Some observant regular attendees of Camden Goodgym might notice that Trainer Ben looked a bit different this week.

That is because this week’s session was actually led by Trainer Simon of Goodgym Islington, popping over to do some Goodgym tourism (we set off at 6.45pm every Monday from the Emirates Stadium if you were interested…).

14 intrepid runners met us at the St Pancras Living Centre last night, including John Shirley, who was celebrating his 5th year anniversary as a Goodgym runner (his first ever run was a Camden task in Chalk Farm, which involved lots of heavy lifting of compost. He still came back for more!).

Before we set off to our two tasks (C4WS and Cecil Sharp House), Trainer Simon asked the group for a film recommendation during the "Count Off". Our suggestions included:

• The Breadwinner
• Lights Out
• The Thomas Crowne Affair
• O Brother Where Art Thou
• The Revenant
• Parasite
• CATS (but only when intoxicated)
• It's Such a Beautiful Day
• Only Yesterday
• Grave of Fireflies

Genuinely excellent recommendations- and some very high brow options! You can see Goodgym Islington's recommendations on Monday's Run Report here.

C4WS American International Church (written by Beth)

“5 of us ran to the American International Church to make beds for the C4WS homeless shelter. With twelve beds to make we got to work straight away and had them all done in record time. The team work and focus on preparing the beds before the guests arrived was amazing - huge well done to everyone involved! The team from C4WS were particularly grateful that we turned up as a number of their other volunteers had not come in due to coronavirus. They told us a little bit about the guests they were expecting that evening and the difference the shelter makes to their lives.”

“On the way back we did a fitness session involving lunges, sprints, side steps etc. I hope you all enjoyed the adrenaline of tonight’s rapid bed-making task, especially Greta, whose first time it was this evening!”

Cecil Sharp House

Trainer Simon lead a team of 7 runners towards Mornington Crescent, and across to Cecil Sharp House, the home of English folk music and dance. Upon our arrival, we met with Susanna, the volunteer coordinator and were shown to the lovely back garden of the centre. Our task involved aerating the green turf to help the ground to recover after months of constant use, and our crew were given forks and very scary looking spiked shoes to achieve this!

The Goodgymmers spread themselves across the garden in a consistent line, and every corner of the turf had been moved and manipulated, and that the same areas were not treated twice. Hard work, but our team completed the whole task in 30 minutes (Susanna mentioned that it would often take her team half a day to achieve the same result)! We even had time to scuff a few cracks in paving slabs before making our return journey to the Somers Town Living Centre.

Upon our return, we were treated to special vegan chocolate brownie, baked by John Shirley himself, and a few refreshing beverages at the Somers Town Coffee House for good measure!

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NEWS

Compton Terrace Gardens Community Mission

Saturday 14th March, 10-1pm at Compton Terrace Gardens. A perfect post-Highbury Fields parkrun task!

One of our lovely GG Islington task owners will be leading a work day at Compton Terrace Gardens, a great green space right outside the union chapel. Mission expert Liz Mills has agreed to lead the session along with some of the neighbourhood regulars to assist with clearing, tidying, lifting and shovelling work- super outdoors workout fun! Sign up here!

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CREOS March

Sunday 15th March, 11-1pm at Crouch End Open Space, 85 - 87 Wood Vale, Crouch End. One of the longest running, and best, community missions. Come for the gardening, stay for for the picnic!

Crouch End Open Space is inviting the Goodgym team back to help with their monthly community green space maintenance project. Local volunteers meet up to keep the neighbourhood area as beautiful as possible, and to make sure that the pathways are accessible for everyone to enjoy this popular spot. All helpers will be treated to a great car boot picnic and hot drink afterwards! Sign up here to get involved!

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The Arc Centre Deep Clean and Free Fitness Session

Sunday 22nd March, 5.30-7.30pm at The Arc Community Centre, Islington

Goodgym have been asked to help out The Arc Community Centre with some bi-monthly cleaning and tidying tasks- a great indoor activity to wrap up the weekend. In return, we have access to the main hall and the accompanying gardens before the the task. Trainer Simon will be offering a free all abilities circuit training session before we start with the cleaning duties. Strength and conditioning are under valued pursuits for a lot of runners, and we will be introducing some simple body weight exercises you can do as part of a group (the best way IMHO!) or in your own free time. Sign up here for doing good and getting fit!

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Seeking Mermaid Mamas at Highbury Fields parkrun!

Saturday 28th March, 8.30-10am at Highbury Fields parkrun

Mini Mermaids Running Club are a lovely organisation set up to introduce under 11 boys and girls to running and the positive physical and psychological benefits of regular exercise. They offer an 8 week training program in local schools and community groups to help youngsters to achieve a 5km target (whether this be walked, run, skipped, hula-hooped etc).

We would love to have a great Goodgym support crew available on the day to cheer these young people on! And we are actively looking for 10 female Goodgymmers to act as "Mama Mermaids" for some of the young girls. Your role would be to guide your selected participant to their goal, running alongside them, and offering encouragement along the way.

For more information, and to sign up, click here!

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Mighty Mighty Market Road Gardens

Saturday 28th March, 11.30-2.30pm at Market Road Gardens, Caledonian Road

After the excitement of your local parkrun (and some social coffee time afterwards), we will be hosting our regular gardening task at Market Road Gardens, a lovely green space set up by Octopus Communities that Goodgym have almost completely renovated over the past 6 months!

The gardens are looking to host an open day in April (with the intention of procuring a friends trust for ongoing maintenance), and are hoping to invite our Goodgym community to assist with some finishing touches to the gardening project.

Sign up here for more information. It will be a good one!

10 amazing GoodGymers ran 6k to deliver 400 leaflets to promote a new Back care and Osteoporosis tackling class for Open Age charity!

Not a sunset in sight but GoodGym brightened up the Westminster sky with a brilliant run, task, run to help Open Age charity combat social isolation and inactivity in Westminster’s over 50’s with a heavily subsidised new class which focuses on a strong core, healthy back and improved bone health!

Running out to Marylebone through the buzz of Carnaby Street, the bustle of Oxford Street and the calm of Regent’s Park we made good running progress.

Splitting off into mini groups we zipped around finding as many residential dwellings to post a flyer as we could. Surrounding the centre where the class will take place we hopefully grabbed a few more willing participants for the class. 400 leaflets all dropped off and more miles under our belts doing it we zipped back to base at a lovely pace making it back to Marshall Street perfectly on time and ready for a little warm up as we circled the pool.

Thanks for coming along! Hope you all enjoyed the session, hope to see you again soon!

Joel