The recent, much-needed rain was great news for plants and wildlife; less good for last night’s task…

Tunde to the rescue

Nice for nature, disastrous for our deed: the trees no longer needed watering by us last night. Thank goodness for Plan B’s. Our task owner, Tunde, from Friends of Meath Gardens, willingly found us a perfect Plan B, swiftly planning a big litter-pick of the gardens. The team were very willing to run through a variety of time-honoured lower body moves while we waited for Tunde (“Glute work’s good for your running.”) before teams were dispatched to all four corners of the park to fill multiple bags to bulging with a huge amount of litter. From coffee cups to cigarette butts (“It’s all going well, thanks, apart from the cigarette butts which are really fiddly.”) no stone was left unturned (literally).

Trash Stash of the Night went to Ruth’s cash-find (20p but don’t knock it – acorns & oak trees, an’ all that) and Anna’s slightly creepy, buried toy horse-head.

Time-honoured Tower Hamlets speedwork

Tunde was over the moon with the sheer volume of rubbish Team TH collected, and in true GG style, we celebrated with a little more exercise. Chris resurrected a terrific, time-honoured, TH speed session, introduced to the team in the earlier TH days by legendary Alex Eggs and Tom Scraggs. The session consisted of partnering up, and forming two teams to tackle a large lap of the park, high-fiving one another in the middle. A tough-but-fun end to trash-collecting.

Pilates follows plogging

We then headed to ‘the big bit of grass’ to finish with our Pilates for Runners part of the evening. Well done to the team for mastering the TVA vacuum (Friend: “What did you do on Monday?” TH GoodGymer: “So, I went to Meath Gardens and found my Transverse Abdominis muscle.”). After an already-tough evening of fitness, the team dug deep and performed some beautifully-executed Inchworms, Leg-Pulls Back and Front, Roll Ups and The Saw (“This game is called ‘Who’s got the tightest hip flexors’ ”).

We then raced back to base, stretched, ate some biscuits and headed home. What a wicked night. That rubbish, that care and attention to picking every last can and cup… What a contribution to the community. Team, you are truly terrific.

Thank you’s – and welcome’s

A massive welcome to Nazma, who joined us for her first ever GG run. Thanks for getting so much done, and for being so flexible with the Task-Plan B, and working so hard on your fitness. Do come and join us again very soon.

And what a pleasure to be joined by Lucy (by no means new to GG, but new to me) – please come back to TH soon.

And the thank you’s… Brilliant work from Chris for coming up with the idea and for leading the evening’s running session. Beautiful back-marking, there and back, from Leanne as usual – never out of sight - and hurrah for Chris, Bryon and Dave for leading the speedy runners back to base.

This week’s brilliant pun was brought to you by Bryon, and hurrah to the whole team for plenty of laughs getting us there.

And a big pat on the back (you’ve saved the day a bit) to Becky J, Gabrielle and Leanne for ideas and planning for next week’s task, when we’ll be helping out the utterly brilliant Acknowledging Youths charity, playing a running game and drinking, so sign up here to avoid missing out.

And lastly, 2nd September sees us heading to The Coborn with our newly formed quiz team, Let’s Get Quizzical (credit goes to Si for our ace team name) for some more school night drinking (and brainstorming). Do come and join us.

A hot-and-happy group headed back to the lovely Glasshouse community centre on the Parkview Estate this evening to complete the painting and decorating of this beautiful communal space.

Setting the tone

Catherine, our meditation teacher and task owner, started the task with five minutes of mindfulness meditation to set the tone for the evening. A subtle shift in the usual frenzied GG pace made for a pleasant change, as the temperature gauge showed no sign of shifting below thirty degrees. No slapping the emulsion on this evening – it was all about focusing on the smaller, harder-to-reach areas with patience and precision, and some lovely teamwork.

Teamwork in tough conditions

Well done to everyone who embraced the task with the usual diligence and care. Teams were confined to small, very hot spaces and worked as industriously as usual – Bryon even managed to take two minutes out to seize the opportunity to touch up the lettering on his very well worn GG t-shirt.

