Last night eight runners braved the rain to help out at a local foodbank, got completely soaked, and still ended the night with a smile on their faces. What a team.

It started at the Town Hall with a little light drizzle and a lot of good news. Well done to Dave and Andy who both did great times at the Gunnersbury parkrun this weekend, to Remy, who gritted her teeth and beat the grueling Winshester half marathon, to Natasha who smashed a 5k race, and to Will, who joined us after an intense 10k the night before. What a week of running.

With a short warm up and a quick discussion about our favourite chocolate bars - which ranged from healthy dark chocolate and lime to good old Lion bars - we set off on the 3k run to Ealing Road Baptist Church. Shout out to Jennifer who had a great run down there, and to Michelle for battling jetlag womanfully! We also saw some excellent fartlek from Andy, Will and Remy.

Roger, the Pastor, was waiting for us with water and jobs as we soggily trooped into the building. A quick shake off and we were ready to get stuck in. It started with stacking books and chairs, which we completed in no time at all, before we moved onto the foodbank which Roger runs for local communities in need. With Will and Adam skillfully dismantling a stack of shelves the rest of us formed a (somewhat chaotic at points) human chain to empty and pack up the food. It turned out to be a lot of fun as well as a good upper body work out. Even if we did have to have several attempts at taking the video. " You actually have to move" said Natasha.

By the time the jobs were done the rain was coming even more steadily, which gave us a nice opportunity to 'cool down'. We're fighting a embittered battle to 'Beat the Streets' in Hounslow at the moment, and each have a card which we tap against a whole load of stations across the borough to record how far we've covered. So, despite the rain, off we went looking for meters, happily tapping and squatting our way round and noting all the good pubs that we weren't stopping at.

Before long we had made it back to our starting point, and with a few stretches we finished the night, already anticipating hot cups of Yorkshire tea, warm dressing gowns, even warmer showers and cold prosecco. Next week, it'll be warm and dry as we tackle the fly posters and graffiti under Turnham Bridge, so go on, sign up here.

Don't forget the social next Thursday at the fabulously named Blacksmith and Toffeemaker in Angel, where we will represent Hounslow at the monthly international pun of the month competition!

One big task, seven excellent runners, 180 seconds of plank and six confusing maps!

It all began at Chiswick Town Hall, as shown by the GoodGym poster on the wall which has categorically never covered any other poster on the noticeboard. Just saying.

You've been dong some great running this week, Hounslow. A big well done to Adam who has been notching up the runs, with a new parkrun PB on Saturday. Must be the beetroot bread! A hat tip too to Jo and Andy who are sailing through the good deeds. Don't forget that we might have our first 50th good deed to celebrate next Wednesday, so stick around after the run for a little fun to mark this great milestone.

This week's task was leafleting for Waterman's Art Centre. Not everybody's favourite task, but a very useful one for the charity. This weekend is the centre's River Weekender - a festival inspired for the river packed with free events for the whole community. Our job was to spread the word in the local area, and it began, as all good things do, with a run.

After a quick warm up featuring a rather natty side hop ("isn't this just...running?"), we set off on the 2k run down to Waterman's. But not before finding out our favourite condiments! There was no stand out winner this week, but ketchup, Lea & Perrins (other brands are available), dijon mustard, mint sauce (from the veggie), pepper, chutney and BBQ were all contenders. Lovely stuff.

A nice speedy run later we arrived at reception to be presented with a bulging trolley full of leaflets and a series of highlighted maps. Cue several minutes of trying to figure out what to do next ("isn't this the same map? Turn it upside down. No, the other way"). We soon cracked it though, and split up into groups to start putting leaflets through doors, into hands, pubs and travelodges before meeting up towards the end of the run to smash out a few door to door sprints.

We finished on a bit of a high after having delivered countless leaflets and enjoying a nice stretch when we were brought up short by the angriest flamenco teacher in town. No we didn't move your poster, mister. Still, we had the plank off to make us feel better, and what a plank off it was. The seconds ticked by and everybody was going strong - who was going to emerge victorious? Some great work from everybody, but this week the crown goes to Andy with an impressive 2 min 37 plank. Wowzer!

