Having left York Hall (run by Social Enterprise GLL – good people, and which also has a really nice spa in the basement by the way), we headed up towards the canal. Judging by the photos, most of us were going so fast we turned invisible, but luckily we were lead by someone from Tron.

We were aiming for Headway UK, a charity charity that works to improve life after brain injury – they have a nice garden down by the canal that needed a bit of sorting.  They also had a hefty pile of bricks that needed moving that were blocking an alleyway.

Most of us worked on sorting out the leaves which were all over the decking:

While others attacked the bricks using plastic chairs as hods:

Once that was pretty much sorted- bricks moved, garden tidy, we headed onto our next mission; distributing a stack of 200 flyers for St Joseph’s Hospice (they’re having a jumble sale).  We split into two teams, one for odd numbers, one for even, and distributed the flyers evenly.

The different sides took slightly different techniques to ensuring that the leaflets reached their destinations – both had runners sprinting to see which side of the street could be finished first.

In 8mins  we had distributed the flyers to every single building on the target 0.7km street and even did half of a different street to use of the rest of the flyers.

So, having completed our missions for the evening, we headed back along the canal to York Hall.

We’d run about 5k, and due to popular demand, we’ll be looking to step it up a bit over the next few runs, whilst still making sure we don’t leave anyone behind.

On another note; St Joseph’s Hospice are having a jumble sale; 10am- 1pm – this Saturday.  Its on Mare Street close to London fields. Probably worth checking out.  If you have any stuff you’d like to sell, it can be dropped off at reception any time.

They’re ready – everything is set.  The site lights are on site; the extension leads are coiled, ready for action. The brooms just need sweepers, the gardening gloves just hands to fill them.  Next Tuesday, 24th Jan, the good gym is running a group run to Headway, where the outside space remains covered in leaves and pieces of broken willow following the high winds of earlier January. Join us at York Hall: help a worthy cause, get your heart pumping, burn some calories.

Start Location:

York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)

Time: Leaving at 7pm, Tuesday 24th January, 2012

Other stuff: York hall has changing rooms and shower facilities. We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

We had the biggest turn out yet for our group run tonight with 21 runners ready to get themselves exhausted. We set off from York Hall as a crowd and quickly became a long trail of joggers so as not to take up too much pavement.

We headed north to the canal and ran west along the tow path to Kingsland Road.  Runners who got too far ahead were sent sprinting to the back of the group in an effort to tire them out. We reached our destination but due to circumstances beyond our control, were unable to get in, so we set off east towards Haggerston Park and then south to Ion Square Gardens.

When we got to the gardens, we played 3 rounds of Stuck-in-the-Mud to get everyone into the anaerobic zone, followed by a quick round of British Bulldog before setting off back down Hackney Road towards our end point.

An unusual and fun group run of intense games and large numbers. And 3 miles covered.  Not bad for for the first outing of 2012.

The January group run is here and the destination is about 1.5 miles from York Hall – a perfect distance to start getting your fitness back after the break.  We’re running to a charity that supports those affected by acquired brain injury; their garden has been covered in detritus after the high winds battered their poor willow tree.  We’re running in to sort it out.  Join us at York Hall on Monday, ready to leave at 7pm.

Here’s the details of the run:

Start Location:

York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)

Time: 7pm, Monday 9th January, 2012

Other stuff: York hall has changing rooms and shower facilities. We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

Good Gym is getting bigger and better for 2012 and we’re expanding to the rest of East London.  We’re now opening our doors to the five Olympic Host boroughs; so if you’re in Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest or Tower Hamlets you can now be a part of Good Gym.

January is the most popular time for joining a gym.  We want to convince you that the Good Gym is just as likely, if not more likely to get you fit than a normal gym. By connecting you to good causes in your area the Good Gym can keep you motivated to exercise in the long term.  You’ll also be helping other people who need your help so you’ll probably feel pretty good about yourself.

The time after christmas is also a very lonely time for many people. A large part of our  work is providing regular deliveries and visits to isolated older people – so getting involved now could make a big difference.

So, if you’re in East London, we hope that you feel now is the time to join and that now is the time to get all your friends to join.

Or, if you have any questions, ideas or want to work with us, email mark[at]thegoodgym.org or give him a ring on 07984336580.

We hope to see you soon.

Do you love exercise, older people and want to be part of a social start-up?
Good Gym is looking for interns for the period between Jan-June 2012.

What do we need?
You’d be working closely with our project coordinator Mark as we scale up to the six Olympic boroughs.  You’ll be assisting with organising runs, publicising the project and helping us develop our network of community organisations.   We’d like to work with someone full of energy who can help to drive the project forward. An interest in running is not essential but would help.

