It’s definitely headtorch season! On a dark and not-too-chilly evening GoodGym Islington assembled at our regular spot in the Arsenal Emirates, with Steve Lee leading the run while regular Islington Trainer Paul Bown was away on holiday eating lots of those lovely Portuguese custard tarts.

A few quick announcements, including next week’s GoodGym Islington Xmas Party (sign up here) and a nudge to sign up to missions in the coming weeks - there are slots available in Islington and it’s the time of year that can make the world of difference to the people we do missions for.

A quick warm-up and we were headed north a few quick km to the Single Homeless Project (thanks to James, Claire and Steve C for back-marking!)

SHP’s Sam was waiting for us with a smile and a shed-full of tools to get to work weeding, bagging up leaves and tidying the back gardens of not one, but two housing projects. The Single Homeless Project work across London with vulnerable and socially excluded people going through difficult times in their lives to provide a much-needed safety net of care and housing support. Having a nice garden area to relax in and tend to is a real benefit.

Sam and Steve flitted back and forth between the two garden groups and despite the dark evening, could see a lot of good going on. Paths and beds were weeded, patios were tidied and swept, and we nearly ran out of bags for the leaves that will be mulched (GoodGym provides us with some cursory gardening knowledge over time but our best working definition of mulch was still George’s ‘mulching turns plants into cannibals’).

We took a different route on the way back - a bit less road traffic but more pedestrians to carefully weave our way through - and in no time we were back at our GG Islington base for a stretch, and of course, biscuits (thanks to Kike for bringing us the spoils of an online shopping delivery error - delicious!).

Paul will be resuming our regular programming next week, and don’t forget to sign up if you’d like to join us for the GG Islington festive dinner at the Italian restaurant we have booked!

Have a great week everyone!

14 Goodgymers ran 4km to paint vegboxes for Friends of Grenville Gardens aka FROGG

Welcome along to Laura whose first time it was last night - lovely to have you along. We started the evening with a sit down indoor intro, delaying our warm up slightly so Kike could join.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Graham, Steve, Patrick and all the other York 10 miler and Marathoners on Sunday. Everything got a bit tearful with Sean, from GG York, finishing maybe his last marathon. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer in May and since has aimed to finish the marathon. Read more about this heroic story here.
2. Join James Gilbert and others on Sunday when there is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Spaces lay some woodchip paths - sign up here.
3. The October Long Run is this Sunday as well, led by Simon Fitzmaurice - starting in East Finchley and finishing in Hackney Wick - sign up here.

Once we were warmed up we headed north for 2k to reach the wonderful Grenville Gardens, where we met Vince with the tools for the evenings task.

Following on from when 31 of us painted the vegboxes two weeks ago we were tasked with giving it a second coat of the beautiful grey weather resistant paint. With everyone armed with a brush, a pot of paint and some kind of light we got to work to help preserve the wooden veg boxes from the nasty winter weather to come.

During our painting endeavours we came across bugs, spiders, flies and snails - all of which have got excited by the veg in the rain! Alex was the only one with wood preserver to begin with but as people finished their paint they joined him using the more 'milky like' liquid to paint wood that hadn't been coated.

Painty hands!

Over 35 minutes we covered all the vegboxes with either paint or wood preserver, using all of the former up! Nice! After cleaning up we headed home for a stretch.

Next week you will be meeting at the Arc Centre and not Arsenal, Lucy (Southwark Trainer) will be leading the group as I'll be in marathon recovery mode. Sign up here - you'll be preparing Ramsey Flowers Area for Halloween.

PB out

23 Goodgymers ran 5km and helped the Single Homeless Project move four tonnes of woodchip/mulch

Welcome along to Tom, Kate and Liam whose first time it was last night - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Steve Coman who cycled the 120 mile Dunwich Dynamo on the weekend!
2. Good luck to Kike, and 10 other Goodgymers who are doing London Triathlon this weekend.
3. Sign up for August's Long Run here - Dom's got a great route planned!