Next week it's going to be all sorts of fun planting bulbs and hopefully we'll have something to celebrate too. Sign up here for your Wednesday dose of goodness and fitness!

22 awesome runners ran 3km to clear leaves at Ballast Quay Garden!

After a few weeks of 7k+ runs, it was nice to stay local for a change! And you can't get more local than Ballast Quay!

We welcomed back Glenn who ran with us a few times earlier in the year but had a break to climb Mont Blanc... NICE!! We were also joined by the lovely Winnie who usually runs with GG Southwark :) And lastly, Helen who turned up with a little baby bump... amazing news!!! SO happy for you Helen!!!! Maybe if it's a boy you can call him Jim and if he's well behaved you can say Good Jim :)

After a little warm up we got on our way, starting off with a lap of the uni that much resembled the time trial route that was to come later on in the session! We arrived in no time and were greeted by the amazing Diane who has been looking after Ballast Quay Garden since the early 60s. Such a legend! And of course Tom the dog was there too! WOOF!

A few tasks were on the cards. The first one being a hedge/plant/thing that needed trimming back which Alex and Steve attacked straight away. Some heavy compost bags needed shifting from one side of the garden to the other. And finally, all the leaves needed clearing. There were two brooms and a dustpan and everyone else got stuck in with their hands, filling up the bins! After about 5 minutes, the first bin was full... but amazingly Diane said it was absolutely fine to just chuck all the compost and leaves over the edge of the wall into the Thames.... she even checked with the council! So that was fun.

20 minutes later and the place had never looked so tidy! AMAZING!

We took a group photo and even Tom decided to join us! Diane had kindly left out some juice and biscuits so a few people tucked in... gotta fuel that time trial!!!

Everyone's favourite fitness session

The first Wednesday of every month means only one thing, our 1km time trial around the uni! We have done this for a few months now, hopefully some of you are seeing some improvements???? Here is the official Strava leaderboard and you should be able to see all of your attempts on there too, provided it picked it up alright on your GPS.

After the TT, we had a nice little stretch and finished up a bit earlier than usual... the pub was calling after all!!! We headed to the Old Brewery for some food and drinks and were reunited with Mridula, Vickie and Pulin who went to do the mission in Shooter's Hill.

WHAT A LOVELY EVENING :)

Thanks so much for coming last night! I know there wasn't a huge amount of work for you all to do but you have saved Diane A LOT of time and effort and she really appreciates the work that you do so well done! See you next week for a NEW TASK!

Lights! Camera! Action!

Last night in Hounslow we were the (slightly sweaty) stars of the silver screen as the council had come along to make a little film about being active in the borough.

But before we could learn our lines and hit make up, we had our usual hellos and well dones. Hat tip to all that did park runs this week - way to go Matthew and David - and to Andy who is topping both the distance and good deed leagues. Have a look at the heroes boards to see where you are. But now Natasha has stopped her Strava flat lining who knows what will happen in the rankings!

After a quick warm up and some Chariots of Fire style shots of the group running, wind in our hair, past our starting point at the Town Hall, we set off on the 1.5 mile run to Waterman's Arts Centre. Dave took us on a lovely route under Kew Bridge and along the tow path. We must have looked quite the team with every single one of us in our red GG tshirts. Lovely stuff! Before long we made it to the centre - Waterman's is an amazing independent charity where all the money made is ploughed back into the organisation to allow the whole community access to arts, bringing them together through cultural participation.

We cracked straight on with our task, which was to weed the outside pathways which had become overgrown. We were given gloves and a range of tools including one which we could not work out - please see picture and if anybody can shed any light on it then let us know! There were also snails, lots of snails, which Remy and Natasha rescued.

Within half an hour the pathway was looking lovely and clear of weeds, so we set off back to the park to do a quick round of upper body, legs and core workouts. It was a speedy run back - well done team. We started with the arms - three rounds of tricep dips, wide arm press ups, and diamond press ups before moving on to legs, which involved doing lunges, mountain climbers (argh) and then a squat hold. We had a little break as a lovely person came over and asked what we were doing - we must have been a great advert for GoodGym! Then we finished off with a third round of core exercises featuring, of course, planks.

