22 Goodgymers ran 3-5k to help Single Homeless Project and Caledonian Park!

Welcome along to newbie Esther - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. You've got until Thursday to enter the GG Olympics which takes place on Saturday 3rd August. #TeamIslington
2. On 22nd September GoodGym is off to take on the Scottish Half Marathon/10k in Edinburgh - trains and accommodation will be booked soon - full details here.
3. Join the Unofficial GoodGym Facebook group here.

Caledonian Park Team:

Eleven of us headed over to Caledonian Park where we met Miriam, Head of the Friends of Caledonian Park. The group with help from volunteers like us are improving lots of areas of the park.

Our task this evening was to get rid of two huge areas of laurel plants which are redundant plants but also poisonous - with there leaves capable of releasing cyanide.

The area will be used to make an aputheatre which will be just lovely. Using forks, saws, a pick axe and various other tools two groups of five worked hard over 40 mins to get loads done - awesome!

We then ran home to eat Scandi biscuits and stretch.

Scandalous biscuits!

Tip-top woodchip shifting by GA:

Meanwhile, 10 entrepid runners joined team woodchip ran over to Islington’s Single Homelessness Project, where we shovelled a giant pile woodchip from the road outside onto the front and back garden of one of their houses.

With the humidity proving no match for 10 dedicated GoodGym runners efforts, we made short work of the woodchip pile, whilst tidying up the gardens at the same time. This made - and I quote from our - “a massive difference”. The garden is now ready for new plants to go in, in the Autumn. Top work!

Taking a different route back, we looped along the streets back to the emirates for everyone’s favourite summertime activity: Emirates hill sprints! Dividing into two groups, great to see lots of enthusiasm for squatting, springing, and star-jumping. The holy trinity of summer exercise.

Woodchip shifted; workout smashed. Well done team.

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Mildmay Community Centre and Ramsey Flowers Group.

PB out

27 Goodgymers ran 3-5k to help Thornhill Square Gardens and Frelighters City Farm!

Welcome along to Cosmo and Becky whose first time it was. Great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. A big well done to Steve Lee who just hit 200 Good Deeds - amazing!
2. Fantastic stuff from Steve Coman who ran 3.49 at Edinburgh Marathon recently - winning his age category, getting a big PB and a good for age time - woop woop!
   
3. On Thursday it's GG Monthly Social in Old Street (I think) - go along and have fun - more details here.

Thornhill Report by James:

Around a dozen of us split off to head to Thornhill Square Gardens in Barnsbury. This is a task we visit at least a couple of times a year and it was lovely to see it in the light, since last time we visited we were wearing head torches.

WATER HERE!

We were met by Anna who was delighted to have us on short notice and soon had us working efficiently around one lucky garden plot. We were variously: pulling weeds, cutting back grass, re-anchoring wicker fence, and planting - sunflowers, dahlias, geraniums and primrose - the watering of which was elevated to an artform by our skilled irrigationists. To the melodious incantations of "Water here!", "Need water here!" and "Does anyone have some water?" there wasn't a dry bulb in the house.

Farm Report:

15 of us headed to help Frelighters City Farm, we went via Highbury Fields to extend the route slightly. Upon our arrival Liz told us our tasks, which was as follows:

• A team of five weeding the front of the farm, swept up and made inroads in weeding the back garden
• Meanwhile a group of eight shifted some soil. First of sieving old soil from broken down planters, and then this was wheelbarrowed over to Chris and Aidan who developed a progressively advanced system to get the soil into the planter.
• Lastly Frances and Nina broke up bags of compost, checking for rocks and roots, and then wheelbarrowed it over to near the planter and made a pile.

After we finished up we said hey to the animals - pigs, shaven sheep, an 18 and 19 year old cow's, big goats, little chicks and a loud bird! We then ran to meet James Thornhill crew to do a time trial around the Emirates - nice!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Caxton House Community Centre.

