Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us, happy birthday dear Hounslow, happy birthday to us!

That's right, the Hounslow group is officially ONE. We have taken our first wobbly steps into the world of doing good, and have the quads to prove it. Last night was truly a night of celebrations. We cheered Andy who shares his GoodGymiversary with Hounslow, and Will who was also at the first ever group run. We welcomed the lovely Jeremy to the group for his first ever run - throw a cheer his way, Hounslow! A huge well done to Remy who tackled the horrendous-sounding Luton half and showed that race what for.

After a discussion on the best thing about birthdays - cake, friends, joy, cake, gin, gin and wine,having a whole week off work, cake and more cake - we did our warm up and set off for William Hogarth School. It was a short run there so we did it fairly nippily, looking forward to our indoor task. Unfortunately, when we got there ready to do some flatpack assembly, we found that Ikea had literally not delivered, so we were tasked with raking the outside area which was providing a nice home for many, many leaves.

Undeterred we got stuck in, filling up no less than seven black bin bags to the brim with those leafy pests. Great upper body work out, team. We stopped for a quick photo underneath the apt 'celebration of work' banner and then hit the road again. It was so nice of Hounslow to put on a fireworks display for our first birthday just as we finished the run, and it was only right that we stopped for a quick rest to enjoy them.

But not for long - we had a birthday fitness session to do! We divided up into three teams and played a game of Ana(erobic)grams. The idea was that everybody collects letters by doing exercises - one tuck jump for every good deed, high knees while naming Hounslow tasks, guessing the number of good deeds, planking if you were at the first ever run, high fiving someone whose name began with 'R' and many more - until all 15 were collected. Then came the great unscramble. It really came down to the wire, but it is my pleasure to announce that in first place, winning a round of drinks, was.....the Chizzee Rascals! Way to go Andy, Will, Natasha and Claudia.

All that was left that a trip to the pub for the quiz - kudos Team BetterGym for coming SECOND! - and to eat some cake. Except it didn't quite happen like that, did it? Least said, soonest mended - but check out the photos for the full story.

It's been a cracker of a year, Hounslow. Here's the the next, and the one after, and the one after that. And a huge cheer for all your brilliant personal achievements over the past week.

It was a bit of a rocky start to the night when ten runners found themselves to be homeless after being kicked out of our regular room, but the evening just got better and better from there.

First of all we cheered the indomitable Remy who is getting ever closer to that PB with a cracking performance at the Great Scottish half marathon this week.

We then celebrated lovely Jo who last night reached the all important FIFTY milestone. It shows a lot of commitment to get there, so well done to Jo- give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up and a discussion about what age is the best - answers ranged from 7 to 67 - we set off on a short run to Turnham Green station where the incredibly industrious Karen of Abundance London and GGer Michelle were waiting for us with buckets and sponges. Our job tonight was to strip off the fly posters that were making a mess of the walls of the tube station bridge.

The bridge has been there for almost 200 years, and it seemed as though the posters started going up not long after. We got stuck in, peeling off layer after layer of paper. The aim is to clear the wall ready for a big project. Abundance London recently received permission from TFL, along with some funding from Hounslow and Ealing Council, to install a huge mural under the railway arches at Turnham Green tube. The plan is to create a large mural made up from a series of historical maps of the area from 1745 up to the present day. GoodGym Hounslow is to become a small part of Chiswick history!

Turns out that stripping off the posters is totally addictive, and we couldn't (ahem) tear ourselves away. So satisfying when a huge piece comes off in one go. We even had a hand from Paul, the lovely cabbie waiting at the taxi rank right by the station, and the flower seller from across the road helped carry our water. What a community job! After 40 or so minutes of work the wall was transformed. A note for an potential fly posterers in the Turnham Green area: stay away. We will find you.

After waving goodbye to Karen we were taken on a little detour by Remy who is leading us to victory in the Beat the Streets competition, did a few squats as we tapped our cards, then headed back to the park to knock out a fitness session. Last night it was all about the glutes. We started off with some walk outs to warm up, then started on an intense hit session that was aimed at strengthening our glutes in order to prevent injury and get ourselves some nice peachy bums in the process. We knocked out 40 seconds of ladder runs (hereby christened by Jordan as 'Beyoncés'), squat jumps and side shuffles and lunges, followed each time by 20 seconds rest. Feel the burn!

All that was left was to tackle the short run back to the Town Hall where much to our delight we found a birthday party going on and were generously donated slices of chocolate cake from the birthday girl. Much appreciated after a tough session, and to show our gratitude we serenaded the party with a nice rousing round of happy birthday. Then we headed to the pub to toast Jo. All in all a great night of running, addictive tasks, Beyoncé, cake and pub. More next week?

13 Goodgymers (and one phantom runner) hit the street, ran 2k and made good headway on the task at Bruce Grove Youth Centre

Shouts out to Helen and Naz who made it down to their first GoodGym session… your help was much appreciated guys! Give them a cheer folks.

The Task

This week we were heading over to Bruce Grove Youth Centre the task was to refresh the centres careers office which has seen lots of use especially after the local prospectus office closing down some years ago. The walls of the office were in need of some GGH TLC so we did what we do and got our paint on.

a little flakey

After a quick briefing we were off on a 1k run to the task location at Bruce Grove. On arrival Akin the task owner and manager of the centre greeted us at the entrance before giving us a little intro. He then lead us to the office we’d be decoration. The room isn’t huge and the floor space was limited but it was a snug fit for all of us and this only seemed to add to the good vibes and banter that ensued.. along with a fair bit of graft too, mind. The teams split into little groups with some getting paint, brushes and all we’d be using unpacked and ready to go while others used filler to err fill the walls which had become a little flakey / chipped.. along with others getting rid of blu tack left on the walls and spreading dust sheets.. people wasted no time in getting started with this and everyone was super enthusiastic. We managed to get lots done before having to clear up. We’ll be returning next week to get more done.

The Fitness session

Before the fitness session could commence everyone pilled onto the football table for a quick match of everyone’s favourite youth centre game. A few people had clearly spied the table on the way in and there was no way they were leaving without a quick whack. This week we chose to do our fitness session in the hall at the centre and the human beep test was on the cards.. this went down well considering most had not done this for many years.. school years to be precise. Everyone did a really good job in staying within the beeps but hats off to the girls who took it to the next level.. an International Women’s Day win for the ladies.. nice! After a quick breather and a round of high fives we were off into the night again. With a sprint along the home straight (Louise has clearly been working on her sprints – well done!) and a quick warm down we were done for another evening of goodness but not before mentioning Paul’s playlist which we had been listening to on the little boombox.. his playlist contained some pretty cool floor fillers and of course some Chaz and Dave.

Great session but I'm left wondering what happened to our phantom runner.. 🤔

Oh and thanks to FRP for the paint 👊🏽

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Until next time folks - do good, stay fit & look out for the light