On a cold and chilly night, 19 GoodGymers came out to do some good around Camden town.

We welcomed a few new faces to the herd - welcome Cara and Sarah! Hope you enjoyed yourselves and will be back with us on another run soon. If you want to get ahead of the game, why not sign up to next week's run right now?

So, unfortunately the lovely Mel from Kentish Town City Farm was off ill, so we couldn't run up to them to take down the marquees from the Apple Day as we'd planned. Instead, we decided to run to the canal behind Kings Cross and do a litter pick, followed by some laps of Granary Square and a fitness game. After a quick intro and warmup - who doesn't love a good lunge - we headed off to the canal.

Our task

Splitting up into pairs, everyone grabbed some gloves, a bag, headtorch and a partner and got stuck in with the litter pick. 30 minutes of solid litter-picking later, we regrouped with some interesting finds including two snapped bank cards, a SIM card and... none other than an actual working mobile phone. After some button pressing, it turned out the phone belonged to a guy called Juan (the run report pun makes sense now, right?) who turned out to be a football-loving American - oh what you can find out from a notifications screen. As we couldn't call him - but found an email address to get in touch with him - we handed it in to the Granary Square security team who are looking after it until Juan goes down to collect it. Well done CJ for spotting it!

I've also sent Juan an email explaining that we'd found his phone. I'll give you updates on the situation. Let's hope Juan and his phone are reunited soon.

Anyway, we're going off on a tangent...

And so, on to the fitness. After everyone was rounded up in Granary Square, it was three laps of the big loop to get everyone warmed up again after what was - by a country mile - the lowest intensity task I've led so far. Following on from this, and to round off the session, we had a good old round of Rock, Paper, Scissors (fitness edition) in two lines. It turned out to be a brutal competition of 3 quick rounds of the age-old game, before the winner would sprint a shuttle run while the loser would do press ups until the winner returned. You'd then move one along the line and switch partners, until everyone had been all the way along the line.

After one more victory lap around the Square, we all headed back to the Living Centre for a cool down stretch and - for some of us - a trip to the pub.

Big thanks to Liz for supplying the bags and gloves for the litterpick and Hanry - as ever - for being the head-torch-bearer of Camden.

A word about head torches from Hanry: It seems that someone might have accidentally run off with one of his headtorches. Could you please have a root around at home and bring it back to the next run?

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS: Just over a week away, there's a great community mission coming up at the Russell Square Gardens - you'll be helping to plant some flowerbeds for David and the team. The task will be from 10am-4pm but if you can only stay for an hour or two, I'm sure the team would be very glad to see you. Sign up asap so we can send numbers to David!

NEXT WEEK: So next time, we'll be splitting the task; it will be the inaugural run of the year to the wonderful people at the C4WS Homeless Shelter. We're going to be making the 10-15 beds they have for local homeless people to get a good, warm night's sleep and it could not be more of a worthy cause. We'll be running to them every Wednesday until they close their doors again in February and will be splitting the group with a different task alongside the Homeless Shelter each week. The other task for next week is still to be confirmed.

Happy Running!

Ben

29 GoodGymers braced the drizzle with GoodGym Camden on Wednesday night's run up to the Kentish Town City Farm.

Turning up at the Living Centre to locked doors and nobody at Reception, we decamped to the main Crick Institute reception for our intro. We had a load of new runners with us tonight, as well as a group of tourists from GoodGym Tower Hamlets. Welcome Andy, May, and Khaliun! You certainly picked a good night to join us, and I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

We'll be running back to the Kentish Town City Farm next week for the marquee takedown by the way - get your name down for some goat petting and manure-bag moving!

After a rapid fire intro and warmup we got going - so the question was asked of the new runners to find out what actuallyis the difference between a community mission and a mission? Do you know? Answers at the bottom of this report please!

Our task

Arriving to the sweet smell of wafting manure, we met Mel from the City Farm who told us all about the task:

• Assembling and erecting the two marquees ahead of their annual Apple Day on Sunday.

We split into two teams and got stuck in, using wheelbarrows, people power and our headtorches - thanks again this week Hanry - we marched up to the field to get them built.

Teams seem to be becoming a regular thing in these reports, and this week was no different; Marquee Team A were pitted against Marquee Team B in the battle of the marquees.

Which poles went where proved to be a challenge for both teams, but with the best GoodGym minds at work both marquees were up in 15 minutes flat, with Team B being the far and away winners. With both marquees up, it was time to gather the manure bags to tie to the bottom of the poles to make sure they didn't fly away in a gust of wind.

With our task completed - and 24 bags of poo tied (pendulously some might add) - we assembled for a team photo and after an extra 5 minutes petting the goats and checking on the piggies we said goodbye to Mel and sprinted back to the Living Centre for a cool down and - for some of us - a trip to the pub.

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS GALORE: As mentioned on the run, there's not one but TWO community missions to get stuck in with this week. Thursday (24th) will be another trip to Story Garden. Turn up from 5pm and help do some good with Abi. For those of you who can't do weekdays, Mel and the team would love to see you up at the Kentish Town City Farm on the Apple Day itself this coming Sunday from 11am-4pm. Liz is organising this one - head here to sign up. Don't worry if you can't do the whole time, just comment on the signup page which hours you can do.

NEXT WEEK: So next time, we'll be running back up to the Kentish Town City Farm for Apple Day Part 2 (The Takedown!) to take down the marquees we put up last night. It's yet another opportunity to pet the goats and see the oinking pigs, so there really is no excuse good enough not to attend.

Happy Running!

Ben