After our intros and warm up we headed north-east over Highbury Fields and via Highbury Barn to the Single Homeless Project Hostel on Highbury New Park Road. This fantastic charity helps provide housing, support and services to homeless people. Our task this week was to move four tonnes of a woodchip and mulch cocktail from outside the house into the garden.

Armed with four shovels, two wheelbarrows and four bags an orderly cycle began - as tonnes of the stuff headed into the garden Frances pointed out where to empty it - the first focus was trees, bushes and then plants. A team of four spread the mulch around the trees etc as it came in.

More mulch please!

The size of the mulch pile was communicated in car model - from Maruti (Mulch) Suzuki, in Mini, to Jeremy Clarkson tiny car! Good comms guys. Meanwhile the rest of the team weeded, cut back overgrowth and swept up. Good work!

Over 30 minutes we made a huge difference to our Islington community - awesome sauce! Before leaving we took a super cool football serious photo :)

On our way home we did a 1km time trial around Highbury Fields - everyone was fast and furious!

I'm away for the next two weeks, next week Steve Lee will be in charge and the week after Graham - look after them.

PB out

16 GGers helped Ramsey Flowers Group and did the National 1km Time Trial

Welcome along to newbies Madelene, Joe and Susan. Lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. The week is finally here, it's the GoodGym Olympics - woop woop! Come along to cheer if you aren't taking part and get involved in the National 1km Competition.
2. Well done to Graham and Alix who successfully led June's Long Run yesterday. Watch out for July's soon.

After we warmed up with some dynamic stretches we headed the 2km via Highbury Fields to help the Ramsey Flowers Group. This is a great group that look after a few plots and a pathway behind the Rose Bowl. They are increasingly doing more events here so the more we could clear and tidy the better.

Ahhh the biscuits are melting!

Splitting into teams we did the following:

1. A team of 6 cleared an area of weeds and ivy, straightened out an area where they can lay a pathway and planted some flowers (which needed a lot of water)
2. A team of 3 cleared an overgrown pathway of ivy and weeds.
3. The rest of the team bagged up piles upon piles of leaves, weeds and debris.

Over 35 minutes we worked really hard and got tons done to help our community. Overall we collected together 12 bags of weeds, ivy and leaves. Nice!

Once we'd taken our group picture we ran back via Highbury Fields for our 1km time trial. Quick work everyone!

Sign up for next week when we'll be helping Mildmay Community Centre a NEW TASK!

PB out.

17 runners helped Compton Square Gardens with some gardening in the storm!

Welcome along to Kaite and Marianne whose first time it was yesterday - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. It's the GG Monthly Social next Thursday (7th June) in central London - it's going be awesome come along!
2. Well done to Kike who did a Sprint Triathlon on Sunday and to Alex who did Hackney Half Marathon last weekennd!

This week we were meeting at the Arc Centre and it was fitting as the storms were building..... After we warmed up Linda Robson (from Loose Women) cheered us on and we were away - we headed north via the New River Route for a mile run before our arrival at Compton Square Gardens outside the Union Chapel.

Compton Square Gardens is a beautiful set of public gardens in the centre of Islington, Juliet and a group of volunteers help maintain it more and more as the funding from the local council has been cut. Juliet told us that our task for the evening was to remove a certain weed with blue flowers that is running havoc in the gardens!

It's about to get exciting!

As the thunder and lightning started we split into three groups went two by two across the two gardens to dig, pull and fork out all of those pesky weeds we could find. The rain got heavier and different groups had better cover than others. With the wheelbarrows getting constantly full of weeds and thrown on a huge pile over we were soon done.

Everyone worked really hard over 30 minutes but got absolutely soaked haha!

We ran the most direct route back to base, stretched out and ate some biscuits - yum!

Sign up for next week here we will be helping Waterside Adventure Playground and Age UK - we'll be meeting back at the Arsenal Hub.

PB out.