What’s in it for you?
We’re at the early stages of scaling up an ambitious project. You’ll see the prototyping and design process and interact with community organisations in and around the Olympic Park area.  If you’re interested we’ll also help you develop your sports leadership skills.  We’ll be developing our web services over this period too, so if you’d like to learn about the web service development there’s opportunity for this too.  As with all of us, the role will involve quite a lot of running around which will help shed the Christmas pounds.

What’s the deal?
We will cover your expenses and you’ll be working 3-4 days a week.  You’ll be supervised by Mark Herbert, the project co-ordinator and be involved in the development of the Good Gym in East London.

To apply, send a CV and a letter saying why you’d like to get involved, to getinvolved@thegoodgym.org

Please apply by the 10th of January at the latest.

We are pleased to announce that next year the Good Gym is expanding to cover the Olympic Host Boroughs.
We’re working with the Olympic Park Legacy Company to increase our capacity and reach out to cover a large area of East London, centreing on the Olympic Park.

Its been an exciting last year for us with hundreds of you coming out running with us on our group runs and around a thousand individual runs taking place.  We’ve had a lot of great press coverage too, including the Financial Times, Wired magazine and Runner’s world.

Next year, with the support of the Legacy Company, we’ll be building on this and aiming to get hundreds more people running every week and doing good in their area. We’ll be working with community centres, local groups, the NHS and local authorities and continuing to support isolated older people.   We’re also aiming to form more partnerships to allow us to develop our technology so that anyone can set up the Good Gym in their area.

If you want to find out more, come running with us, or work with us, email us at getinvolved[at]thegoodgym.org

Last night our team of runners tackled two missions.  Firstly some heavy sheds at Stepney City Farm, and secondly the unkempt courtyard of a community centre. We headed straight down Cambridge heath road, crossed Whitechapel Highstreet and ran along the cobbles of Stepney Green to arrive at the farm, home to a rare breed of Jacob sheep and at least two cows, as well as numerous alotments.  We were however mainly dealing with the poultry housing.

Firstly we rudely kicked the cockerels out of their nice big shed, then we got ready to lift it, shoving some timber underneath to make some room for our fingers:

Having done this then surrounded the shed and picked it up – carrying it a few meters to a newly created paving slab foundation.

Then we went to wake up the ducks.  Dutch Runners – quite elegant. While the ducks took a stroll around their pond, we picked up their house and moved it to its new home.

Richard said thanks and we ran off to task number two.

Arriving at the Poplar Harca community centre father Duncan greeted us warmly and briefed us on leaf removal, sweeping and planting bulbs.

We duly set about getting it all sorted and the discussed the rights and wrongs of waste disposal.

We were not stopped by a decent smattering of rain and got the whole lot done in about 20 mins.

By the time we got back to York Hall, we’d racked up about 8.64 kilometres in 53.58 minutes with 2 stop-offs.  Our average moving speek was 9.61 k/hour.

Tessa from poplar Harca just emailed saying:
“Thanks for the 20 minute blitz…  you guys managed to do a lot in a short space of time!  Duncan sounded very pleased…”

Photos by Cairi Jacks

Here’s the  map of this evening’s run.  We’ve got to lift two hefty sheds in Stepney and then run to help out a community centre in Mile End.

We need your help, because the sheds look really heavy. The run is a nice leafy one too.

Here’s the details of the run:

Start Location:

York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)

Time: 7pm, Monday 12th of December, 2011

Other stuff: York hall has changing rooms and shower facilities. We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

A group of hardy November runners headed out into the darkness tonight to tend to the garden of a woman with  learning difficulties.  Her Occupational Therapist had reccommended we help her out so Mark went and scoped the place out and thought we could handle it. The garden was about 40ft long and about 3 feet deep in brambles.  Arrving after a long run down St Paul’s Way we arrived at the house, set up our snazzy new lights, and then got to work.

Chop chop chop.

Weeding and getting all the stuff into the bags was the hardest part.  In the end the place was levelled and the piles of foliage neatly stacked or put in bags. We were kindly thanked by the next door neighbour and it was time for the run home.

In total, once we’d done a customary run back along the canal and past some falling leaves in Victoria Park and talked about canal boats we’d clocked up about 10.7k. Some of the advanced party did a sprint finish back to York Hall.  A bit much for us after the tiring chopping. Here’s a rough map of the journey. Sorry about the gap at the beginning, poor GPS management.

All in all, felt pleased that the lights had worked, that no-one had chopped their fingers off and that Angela can get out in the garden again.