Ten jewels in the Brent crown braved the unpredictable weather (Storm Angus will have to do better than that to stop this bunch doing good!!!) to run to Ashford Place, London's first 24-hour shelter for the homeless dedicated to promoting inclusion and reducing isolation.

We were delighted to see a rather more hirsute Dan back in the ranks after a break and a brief foray into GoodGym Barnett - but we forgave him ;-P... especially as he's been busy growing a Movember moustache, good for you Dan, keep it up! We also welcomed Fausto back to the fold after a few months' break, and long-standing and newer runners, Elisa, Tania, Deborah, Tabitha, Enrique, Clare Mouse, Mel, and cover run leader Claireybell.

Our friendly group managed to recruit two more runners for next week's run before we even left our base at the Queensbury pub, good work guys!

We managed to tear ourselves away from the glowing pub fire and out into the night (which wasn't as cold as it looked from indoors!), leaping over puddles and piles of wet leaves like sprightly pixies to avoid soggy socks and squelchy shoes.

After a short run and a quick stretch, we arrived at Ashford Place where Alan met us and explained what he wanted us to do, opening the door to a room bursting with bags of donations and furniture - our task - to make it look "different"... So we rolled up our sleeves and hauled out bags and bags of clothes, bedding and toiletries, sorted, re-bagged, and labelled, a jumble of chaos into an orderly oasis of organisation and calm - it was one of those jobs that you would put off forever if you had to do it on your own as it would have taken 2 days, but ...

with ten pairs of hands, we had it done in about 20 minutes!

We still had time to fit in a run to Gladstone Park where we set to some tempo runs cleverly disguised as a game... we ran a loop of the park in single file, with the person at the back having to accelerate to make it up to the front of the pack again, the person at the front setting the pace - there was definitely some healthy competition going on with Deborah and Tabitha leaving us in the dust as they vied for the lead. We finished off with some cool down stretches and a jog back up the hill to base again.

A quick reminder, if you are interested in coming to a GG Brent Christmas meal and/or drinks (no run involved, lycra and high-viz optional, name badges will be provided for identification purposes...), there is a doodle poll on GoodGym Brent's Facebook page, we will confirm the date by the end of this week.

Well done guys, keep shining your light around Brent and beyond!

18 Arctic warfare trained GoodGymers turned out to the second group run at Goodgym Sheffield. This week we headed over to a local project next to Heeley City Farm. A company called Strip the Willow is building affordable eco houses that are made from more than 80% recycled materials. Our task was to clear the land at the side of the show home and fill up some planters with the soil which were made from reclaimed timber.

We met at the beautiful Copthorne hotel, had a quick brief and head count, then were away....

The task was just over a kilometer from the start location so we treated it as a warm up and took the opportunity to chat n run. The Sheffield group sure are a sociable lot.

We met Jon, the project manager, who issued our tools and showed us where we needed to dig and where to put the soil. He also explained the nature of the project and his ambitions to provide more and more affordable eco houses across the city. There was a huge pile of building materials we needed to move out of the way which seemed to be cleared in seconds. Jon kindly provided water and juice for our team of merry Goodgymers which was gratefully received.

Hills pay the bills

Once again we had more volunteers than spades, so we split the group in two. Group one started the task and group 2 Joined Tom, a member of Goodgym who happens to be a ninja PT instructor. Tom took each group in turn through some conditioning drills and a few gallops up the steep hill adjoining the farm.

Due to the locality of the task we spent a good 50 minutes digging, barrowing, shifting, talking and stacking. It was immense to see exactly how much we can get done in such a short space of time.

After all that excitement we jogged home and stretched those muscle fibers as Alex told us of his experiences as a coach runner in Sheffield. Thanks, Alex. We can't wait to have you back in Steel City.

