It was Hearst's first Goodgym - they’d called us in to add a good deed to their Wellness Week. Hearst is a publishing company that produces the fantastic Women’s Health, Men’s Health & Runner’s World. So it was fantastic to be able to show them what Goodgym was all about.

We started our night off outside the office for a briefing and warm up. Then we set off on the 3.1km run to help One Big Family. They are a local charity based near Victoria that help the homeless and vulnerable by providing clothes, food, drink, toiletries and other vital items through their small food bank and other outreach services. This volunteer run charity is also present in Kent and Yorkshire.

Once we’d enjoyed the long, sunny run down the mall and navigated the busy streets by Victoria we arrived at Ebury Bridge Estate. Here we met Cloudio, a volunteer who showed us what sandwiches needed to be made - cheese, ham and jam. We had 4 of the runners doing that with 1 bagging up cakes.

Sandwiches to go

This food was going to be delivered after we left by volunteers who would go to Westminster Cathedral, under Victoria Bridge and nearby parks look for anyone in need of a meal.

Grouter’s World

Our other team, got stuck into the garden. This hadn’t been tended to in a long time. The team pulled up all the weeds from the pavement and cleared fallen branches.

We stayed a bit longer than advertised to make sure all the sandwiches got prepped and the cakes got bagged. Then it was just time for a group photo and a quick goodbye to the the team.

They Deed It

9 of the 11 runners that night bagged their first Goodgym Good Deed and the chance to claim their red T-shirt. 1 runner had actually already run once with Goodgym Greenwich on their marathon training run. Massive thank you to Magda who helped out by backmarking for the group on the run there and back. Thanks Magda! Give her a cheer.

Well done to everyone for fantastic effort and great running.

22 awesome runners ran 18km to help tidy up at the Royal Hill Community Garden in Greenwich!

You were all a part of history last night as we ran our longest EVER GoodGym group run! A whopping 18km in the bank... not bad for a dark & cold Tuesday evening eh!!

London 2018

The vast majority of you guys are running the London Marathon this year, and for many of you it will be your first marathon... which is SO exciting!! The aim of last night's run was to spend a decent amount of time on your feet and to learn to keep going when you're tired, because you will get tired at some point on the day! But all of you absolutely smashed it. It was cold, the run was long but we all made it back and no one sneaked back on the train... SUCCESS!!!

Our run

So we set off from The London Marathon store after a quick little warm up outside. Our route took us out of central London, down Commercial Road and towards Canary Wharf (where you'll be at around Mile 15 of the marathon!). We came off the main road and joined onto the Thames Path and 5 miles later we had found the lovely Greenwich Foot Tunnel!!! For those that weren't too keen on the tunnel, just be thankful it wasn't the Woolwich one!!

We arrived at the Royal Hill garden and were greeted by Jonathan. Everyone grabbed some rakes and other various tools and started tidying up. We moved bricks, plant pots, compost bags and before we knew it we were done. With 22 people it doesn't take long! Even though there wasn't a huge amount to do, hopefully it was a welcome break after your 9k run!

It was getting pretty chilly so after the film team were done with their interviews, we set back off again! South of the river this time, via the Cutty Sark (probably the most iconic landmark of the marathon which you will see at around the 10km mark!). After 4 miles we reached Tower Bridge with some spectacular views of our awesome city! This is when you'll get a huge boost from the deafening roars of the crowds and it also signifies the half way point of the marathon (or thereabouts!).

We arrived back at the London Marathon Store to pick up our stuff and called it a night!!!

GoodGym near you

If you enjoyed the run last night then be sure to check out your local GoodGym area as we do these group runs (but slightly shorter!) every week in pretty much every London borough and up and down the country, so there's lots of ways to get involved and run to do good with your community! You can see all the events here!

Top tips for the final weeks!

One of our GoodGym Greenwich runners and 2:36 marathoner Ben has written up a great list of things to focus on in the last few weeks leading up to the marathon so give it a read here.

Amazing running last night everyone! Hope you had a great time! See you on April 22nd! Good luck and most importantly have fun!!! It'll be a day you will never forget!