21 awesome Goodgymmers (including 2 new members- Hello to Amelia and Maria!) ran to Thornhill Gardens to assist with weeding, trimming, digging and willow fence constructing. We had the opportunity to try out some new portable lights, kindly provided by Goodgym HQ, which made our job much easier.

Shout-outs to Graham for leading our pre-run warm up, and to Steve for demonstrating some post-run stretches afterwards. And Thank You to everyone who were able join us at the Victoria Tavern for drinks and pizza and laughs. Before our run, I think we established that Spinach and Egg and Red Onion seemed to be the toppings of choice for most Islington Goodgymmers- though this was a hotly contested topic with some strong opinions presented on the matter!

So much Goodgym happening this upcoming weekend! #GGSuperSaturday

Come and join us for the GG Hampstead Heath parkrun Takeover, a friendly free weekly timed 5km running meet-up on one of the most picturesque courses in London. Enjoy a run with Goodgym friends, cheer on your neighbours or sign up as a volunteer to help with course set-up, time keeping or marshaling duties. Never been to parkrun before? Make this your first!

We will be visiting the Parliament Hill Cafe afterwards for a coffee and breakfast.

Sign up here

If you were looking for more Goodgym activities this Super Saturday, then we have an additional community task at Hilldrop Community Centre, which involves setting up a soft play activity room for the local neighbourhood families. The afternoon will involve set-up, some gardening tasks and close down, with the opportunity to meet lots of nice folks!

Sign up here by Tuesday Evening!

Headtorches

As demonstrated on our task at Thornhill Gardens, having a good light source makes volunteering work much easier during this dark months.

If you don't currently own a head torch, I can provide you a really great Silva Ninox 3 headtorch for just £20 (trade price), provided by The Running Works for Goodgym Islington members. If you would like one, send an email to Simon Fitzmaurice.

Next week we will be visiting Mildmay Community Centre for more gardening, fixing up and general construction for this exciting eco hub!

Sign up here

Happy Running!

31 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help paint vegboxes for Friends of Grenville Gardens!

Welcome along to newbies - Christina, NJ, Annie, Mary, Sophie and Jess thanks so much for coming along! Last night was GG Islington's highest attendance for over a year and also exactly a year since we've been meeting at the Arsenal Hub - awesome!

In the news this week:

1. It's the GoodGym Monthly Social this Thursday in Angel at the Islington Townhouse! Full details here.
2. Cross Country Season starts next week, 5 races for £5 - yes deal! If you want to join see the full details here.
3. Hannah talked all about the "Our Borough, Our Planet" Event, an open meeting taking place on Oct 8th from 6.30-8.30pm in Islington Town Hall. The aim is to bring local residents and environmental groups together to work towards a vision for a zero-carbon Islington. More details are here

After a nippy intro and a warm up we headed in two groups to go help Friends of Grenville Gardens (aka FROGG), unfortunately Sue who was supposed to meet us was in a car accident last week so we had to take care of ourselves. Our task this week was to paint the park's veggie boxes!

We collected together the 11 brushes and 11 containers of paint, and then in pairs we got to work - with one person painting and the other holding up lights and holding the container full of paint. The 15 veg boxes need two coats of paint to protect them from the embending weather... Winter is Coming...

Veggie McVeg Vegbox

Thanks to Steve Coman, who used to be a painter and decorator, for leading the painting team! The remaining people weeded, swept leaves and collected debris to put in compost bins. Nice!

Once all the paint was gone we packed up, we ate bourbons and put the brushes in a bucket of water. Steve led a group on a longer run home, while Kike led a group directly down the hill back to the Emirates. Once there we focused on the socket to pocket arm technique and played the meet & retreat game - cool beans!

Thanks for coming guys, sign up for next week here when we'll be helping Sunnyside Community Gardens.

PB out