Next week we head deep in to Sheffield city centre to clear litter and do a fitness session in the peace gardens (renamed beast gardens). We will also be armed with flyers to help us recruit some more Sheffield Goodgymers among the late night shoppers. This will be a great task once again. Hope to see you there. 6:30pm, Copthorne Hotel, every Monday. Register by clicking here https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/litter-grabbing-flash-mob-followed-by-city-centre-interval-training

Thank you all for coming along in the cold weather. I think you are all amazing

What do Catwoman, several south London Zombies, a giant spider, Pikachu, a banana in his pyjamas, some vampires and bats, plus a whole host of the undead have in common?

They all met in Wandsworth last night for a mammoth run where GoodGym became BadGym for one night only….

Scream if you want to go faster

It was a huge turnout with no less than 36 runners ready to take to the streets, and we had a number of excellent new faces. Hello to Amanuel, Anna, Leanne, Maddy, Rebekah, Eva, and Molina and a huge welcome. It was also lovely to see our ace Greenwich visitors Steve, Alex and Christian. Come again soon, and we will definitely be visiting your home ground!

Before we hit the road looking like the cast of Thriller, we had a special Halloween themed CoRUNdrum to think about while we ran. Jack O’lanterns traditionally used to be carved out of which fruit or vegetable before we started using pumpkins?

Be-corpse we’re (Wands) Worth it

With Catwoman and Spiderwoman backmarking, we limped, groaned, shuffled and dragged our undead selves down to our Halloween themed task at St Paul’s Churchyard and its neighbouring community garden. With a few stops along the way to do some horrible high knees and jumping Jack o’lanterns we were there in no time, ready to move a pile of wood from the garden into the churchyard ready for the annual bonfire at the weekend. There was also plenty to do in the decomposing compost bins, plus dead leaves to rake and logs to stake, I mean, stack. With the task done it was a sprint to the common to play some fiendish running games. We turned a few heads as we went, and even earned a salute from a mini-Trump with accurately sized hands.

Team spirits

First off was Zombie Tag, with Maddy, Emma then Ben and Trish all sprinting hard to tag as many victims as they could. Then it was Team John (who is the mysterious John?) versus Team Rocket in a terrifyingly competitive game of capture the flag. Pikachu made a valiantly fluorescent bid for the prize, with The Banana following in his yellowy footsteps, but it was a photo finish by Jack from Team John and Amanuel from Team Rocket.

We finished with an epic relay. It was Team Rocket V Team Lame Rocket V Team John V Team John Paul (names need a bit of work, guys) and it was a fight to the death. OK, not to the death, but to the finish line. Well done to Team John who cleared up with a resounding win, but congratulations to you all for some spooktacular sprinting.

It was dead fun

Back to our starting point we ran with a frantic game of Beat the Reaper (thank you Lambeth for this great idea!). Grim Reapers Jack and David gave the group a 2:45 head start, before trying to chase us down in a race back to the Battersea Arts Centre. Nothing like a bit of fear to get those legs pumping. Well done to those speedy reapers for managing to hunt down about half the group.

Then it was a well-earned social with prizes back at the bar to raise our spirits. We took a vote on our GoodGym tree, with plum, cherry and pineapple all making the shortlist and Pineapple emerging as the final choice. Photos of the tree itself and its accompanying signboard coming soon. It was Ben that cleverly solved the CoRunDrum by knowing that turnips used to be carved before we all started using pumpkins for our jack o’lanterns. Good knowledge!

We all munched on Catwoman’s delicious homemade snacks (thanks Sally!) while we took our second vote of the night to decide best costume. Congratulations to Spiderwoman (the lovely and usually two-legged Hannah) and to the freakin’ scary blonde clown-faced zombie Amanuel – who deserves a mention for basically sweeping the board for wins last night. He also went on later to show us how it’s done on the racing track with a resounding victory. Was it the wig that did it, or sheer talent? We’ll find out next week! Meanwhile Kylee and Ana proved that fast on the athletics track does not necessarily translate to fast on the racing track….

A big hat tip goes to Matthew who rose to the challenge, and proved his commitment to GoodGym by having never missed a group run since the Wandsworth group was established. Brilliant, keep it up Matthew!

Thanks for a frightfully fun night team Wandsworth – same again next week (minus the fake blood). You can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/long-ish-run-to-granard-primary-school