There was lots going on tonight, there was news of Olympics, 100km races, Tug of War and monthly socials – with some, one and none taking part in each of them.

With regards to the GG Olympics on 3rd August, T mentioned how we each need to sign up individually on the GG website and that there are a number of events we can get involved in , including egg and spoon and sack race. T will be putting together a spreadsheet of events for us all to put our names against.

Tonight though, all runners (13 of us) were taking part in an adventure, the adventure, that’s right…the adventure playground was back!

But first of all, we were put through our paces with a rather adventurous warm-up – think…bootcamp style, “drop down and give me 10…press ups, burpees, dips, squat jumps and other exercises that got us ready to tackle the run ahead. Before we set off Mark announced the delightful news that tonight we would have the pleasure of …a hill! Oh, we do know how to have a good time in Richmond! As we set off we all wondered what hill it could me, there was nightingale whispers and church road panics, but it was Kings Road that saw us to the top. Some of us paused for a second as we took in the beautiful view at the top of Richmond Hill across Petersham Meadows.

Now, stopping for a moment may have been a mistake as a few of us were now further behind than we would have liked to be. Thankfully with the GG shirts in the distance as our beacon we were confident we would get to the task location. And we did get there…but some of us took longer to get there than others, now you see when one GG shirt follows another GG shirt that thought they were following the right route, a few extra GG shirts end up running another 2km’s further than they needed to.

We live and learn!

Once at Marble Hill Park and at the adventure playground we were put to work by Claire who had some of us sanding down chairs and doors, so they were ready to paint, while the rest of us were litter picking and weeding. We were kitted out with all the necessities, including face masks to protect us form the sawdust and Lego to help with the sanding (see photo for evidence). It was a tough old workout, and by the end of it our arms were aching, and there was more sand around us than an Egyptian pyramid but Claire was chuffed with how much we got done. All that was left was to of course, have a go on the big swing once more (also see photos for evidence).

Once the adventures were had we headed back to Wholefoods along the river (for the second time for some people) and welcomed a well-deserved stretch and cool down – Oh, and just to finish of the night we also decided to walk like an Egyptian – well why not eh!

And if you are wondering about the pun, watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq7DGvfnr3U

and here's our version...

Walk like an Egyptian#runninggroup #Mondays #volunteering #Richmond #wholefoods #fitness #fun #marblehill #adventure pic.twitter.com/TkZRZ9UOoU

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) June 4, 2019

Now it was questionable whether Richmond is in fact a Royal Borough, however, even if it turns out that we aren’t – our curtesy lunges should qualify! We gathered on the green to warm up and of course talk new Royal baby news…” what do you think they will call him…Chad?” “It doesn’t matter apparently as he won’t be a Prince…. he will have to suffer with the title Duke or something mediocre like that!” (I paraphrase of course!)

After we had written what I am sure will be an episode to feature on “The Crown” as well as racing each other backwards across Richmond Green we headed to ETNA Community Centre to collect our leaflets to deliver to the residents.

Last night we were representing 3 charitable organisations and delivering leaflets for them, advertising all the great work they do. Richmond Council Volunteering Service (RCVS) were promoting their May Fair, ETNA Community Centre were spreading the news about their Jack and Jill Fair later this month and Richmond Museum were updating us on their annual news as well as another wonderful event - The Trumpeters House Garden Party in June.

We split into 3 teams, each representating one organisation and split the streets of Richmond between us to spread the good news. As with every leafleting task we were on guard for dogs, stiff letterboxes and dodgy looking basement flats and we all made it back to Wholefoods in time having delivered all our flyers. Unfortunately, we were just slightly too late back to enjoy the core session Mark had planned, darn it, must have been the smell of the delicious dinners luring us in around the Kew area that caused the delay.

Once stretched we all headed to The Tap Tavern for our monthly social where we cheered the runners who ventured out for the 10-mile Thames Trot on Sunday and to T for getting a sub 25 minute Park Run at the weekend.

A big welcome to Faye for joining us tonight on her first run who was reminded to join Goodgym by seeing us running along the Thames Path and to Eliza on her second run with GoodGym so far.

Super work all for a great Bank Holiday evening - See you next week for a slightly bigger run to Whitton Youth Zone!

We were so egg-cited to get back to Richmond Music Trust that 12 of us turned up to paint on Easter Sunday and we all had a cracking time! This was the treble (base) , the 3rd act of our painting task and we just rolled with it.

We got to work finishing off the final coats of paint so that the walls were a crisp bright white as well as cleaning and moving the shelving units back so that the music room could start to look like it's old self. It was an egg-traordinary big room but with such a symphony of painters and keen bunnies, we were finished in less than an hour

Painting on Easter Sunday? We just rolled with it!
Great to help out @RMT_richmond pic.twitter.com/QJH46Lv26G

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) April 21, 2019

Aileen was a fantastic task owner once more , putting in many painting hours. Richmond Music Trust is a wonderful organisation that provides music lessons for the children in the community as well as music therapy.

A huge well done to everyone , especially to our Run Trainer Mark , James , Catherine and Gillian on completing their first Community Mission and a big thank you to Lenka for choosing to celebrate your birthday with us

Happy Easter everyone - check out this brilliant Easter song - https://youtu.be/sOVFn2oZXWE

It was all yellow in the (Cold-)playground as we all went barking mad. Well we got into the swing of things at least…

A bright but chilly Monday evening saw the Goodgym gang gathered at Wholefoods for a fun-filled task in Marble Hill Park. Mark and Jenna were away so the run was led by Olivia of House Ealing, and while we missed Mark’s warm-up enormously (ahem!) nobody was complaining too much that Olivia’s version was a little less strenuous 😉

Olivia, by the way, is GoodGym’s new guru of participation, driving up membership and involvement across the whole of the GG network – so if you want to share your ideas look her up and get in touch!

Off we went from Wholefoods, taking a familiar route up the hill and weaving through the streets back to Hill Rise and down onto Petersham Road, past “our” flower bed (coming up nicely now!) and then coming face to face with the nemesis that is Nightingale Lane. Without breaking stride we bent heads and powered up the hill, cheering each other on and high-fiving at the top. Good to get that one out of the way nice and early…

Then it was a short run back down and across the bridge, down through East Twickenham and to our destination, Marble Hill Park (whose beautiful grand house, we learned from the entry-sign, was home to George II’s mistress) and its playground of swings and zipwires – a trip down memory lane for those of us who grew up nearby 😊

We were welcomed by task owner Claire and divided into two groups. One group was briefed to turn over and rake the wood chips under the swings - these guys definitely did give a fork (or rake); and the other group grabbed pots of yellow paint (kindly donated by Dulux) and gave the wooden frames a sunny spruce-up - they definitely didn't give their work the brush off (pretty sure this pun came up last time...).

We set to work and were soon making great progress, no doubt spurred on by the promise of a go on the biggest rope swing as rewards for our efforts. It was great to be out doing good in the mellow evening light, and as usual the team did an excellent job on both parts of the task. A couple of Tarzan and Jane impressions on the rope swing later we rounded it off with a photo of a classic GoodGym group pose – with some bikes and trikes that might have been a little on the small side. And then we wound our way back to Richmond for some hill sprint relays and Sally squats!

A big welcome to Millie who recently moved up from Bournemouth (where she was already a GoodGymer) and joined the Richmond ranks, and huge thanks to Olivia for filling in for Mark so brilliantly 😊