Cultivating kindness

At 7.55pm brushes and rollers were set down and we proceeded to regroup in our circle for this week’s loving kindness meditation: the metta bhavana practice, to give it its proper name. As Catherine guided us through the five stages, the only noise that could be heard was the whir of the much-appreciated ceiling fans. A relaxed group of runners then gathered for our goodbye pics, before heading back to the hotel at various paces.

Thanks – and welcome

Thanks to Becky J for back-marking, Chris for leading the run on the way there, and for leading the speedy pace back. Thank you to Danny for the idea and inspiration for tonight’s pun.

And a big, warm, GG welcome to our new runners this evening: Rosel, Veronika, and Alice – thank you for getting to grips with everything so quickly, all that hard work and for being such great additions to the team. Please do come and run with us again soon!

Next week: Pilates for Runners

Next week, we’re watering and gardening at Meath before our Pilates for Runners class, a session that focuses on key core (often neglected) muscles, that should help improve running and prevent fatigue. Don’t miss out – sign up now.

And Save the Date: September 2nd is GG Tower Hamlets Pub Quiz Night!

...And another date to get in your diary is our next pub quiz night, as requested and planned by your terrific Task Force! We’re heading back to The Coborn on September 2nd for a night of trivia, roast and beers. All are welcome – details and sign up are here.

Another two-task night

A well prepped, two-team Tower Hamlets GG crew braved the melting Monday night to head out to two very different tasks this evening.

I delightedly led the team heading to the Cranbrook Community Food Garden, where we were booked in to paint vegetable beds, in preparation for some very important report pics due to be taken this week, as well as the centre’s summer fete at the beginning of August. Task owners Janet and Eileen greeted us, well prepared with paint, trays and brushes, and precise instructions for what and where to paint. Working in two small teams, the runners had soon covered a lot of painting ground, with over two beds completed by the time 8pm came around.

Becky J, in the meantime, led The Splinter Group (thanks for the team title, Leanne) to an alternative heavy lifting task around the corner at Weavers Adventure Playground. Task owner Alex had prepared a large pile of wood and the team soon set about separating the good wood from the bad wood (for anyone else unsure of what constitutes good and bad wood: Bad = split, has holes; Good = has potential. When cleaned, can be chopped and turned into benches and other playground furniture). Good wood went to…you guessed it, the good wood pile; bad wood to the skip (sad face). The heat and heavy lifting proved to be a non-issue but some luck-chancing spiders got a little close for comfort nearly putting the runners off their stride. But they ploughed on and soon created a pile of good wood ready for Alex to transform into playground furniture (which we’re secretly hoping we’ll be invited back to get involved with…).

It’s a booty-ful summer for sure

Both groups congregated at Cranbrook shortly after 8pm for a glue-tastic few minutes. I ignored the runners groans as we proceeded to motor from one move to another, finishing with the single leg bridge, at which point, karma intervened - I sprung up, post-demo, back on fire, only to discover I’d demoed the exercise lying on a small bed of stinging nettles (note to self: when the group suggest moving the exercise area to more appealing, softer-looking terrain in future, follow recommendation).

BIG thank you’s, and welcome’s

Thank you to our tremendous task force, in particular Becky J for: leading The Splinter Group task, taking pics, writing the Weavers’ report, coming up with this week's pun, and for passing on her newly-acquired good-vs-bad-wood knowledge. Thanks to Leanne for back-marking both runs; naming The Splinter Group; for helping to plan the evening, and for her safe-running wisdom. Thank you to Bryon and Chris for helping navigate The Splinter Group route.

And a huge hello and great, big GG welcome to first time runner Louise! Was great to have you join the team - let’s hope this’ll be the first of many runs together - and thanks for the hard work in the heat. Hello and welcome back to lovely Lizzie. Thank you for your smiles and enthusiasm, and all the hard work - please come again soon? And what a massive treat to be joined by Nurjehan from Haringey (who really seemed to know her painting stuff) who was such a friendly addition to tonight’s team. Please, please join us again soon!

Onto next week

Next week, we’ll be shining the spotlight on our emotional fitness (as well as sneaking in a tiny tempo run) with decorating and meditating at Parkview. Sign up here!

In the meantime, thank you for all for another great, fun, truly productive Monday night, with mission(s)-accomplished big time. Can’t WAIT to do it all again next week. In the meantime, have a really fabulous week.