Next week we are off to help out Roger and the homeless shelter he runs at Ealing Road Baptist Church, which you can sign up to here which is going to be followed by a super special first ever Hounslow GG SOCIAL! I know. There are more details on the Hounslow GG facebook page or email me. Can't wait to see you there!

28 runners ran 5km to clear the garden at the Charlton United Reformed Church!

Well yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far and it was also the longest! Double whammy! And what a beautiful (read:sweaty) evening it was. I think between us we must have sweated enough to fill Charlton lido! Well I certainly did anyway. So big well done for coming out and running in those sticky conditions, you did GREAT!

It was also a special day because our very own Ben Cooper (aka Mr Greenwich) turned 50 last week (50 good deeds of course - you don't look a day over 25 Ben) so it was the perfect excuse to have a social after our run! And probably was the only thing keeping some people going by the end!

New recruits!

We were joined by 3 new runners yesterday... Vickie's friend Sarah, Brin's girlfriend Kerry and Scott who has run with GG Bromley before! WELCOME ALL!!!!

We did a little warm up in our usual spot, not that it took much to get everyone warm..! The two Bens led a faster group to the church while the rest of us attempted to take it easy! We went through the park, up a pretty awful hill (sorry) but everyone did it WITHOUT STOPPING which was AMAZING!!!! A little rest at the top, and a sweaty photo by the nice tree then we pushed on.

On arrival at the church, we met Andrew who took us through to get some water and some fake squash to Vickie's disappointment. It was definitely hotter inside than out so we got out of there pretty swiftly and cracked on! Group 1 had already got stuck in, hacking away at the garden and filling bin bags with weeds. There were plenty of tools to go around so we handed them out and got to work on the other side of the church!

We had a bit less time than I anticipated due to all my faffing and photos so the decision was made to skip the fitness session and stay a bit longer at the task. After 25 minutes, the place was looking AMAZING! Mission "sign Ben's card" was well under way and seemed to be more difficult than the task itself! Especially when Steve takes up 50% of the card with his sentiments!

A big group photo in front of the church and then we were ready to head back. We ran home as one big group which was lovely :) a nice little stretch on the grass and then that was it!

PUB TIME!!!

Alex had kindly booked some tables at the Old Brewery and I had totally forgotten about their outside space and it was LOVELY! Andy was spotted taste testing one of Mridula's INCREDIBLE cupcakes! At the run a few weeks ago, I asked everyone's favourite cake so she could make Ben's favourite... and of course he went for BLACK FOREST GATEAU. I remember seeing Mridula's eyes roll back so far into her head that day, but what an amazing job she did, they were DE-LISH!

The twins had kindly prepped a quiz for Mr Greenwich about all things Greenwich and I think it's safe to say that everyone was blown away by Ben's Greenwich knowledge! Lots of food and drinks later and we headed home. What a lovely evening!

Thanks so much for coming everyone! Hope you had a nice time and well done for coping so well in that heat! For those of you who are new or who haven't yet, please join our GoodGym Greenwich FB group! See you next week where we are helping out again at Neil's school!

GoodGym Greenwich smashed all previous records AGAIN last night with a whopping 33 of you running 8km to help the Scouts!

Last night was AAAAAAMAZING. The weather was slightly nicer than the complete washout we had last week, plus we had our biggest turnout EVER in Greenwich. It doesn't seem long ago that I had Taylor Swift in my head after 22 of you came... never did I think it would continue to grow this much... you guys are AWESOME!!!

We welcomed quite a few new faces to the group last night which is GREAT! Big thanks to recruiters Helen and Mridula for bringing their colleagues Maria & Irina. We were joined by two lovely gents Pulin & Nick. We also welcomed back Amy G after a little break and the wonderful Jack from Wandsworth who travelled quite a distance to get to Greenwich, but we're worth it aren't we Jack :) GIVE THEM ALL A CHEER!

