Tuesday night, it’s H&F GoodGym night! And to add to the excitement tonight it was part I of the H&F GoodGym 2nd birthday celebrations and a two task special. Tonight we were first heading up to St Mungo’s Reconnection Post and then up to White City Adventure Playground.

To get both tasks completed I required lots of runners and pairs of hands, and thankfully a wonderful 22 GoodGym-ers joined me on a humid autumnal evening for this party run, to do good, twice over! It was lovely to have Alice and Imogen, Mitzi along for their first GoodGym group run and to have Larissa and Jenni from GoodGym Ealing and Michele from GoodGym Hounslow doing some GoodGym tourism! It was also great to have one of my favourite GoodGym trainers, Ana, of GoodGym Wandsworth and Hounslow join the fun – extra great to not be on the other side of her fitness sessions for once!

As always everyone congregated in the Hammersmith Fitness & Squash Centre, however, this week being the party run, Sarah and Johnny were on hand to provide party hats and the homemade banana cake for the post-run celebrations. Much like GoodGym’s group run disclaimer “you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do” some opted out of wearing a party hat, understandably their aerodynamics would’ve been altered and it would’ve slowed them down. Party hat’d up we headed outside this week for a round-up of the weekly news (my voice vs a motorway I think there may have only been one winner, so for those of you who missed any of it…

1. GG London-wide 'Hamingslow' Social – This Thursday!! GG Hammersmith, Ealing and Hounslow will be uniting and hosting the social! It'll be in Hammersmith upstairs at The Rutland Arms! Sign up here.
2. GG H&F's 2nd Birthday - On Tuesday 11th September, part II of the birthday celebrations with a post-run social at The Draft House! Important pre-social request - Please email or whatsapp a photo of yourself aged 2 to Bex before the date for the baby photo quiz round!
3. September Long Run – 22nd September. This month the long run will be the Wandle Trail led by yours truly and Andy from GG Hounslow. There will be two pacing groups and the option of a shorter start point along the way. Sign up here.

AND a big well done to Jason who completed the Spitfire 10K and to Sarah who came 5th (3rd) with her triathlon team at the weekend!

While everyone was gathered in a circle we did a quick name and number count and everyone answered the “what do you like to do on your birthday?” question. The answers ranged from having drinks in the pub, spending the day with friends, having a lie in, eating lots of cake, doing GoodGym to the wonderfully decadent cheese on toast for breakfast.

Following a quick warm-up and the loser of the bus vs walk judgment tonight, Sophie we all headed north on the short 1.5km run to the first task at St Mungo’s Reconnection Post. Despite the group throwing me a ‘red herring’ as to where the actual entrance was (I of course 100% knew where it was…honest!), we arrived at St Mungo’s and were greeted by Philippa, the Deputy Manager who explained to the group the services they provide to vulnerable and homeless adults in the community – as well as providing housing, they work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community.

Need for weed

The task tonight was simple, tackle their garden – tidy as much as we could in the half an hour we had with them. Everyone gloved up, tooled up, and prepared the 3 large garden waste bags for the filling of weeds and cuttings. The group got to work tackling the garden as briefed and with all hands either on deck or on the tools providing a much needed weed and/or prune to the plants around the garden. In what is becoming a weekly tradition, Sarah posed with a bag and Sophie posed in various stances on demand. Chris, Michelle and Jason also got involved in the fun too…check out the photos! Amongst the photo opps the group put in a hard gardening shift and quickly filled the 3 large garden waste bags. The time flew by, as it always does when you’re having fun…as Fiona wonderfully exclaimed, “that’s been half an hour already?!” and it was time to down-tool, tidy-up, empty the bags, and pose for a couple of group photos along with Philippa. Task one complete! We said our thankyous and goodbyes and headed off on what was meant to be a short 1.2k run up to our second task at White City Adventure Playground.

Lost-term memory

In a nice trip down memory lane back to the first couple of weeks when I got the group lost and lead on a ‘magical mystery tour of H&F’ I managed to lead the group down not one, but two blind (well closed) alleys…

Following the minor detours and bonus running up to our second task we eventually arrived at the wonderful White City Adventure Playground and were met by Rob from the Play Assocation. He explained to the group that the Play Association were a non-profit charity based in Hammersmith & Fulham that deliver after school and holiday provision for local children aged 8 to 14 years and specialise in providing play opportunities for disadvantaged children, and children with complex needs. Unfortunately with the summer nights well and truly drawing in it was too dark for the group to admire the outdoor adventure playground in all its glory but I can vouch for the fact it is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! A kids dream!

Skip to it

Our second task of the night was another simple one, load the skip they had ordered in which was currently sat empty and being collected Wednesday at 7am with bricks, old timber, and everything both to the side of the skip and in the outdoor storage unit. The group split off into different groups and began to fill the skip in double-quick time! A human chain was formed to get the old timber and storage unit completely emptied, much to Rob’s amazement! One final sweep by Lucy and pick-up by Michelle, Joyce, Johnny and Sarah ensured no scraps or Uno cards were left behind. Answering the old age question of “How many GoodGym-ers can you fit into an empty storage unit?” everyone piled into the unit for a brilliant group photo, party hats still mostly in-tact!

With the skip completely filled and the darkness upon us it was finally time to say goodbye to Rob and head back on the 3km run back to base. Once back at base Rachael waved everyone in with the tall feather-like plant she had very usefully run with from the first task – a very handy beacon throughout! After a quick stretch out and round-up of the night there was only one thing left to do…eat the delicious homemade banana cake and all the sweets! (….obviously in moderation!)

Hat's all folks!

Part I of the H&F 2nd birthday celebrations completed! What a great and fun double-task night. One skip that would’ve otherwise gone back empty filled to the brim and a garden a lot less weedy and overgrown. Apologies for getting you back a ‘touch late’ but I hope you all enjoyed it! Great running and a big welcome to the ladies from FOX and the National Geographic: Alice, Imogen and Mitzi – 6km run, 2 tasks completed, awesome stuff! And thank you very much to Jason for as ever being my trusty back-marker and to Ana for leading one group back and Jo for providing the navigational expertise back from the second task. Have a lovely week and hopefully see you on the group run next week!

Next week we’re back to Askham Court to help out in the residents community gardens – sign-up here.