It was a Force of July on this Independence Day as 32 GoodGymmers gathered round Highbury Pool ready to do good. We did our news (so much news) and welcomed Emily and Claire (already in GG t-shirts!) along for their first runs.

New Richmond trainer Mark got the gang nicely warmed up before we headed off for our evening tasks.

John and Graham took a small group up to Whittington Park for our fortnightly weeding session. Graham tells us what went down:

Whilst the main group of GoodGymers ran to Barnsbury community centre, a smaller group of us ran a total of 6k (8k including post-run Highbury Fields laps!) to visit Whittington park, sanding benches and weeding the one o'clock club garden.

The classic debate of what counted as a weed continued, and all were very happy to see that some potential weeds we left two weeks ago had grown flower buds - great display of horticultural knowledge from all involved! Meanwhile on the other side of the park, four enthusiastic sanders continued sanding down two flower-bed-containers, ready for varnishing and repainting. It's quite addictive, like watching a lava lamp. Most relaxing GoodGym task ever?

Post-run, we arrived back to Highbury Fields ahead of time (nice one John!) so decided to throw in an extra two laps, including a small bit of speed work on the second lap round.

More running. More sweating. More good. Top effort from all.

Graham

Meanwhile Simon and Mark popped over to Barnsbury Community Centre for some painting (which we hardly ever get to do at GG Islington) and assembly of flatpack (which we have NEVER done at GG Islington).

8 of us went off to paint the cubicle doors in the women's toilets a GoodGym red and the cubicle door in the men's toilets a freedom blue. We got the doors painted no problem, the difficult part was cleaning up: gloss paint everywhere and only one small bottle of white spirit between us. This meant we ended up running a little overtime, but nice to get the job done!

Over in the main hall the rest of the group had managed to assemble all furniture and Mark took them outside for a fitness session: jogging, side shuffles, lunges, planks, push ups, squats, wheelbarrow poses, deadlift and press, box jumps with a partner, step ups and star jumps to plyo jumps. Wow, I got tired just reading that. Looks like GG-ers in Richmond are gonna get a decent workout on the 18th.

Our cookies for the evening were Oreos: the most American biscuit available in Tesco Hackney Superstore and the debate was "What's the most American thing you can think of". Apple pie, Sweet potatoes and Marshmallow, TRUMP, Walmart, weird pronunciation, hamburgers, and mass shootings were all given as answers. But Andy and David came up with a wonderful combination that definitely wins:

"Uncle Sam, with an eagle on his shoulder, and a miniature Statue of Liberty on the dashboard, singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" while driving a Chevvy down Route 66 on his way to a baseball game, eating a burger and massive cup of soda that he just picked up from a diner."

Happy 7th of April everybody! See you next week

Simon