Tonight I went out for my first run with GoodGym. I love the concept behind the organisation – giving people a reason to exercise. Groups meet up once a week at various locations in East London – run together to a destination, do something useful in the community and then run back.
When I found out that their last run of the year started at the Reebok Club in Canary Wharf and involved garden clearing at a community centre literally a stone’s throw from my house I decided to sign up and get involved.
Four of us met at the Reebok club where we able to store our belongings in the gym’s rather swanky changing rooms. We headed out through Canary Wharf towards the river doing some warm up drills along the way. It was great to run with other people around my usual running area.
When we got to the community centre we were given gloves and asked to clear as many leaves as we could from the borders of the garden. There were quite a lot and in half an hour we managed to fill four black bin bags!
Having completed our good deed we headed back around Limehouse Marina back along the river towards Canary Wharf. As we neared the Reebok Club Mark (the run leader) got us doing sprint intervals which really got my heart pumping right at the end of the run!
I really enjoyed the run, and doing something useful in my local community. As Mark said at the end of the run – we did something in 30mins which would have taken one person over 2hrs and it’s had an immediate positive impact.
The GoodGym weekly runs start up again in the New Year. It’s free and simple to sign up – just visit the website and find out when and where the next one is and click on the link to join in. I’ll definitely be back!
From Strength to Strength 
Brilliant idea. I wish they had an organization like that here in the States.
It’s such a good idea – every area should have one!