Well that was a blustery one! A day at work spent worriedly checking the weather reports – and finding a whole lot of rain clouds and stories of a windy fella from Ireland called Brendan – did not deter a brave set of Richmondites (and some honoured guests) from gathering to do good on Monday evening.

We welcomed Amy, the trainer for soon-to-launch GoodGym Maidenhead & Windsor, who took us through a very unusual warm-up featuring herding penguins, milking giraffes and even bum fives!

thanks to Amy @GoodGymWM trainer for our fun warm up last night! #richmond #running #warmup #volunteering #goodgym #training #fun pic.twitter.com/rdL4lifrGc

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) January 14, 2020

Then it was off into the night and a soggy 3.6km along the river and up past Ham House & Gardens to the Ham Youth Centre.

The centre does brilliant work in the local community, providing young people with a safe space where they can meet their friends, talk to staff, or take part in activities, as well as offering support on issues young people sometimes face such as stress, substance misuse, relationships & sexual health and school & careers.

When we arrived we were met by Steve and shown to the tool cupboard, where we formed a human chain to hand out a wide variety of cleaning equipment. Soon the whole centre was a hive of activity as we set to work giving everything in sight a good spruce up.

One group peeled off to the centre’s well-equipped kitchen and gave the surfaces and cooker top a good scrub, the floor a thorough sweep and the cupboards of pots and pans a top-to-bottom clean. In the sports hall others got busy cleaning and wiping down surfaces, while in the foyer area others still cleaned glass surfaces, pulled out and hoovered behind a sofa, and even gave the Foosball table a deep clean.

At the end of a satisfying spring clean (oh if only it was spring!) it was over to Amy once more for some resistance work. With fetching pink resistance bands around our ankles we waddled round in circles (penguins again?) and worked our quads – good to get a bit of a burn on before heading back out into the cold wet night.

The skills of the GoodGym Richmond crew are never ending! #hulahoop #fun #games #exercise #richmond #hamyouthcentre #volunteering pic.twitter.com/5Ksz9fdZtP

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) January 14, 2020

We arrived back at Wholefoods damp but satisfied to have done our bit for the January Challenge and ready for home and a hot shower, so Mark finished the evening off with a gentle cool down. Welcome back to Jo for her second run, and very best to Amy with the launch of Maidenhead & Windsor!

As mentioned in the briefing , there is a chance to increase kilometres and good deeds this Sunday on a Kingston Starter , details here