flyering Squad were tasked with delivering flyers on behalf of the London Met Police warning of scammers in the area pretending to be from utility companies to gain access to houses. Boooooo.

The team ran 3k to the starting point in the centre of the areas identified as most at risk from this cynical crime. Splitting into three teams of three, we shared out the areas the Met Police had designated as red, orange and yellow levels of risk. We had a big area to cover and a lot of flyers to hand out, but juuuust in case, we agreed on sharing out a much larger section marked pink that teams could tackle if they surged ahead and got everything done.

Good thing we did, too, because all three groups not only delivered flyers through the doors of their entire areas, but all three also completed their special bonus areas and met in plenty of time to head back. Must be the cold weather keeping everybody moving quickly!

Once regrouped, we had a brisk jog back as the temperature kept lowering, and a cheeky indoor warm stretch while Paul’s group arrived.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Thornhill Square Gardens.

PB out

21 GoodGymers ran 4km to help Age UK at a NEW TASK sorting & cleaning the Drovers Centre

Welcome along to Aisling and Peter whose first time it was last night - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. The GoodGym Monthly Social is this Thursday at The Slaughtered Lamb in Shoreditch - gonna be a good one!
   
2. On Saturday (9th June) GoodGym is taking over Mile End Parkrun with pacers needed! See all details here!

This week we had a NEW TASK in GG Islington - we were off to help the Age UK Islington Drovers Centre in the Caledonian Park area. As Rachel explained this centre is used for people who are 50+ to come and do activities. There were lots to help them sort out, tidy up and clean up the centre.

Getting into diferent groups we did the following:

• A group of 10 gave the kitchen a MASSIVE big clean, washing and cleaning everything in sight. And importantly emptying all the cupboards, cleaning them out and then finding the right and new home for kitchenware.
• A team of 5 moved 20 chairs into the basement and helped rearrange the area down there.
• Another team of 5 emptied a cupboard of everything from gardening tools to a Lord of the Rings on VHS was in there! Corrr! This cupboard clearly had not been emptied in years so we sorted the pile it into four sections - charity shop, rubbish, recycle and keep.
• There were sorting and clearing jobs going on all over the place

To finish off we formed a chain and passed everything we in the keeping pile back into the cupboard. Over 35 minutes we got so much done and Rachel from the centre was really thankful.

Sign up for the next here when we have another NEW TASK helping Blackstock Triangle Gardeners help prepare for Islington in Bloom.

PB out.

Last night 20 runners ran 6.5 km to Waterside Adventure Playground to make it safer for the children who play there

While Paul Bown rested his weary legs last night in the aftermath of an absolutely THUNDEROUS London Marathon (read his inspiring blog post about it here!) I popped over from Southwark to lead Islington out on a run. It was great to see familiar Islington faces and plenty of new ones. Big shout out to Morgan and Francesca who joined us for the first time last night. Kudos to you! And a big old hoorah for Kike who did her 200th good deed last night. Blimey o riley!

After an intro and a briefing we set off with Speed Steve Coman leading us on a scenic tour of Islington on our way to Waterside Adventure Playground. There we were greeted by an always enthusiastic Dawn who set everyone to work in groups. Most of the group were tasked with forking over the bark around the structure itself in order to make it softer for the children who land/throw themselves on it. Others were turning over the earth in flower beds and generally tidying the whole area up.

Much hard work was done and we finished in 30 minutes what would have taken Dawn on her own the best part of a day!

The playground is now safe, clean and looks fabulous. Great work team! Dawn particularly enjoyed Kike and Graham racing to finish their section of ground before we had to leave. We’re nothing if not committed!

Before leaving we (obviously) had to take advantage of being on a giant climbing frame to get an awesome group photo.

We thanked Dawn and off we went, pausing at Highbury Fields for a strong sprint all the way across. Stopping to catch our breath using belly breathing we then carried on back to base where Graham crept in stealth-like with a packet of hobnobs whilst we were stretching.

Thank you Dawn, we can't wait to come back :)

Next week Islington are off to help Age UK tidy up furniture. Sign up here.

