LET’S EAT PIZZA! So, GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come!

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37 (!!!) brave and intrepid GoodGymers made it out to GoodGym Camden on a drizzly Wednesday night for another two-task night. We welcomed a shiny new person to the Camden herd - hello Hanna, I hope you enjoyed yourselves tonight.

Next week's run will be to C4WS again as well as back to Cecil Sharp House - sign up here if you want to get ahead of the game!

After a quick intro, we stretched and split up into two groups - C4WS (the Homeless Shelter) was led by our trusty light provider Hanry, the Scope group by me.

Arriving at Scope just before 7:30, we stormed the shop, met Helen and her incredibly organised list of activities for us to get stuck into before we split into teams:

• Team Jewellery
• Team Shoes
• Team Rag or Bag
• Team Shirley
• And finally, what can only be described as Team Fancy Dress.

A monster task - and one that we’ll definitely have to come back to - was to sort and price jewellery for the shop. No special marks for correctly identifying that this was Team Jewellery’s domain!

Also down on the shop floor there was some dusting, cleaning and organising of a shoe rack to be done, efficiently tackled by Team Shoes.

In the back we had Team Rag og Bag running a tight ship, leading the sort through of donations into bags that the shop will keep and sell and one they’ll recycle. Like a little production line of elves, they worked away right until the final minute we were there.

Upstairs were both Team Shirley (the brilliant husband and wife team of John and Jackie and Team Fancy Dress. Team Shirley were in charge with cleaning the upstairs bannisters, kitchen and floors which they did magnificently if I say so myself.

Finally, Team Fancy Dress! De-facto led by Rosie in a jumpsuit/Oompa Loompa dual-purpose item, there was steaming, sorting through, pricing and tagging clothes to go out onto the shop floor. See the photos for some particularly sharp Christmas suits, great wigs and strong Christmas jumpers!

Just gone 8pm, we waved goodbye to Helen and headed back to the Living Centre to meet back up with Hanry’s homeless shelter team for a final stretch and cool down.

Over at C4WS, the team did a fantastic job of making up 16 male beds and 4 female beds for the homeless users of the church. Jonathan was very impressed with what you achieved, so well done everyone! After the task was done there, it was a run over to Granary Square for some laps and fitness before heading back and regrouping.

We had a particularly good turnout at the pub after the run tonight. Everyone is welcome and it’s a great way to carry on chatting to GoodGym folks over a drink. Abi is the de-facto pub leader, and I know she’d love to see you there if you fancy coming along next time.

COMMUNITY MISSION ALERT: David from Russell Square Garden got in touch to say how impressed he was with our work a few weeks ago in the bulb-planting and fence-post-putting-up and asked if we might be able to come and [clear some leaves this Saturday 2:30-4:30.] Please do come along and help out - Liz is bringing cake!

NEXT WEEK: We’re going to be running back to the Home of Folk (Cecil Sharp) and C4WS again next week for some more leaf-clearing and bed-making. Would be great to see you there and you should definitely sign up now!

LET’S EAT PIZZA: So GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come.

Happy running,

Ben

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.

29 GoodGymers braced the drizzle with GoodGym Camden on Wednesday night's run up to the Kentish Town City Farm.

Turning up at the Living Centre to locked doors and nobody at Reception, we decamped to the main Crick Institute reception for our intro. We had a load of new runners with us tonight, as well as a group of tourists from GoodGym Tower Hamlets. Welcome Andy, May, and Khaliun! You certainly picked a good night to join us, and I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

We'll be running back to the Kentish Town City Farm next week for the marquee takedown by the way - get your name down for some goat petting and manure-bag moving!

After a rapid fire intro and warmup we got going - so the question was asked of the new runners to find out what actuallyis the difference between a community mission and a mission? Do you know? Answers at the bottom of this report please!

Our task

Arriving to the sweet smell of wafting manure, we met Mel from the City Farm who told us all about the task:

• Assembling and erecting the two marquees ahead of their annual Apple Day on Sunday.

We split into two teams and got stuck in, using wheelbarrows, people power and our headtorches - thanks again this week Hanry - we marched up to the field to get them built.

Teams seem to be becoming a regular thing in these reports, and this week was no different; Marquee Team A were pitted against Marquee Team B in the battle of the marquees.

Which poles went where proved to be a challenge for both teams, but with the best GoodGym minds at work both marquees were up in 15 minutes flat, with Team B being the far and away winners. With both marquees up, it was time to gather the manure bags to tie to the bottom of the poles to make sure they didn't fly away in a gust of wind.

With our task completed - and 24 bags of poo tied (pendulously some might add) - we assembled for a team photo and after an extra 5 minutes petting the goats and checking on the piggies we said goodbye to Mel and sprinted back to the Living Centre for a cool down and - for some of us - a trip to the pub.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS GALORE: As mentioned on the run, there's not one but TWO community missions to get stuck in with this week. Thursday (24th) will be another trip to Story Garden. Turn up from 5pm and help do some good with Abi. For those of you who can't do weekdays, Mel and the team would love to see you up at the Kentish Town City Farm on the Apple Day itself this coming Sunday from 11am-4pm. Liz is organising this one - head here to sign up. Don't worry if you can't do the whole time, just comment on the signup page which hours you can do.

NEXT WEEK: So next time, we'll be running back up to the Kentish Town City Farm for Apple Day Part 2 (The Takedown!) to take down the marquees we put up last night. It's yet another opportunity to pet the goats and see the oinking pigs, so there really is no excuse good enough not to attend.

Happy Running!

Ben