HOLIYAY

The headcount used to take about 4 seconds, now it has become part of the ritual and takes a good 5 minutes to go around everyone! Favourite thing pivoted slightly last night to next holiday destination (inspired by the sunshine obviously) and it was great to hear where you're all off to. There were some pretty exotic ones, Swindon in particular, Alex and Steve please could you take me in your suitcase????

We dropped off our stuff, did a quick little warm up and split into 2 groups. Ben with the hat and Ben with the hat led a fast group who we lost sight of in about 40 seconds. The rest of us went at a slightly more leisurely pace :) We went through the park, everyone smashed it up the hill, had a 60 second breather and then pushed on!

20 minutes later we arrived at the scouts. Group 1 had already got themselves stuck in which was great to see! Scout Leader Alan explained the tasks that needed to be done. Arguably the most exciting of which was putting up the flagpole! This is something that has been on our list of things to do the last couple of times we've been here but we've never actually got round to doing it. But last night it was ON! George got started and he dug deep... literally.

"Tonight Matthew, I'm gonna be..."

With a little help from Christian, Elliot & Steve the cement was ready to go in, which created a lovely Stars In Their Eyes puff of smoke. Steve filled a bucket with "water" and chucked it down the hole and 5 minutes later it had set... JOB DONE.

In the meantime, other people were painting shutters, weeding in the jungle, filling fox holes (don't worry Nina there were no baby foxes in there), axing trees... literally everything was going down. 8pm approached and it was time to get going. We had a group photo by the wonderful flagpole which kind of looked a bit naked without a flag on it, just a white stick in the ground basically.... but it had to be done. We headed back the way we came, by this point the sun was a little less fierce which made for a lovely chilled run back. Since we were a bit later than planned and everyone had already run 8km, we skipped the fitness session and went straight into some nice stretching... you're welcome :) Trying to up my game after hearing other GG groups do yoga in their sessions haha!

Brownie points!

We went to stuff our faces with some amazing brownies baked by the equally amazing Mridula! Then we parted ways.... until next time gang!!!

For those of you who are new, here is the link to our ever growing Facebook group where people post about races and missions and well, anything really! Please join :)

Amazing job last night everyone! Thanks for getting stuck in as always, that would have taken Alan a whole day (if not more) to get everything done that you did in half an hour so really well done!!! And congratulations on, once again, being a part of our biggest ever run! YOU GUYS ROCK!! XXX

Hey, spring! Where did you go? It's very rude to lure us in with your pretty sun and warm weather, only to whip it away again so we have to start our runs in the cold and damp. Still, it didn't put off five runners ready to get fit and do good in Hounslow, for we are GoodGym.

We had a lovely new runner, Barry join us for the first time last night. Barry, like a total legend, has recently given up smoking, so he deserves a double cheer. Go on, GoodGym, do the double click! We also said a big well done to Andy, Toni and Dave who are all topping the Hounslow leader boards. Great work.

After a chat about the upcoming missions this weekend ( if you fancy it you can sign up here)we did a few quick stretches, and found out where everybody's favourite place in the world is - answers ranged from Spain, Tenerife, and Rome to anywhere by the sea. Lovely stuff!

It was a good two mile run to the task this week, so we set off on a nice route that meandered by the river. After no time at all we arrived at the Friends of Cathja shop in Brentford, an amazing charity that supports local people with enduring health problems. The warehouse is full to the brim with every kind of donation you could imagine, but our job this week was to sort out a towering pile of books into manageable boxes. While testing our spatial awareness we had great fun flinging bags of things over the donation mountain. We came across every book, from The Very Hungry Caterpillar (remember that?) to The Bible in Spanish, and before long we had amassed a huge pile of boxes full of books ready to sell.

We all (sort of) agreed the run back felt much shorter, maybe because we were discussing what was for dinner. While Alannah and Barry debated the merits (or not) of KFC, Andy made us feel tired as he did a couple of tough loops of hard running, and we even managed to find out a bit about the amazing history of this corner of Hounslow. A jam packed run back! After a few stretches, our Wednesday run drew to a close. But it was not without making a difference to our local community, plus getting a good long run in. Well done team! Next week we're off to help the homeless at Ealing Baptist Church, you can sign up here (and I hope you do!):

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/a-helping-hand-for-the-homeless