PB out

24 Goodgymers ran 3-5k to help Caledonian Park and Grenville Gardens!

Welcome along to newbies Paris, Mukund and Ayumi - lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to all those that ran and volunteered at Hackney Half at the weekend!
2. Good luck to Steve Coman who is doing his marathon in Edinburgh this Sunday!
3. Night of the PB's is on 6th July this year, come cheer, have a beer and volunteer if you'd like!

Caledonian Park Report:

12 of us headed up to Caledonian Park via paradise park and up the hill. We met the wonderful Merium getting wheelbarrows out of a lock up just outside the park. We collected six wheelbarrow, eight shovels and an array of other tools.

On the south-west corner of the park there is a trail path that needed our attention - first off pulling up the plastic membrane, next clearing the overgrowth around the path and lastly emptying barrows of woodchip onto the path.

Friends of GoodGym!

We split into teams to get started. The black plastic membrane was tough getting up but once you got a hold you could roll it and dirt towards you. This made the task a lot quicker! The woodchip crew did a fantastic job in keeping a constant stream of wheelbarrows heading up the path towards the rakers who were on hand for key directing and spreading duties.

Over 50 minutes we got absolutely loads done, Merium was so pleased with all the work we had done! After posing for a group picture we took the tools back to the lockup and then headed down the hill home.

FROGG Report by Aidan:

12 of us headed to Grenville Gardens to meet the lovely Vince this time. The gardens are looking lovely and they are starting to add their own bog. We had two wheelbarrows on the go, soil running back and forth to fill the planter two thirds full. Steve Lee beautifully levelled the soil whilst completing the bog cocktail with layers of gravel as well.

On the other side we were weaving some veeeeery tall willow into a secret garden tunnel for people to escape through. With a bit of jumping and a small hand from some garden ties the tunnel was complete!

With time to spare we beautified the path with some expert speed weeding. With even more time to spare we had a crack at a speed fitness session in the park with everyone taking a turn to shout out an exercise to do for 10 reps. We even managed some press ups.

Heading off back down the hill, Steve C led a group for an extra lap around the Emirates and Graham, a more leisurely expert stretching session. Good deeds, good running, good stretching.

Sign up for next week here, we'll be meeting at the Arc Centre and helping the Police with a knife search!

PB out

First, a big congratulation to everyone who took part in Sofia and a extra applause to James and Sally who did the run with us yesterday even though they just did a long run the day before. We also had Laura turn up after doing a casual 80 mile bike ride with a big fall of the bike in the middle. Glad she was able to make. You all deserve a nice rest.

During the introduction, I realised we had quite a few new runners. So welcome once again. As a quick count with everyone saying their favourite food and drink (Mainly Cheese and Gin with a surprising Pina Colada vote), we were off to the Rose Bowl.

It was a short 15 min run with the beautiful weather giving the runners a reason to smile and talk about. It was great to see the current GoodGym runners talk to the new ones. As we entered the venue and had a look around, we knew that we were going to be in for a mighty task of weed clearing.

The teams were unevenly split in two with the smaller group tackling the face of building and the larger taking on behemoth edge of the bowl which looked like a full on weed invasion with the paths and other paved parts looking less than inviting.

As I was walking past trying to capture the perfect profile picture for some of the runners social media, the discussions I came across included:

-What some people work as which included office jobs and community jobs.

-Other runs that people do which i think i heard someone mention about their parents showing off their parkrun time to their son as a sign of encouragement.

-The UK citizenship test which one of the GoodGym runners has passed (Well done). The test consist of some pretty serious questions that could have an Nigel Farage questioning his Britishness. One of the runners has tried to take Citizenship test from around the world and and the UK one is one of the hardest.

-One of the groups was just working in silence with determined faces to complete the job before the time is up.

There was a pretty significant job that had been done. We can now see the pathway edges and also the hidden bit of pavement that was being covered by green hue of weeds but it looks like we might need another visit to finish the job.

On the way back I decided to do squeeze in an easy fitness sessions to make Paul proud. This included planks, sit-ups and leg raises.

Thank you all for enduring me. Hope to see you all again soon for a fitness session. Paul will be back next week.