Thanks for a great evening! Come see me in Southwark sometime!

Keep running happy, Lucy J

11 brave Goodgymers put a fork in the beast from the east by running 6km & helping Waterside Adventure Playground

Thank you all for coming last night, it was a great one despite the weather. Welcome along to newbies Meredith, Harry and Anthony - very impressed you came for your first GG last night.

In the news this week:

1. Next Thursday (8th March) is GG Monthly Drinks in Greenwich, come along for puns, fun and drinks!
2. Next Wednesday at GG Camden there is the biggest task of the year at Southbank Centre helping Grounded Ecotherapy lift a lot of crushed concrete. If you are free please come along!

After a quick warm up we headed south via Liverpool Road and arriving after 3km to Waterside Adventure Playground to meet Dawn to do some GOOD! She explained that the Playground is used by children from all of the area from different backgrounds, some of them with special needs.

Can I fork it? (Yes you can!)

Our main task for the evening was to turn over the soil and bark around the playground so to make it more child friendly. Essentially children are going to fall over all the time while playing, we all did it and it's part of the fun, but it's important for the ground to be soft so their landings are softer!

We split into teams of 2 spreading out across the play area and forking the soil - a great workout that kept everyone warm. Parts of the ground were really frozen so needed extra work and time!

Meanwhile James and Claire cleared debris, weeds and sticks from the canal side - filling up 4 bags! They also folded up a HUGE mat that would have been hard for anyone to do on there own. Next it was biscuit time - hobnobs - yum!

All the biscuits!

Finishing off the work together in the most frozen area we'd essentially done 5 hours work (10 people x 30 mins!). With a glorious group picture taken we said our goodbyes to Dawn and headed for home via Essex Road & Highbury Fields.

The lovely Meg met us when we were stretching with the gift of freshly baked cookies - thank you :)

Well done all, lots of forking and 6km done!

Sign up next week where we are off to help Frelighters Farm and St Lukes Community Centre - gonna be good and warmer.

PB out.

Monday Blues? Never again thanks to GoodGym Islington. Last night we did things a little differently. 16 runners gathered at our task location, Waterside Adventure Playground for our task. After finishing, we headed off to Shoreditch Park for a technique session and to get our hearts pumping.

Waterside Adventure Playground provides a free, safe space for children in Islington to play. And boy do they love it!

Dawn at Waterside explained our mission to us: pull up weeds from the entire area; sweep up the old water balloons from a long-gone water balloon fight; and most importantly - turn over all the compacted earth and wood chips beneath the highest point on the climbing frame.

The reason for this last one? The kids just love to somersault off the tallest point heedless of breaking any bones! When the ground beneath has been freshly turned over it cushions their fall, when it hasn't been, it’s dangerous. One group got to work on each task and in no time Dawn was marvelling at the revamped playground. We’ll be back Dawn, don’t you worry!

With the playground now safer, cleaner and tidier, our work here was done. We munched some biscuits, took an all important group photo and headed off to Shoreditch park, Steve pointing out some of the sights to us (Gainsborough studios - where Alfred Hitchcock shot his early movies and is now a block of luxury flats) as we went. On arrival at Shoreditch park we went through various exercises that prove the power of your arms when running. Often forgotten about, arms have an incredible power potential.

To prove this we sat on the floor with our feet straight out in front of us and pumped our arms at 90 degree angles. Try it! When you pump really hard, you bounce off the ground - that’s how much energy we can get from using our arms.

We did some more exercise showing the best way to get the most out of your arms when running and then it was time to put the theory into practice. The group paired up and each pair went opposite ways around the park, when they met they high fived and shifted up a gear using their newfound arms and sprinted until they met their partner again where they high fived and switched back down to an easy pace. Speed work and technique. Two for the price of one!

After three rounds each runner sprinted victorious (and sweaty) to meet me back at the start for a high five. Hearts pumping, arms tired, we headed back gently along the canal to Waterside for a stretch and to thank the lovely Dawn for hosting us.

Thank You Waterside. We came, we saw, we conquered.