Last night’s run featured many bags of collected rubbish, muddy shoes, curious passers-by with their dogs, and a very tough fitness session. Just another night with GG Hounslow!

We headed out for one of our regular plastic and litter picks down by the river. This is something we do regularly because it genuinely makes a difference. Rivers are highways for plastic and rubbish – what gets dropped upstream ends up traveling further downstream and into wider ecosystems. Our visits mean we clear the draw dock, keep the path looking welcoming and remind people that someone cares about this stretch of river.

Armed with gloves, bags and pickers, we got stuck in. Passers-by had plenty of encouraging comments as we worked our way along. There’s something about a group of runners in red stopping to pick up litter that draws attention and hopefully makes them reconsider dropping that crisp packet! By the time we wrapped up, we’d collected quite a few bags even though it wasn’t exactly dry out there either. Check out Steph’s muddy shoes. A GoodGym badge of honour in my book!

With the job done, we headed back to Turnham Green for what can only be described as a brutal fitness session combining sprinting laps and strength exercises with a dose of tactics. Michelle took the lion's share of the laps with some very impressive distance, while Lucy somehow managed to squeeze in a day of double fitness. Florian delivered some excellent sprinting form among a huge effort from everyone.

I’m just finalising next week’s session, so watch this space. There are also some missions coming up, including working on the eyot this Saturday and a session gardening at Hope Church.

A week after the Walpole Park tree whips mulching, we were back to... Walpole Park for more tree whips mulching! Sounds repetitive? Sometimes the tasks may feel similar. You may be on the 9874th shovelful of woodchip in your GoodGymming career. Or doing the 79th wheelbarrow run this year. But you show up. There will be a different set of GoodGymers, different chats, different weather, and different challenges. You find freedom in the routine. You know that that session is a part of your week, fortnight, or month, and you will feel better than if you'd stayed at home.

Who knows that better than tonight's hero, Harvey, who has just reached the amazing 1000 good deeds? In fact, 1003 good deeds, as Harvey wouldn't stop just because he hit the highest official milestone at GoodGym! In the last 8 or 9 years, Harvey had been consistently present at group runs and community missions, not only in Ealing but across the whole of London. As a GoodGym run leader, he's been leading social runs and epic warm-ups at flagship Ealing races, connecting us with the local running community and encouraging new generations of runners through volunteering at junior parkruns and the Ealing Mile. Congratulations on your impressive milestone, Harvey!

Chris, James, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash were at Walpole Park to celebrate Harvey's achievement and, of course, do some woodchipping. With experience from the week before and an extra pair of hands on the team, they finished the mulching task more quickly and completed the entire section of planted whips along the southeast path of the park. Top quality work, everyone! No more woodchipping needed ahead. Well, until our session in Lammas Enclosure in two weeks! Sign up now!

On their walk between the second and third mission of the day in Hounslow, Sevan and Kash heard loud Bollywood beats and instantly got sidetracked to check what was going on. The sports field just off the High Street was full of stalls and people with faces covered in vividly coloured powder. It was the Holi festival, celebrating the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil!

The spring was on - the GoodGymers witnessed it when running through the roads with blossoming trees. The triumph of good was due to come with their final good deed of the day. The mission was for Ms I, who had requested moving a settee and a bed. Little did Sevan and Kash know that, in practice, the lady wanted to tidy up behind two pieces of furniture - that's why she needed help shifting things around.

The GoodGymers entered a flat, which Ms I described as congested. There was one-way traffic in most passages between the things Ms I had accumulated by accepting items that her friends had been bringing her after she moved in, frequent trips to charity shops, and buying goods like toothpaste in bulk when on offer.

To move the sofa, Sevan and Kash first had to clear the pile of things leaning against the settee. Moving boxes of medicines and supplements, craft materials, magazines and carrier bags resulted in bags of items sorted by category and even one sack of recycling and one of rubbish. The GoodGymers also recovered a futuristic-looking Dyson hoover, which Ms I hardly used since she bought it - maybe because it was not easily accessible?

It was a bargain: £10 in a charity shop. But then I had to hire a taxi to get it home, which wasn't as much of a bargain anymore!" - Ms I.

To ensure the value for money, the hoover had to be in operation, but first needed to be rearranged - like a Transformer - into something that could suck dirt and dust from narrow spaces. Thanks to teamwork, the trio worked out how to make the contraption work for them. While Sevan, who cleverly took his glasses with him on a mission, was helping Ms I read the expiry dates on the medicines, Kash, who left her specs at home (typical), was making the space behind the sofa spotless.

When the GoodGymers had just a few minutes left, Ms I requested a similar operation to be performed in the bedroom, behind the bed. Sevan and Kash speed-tidied the space and were ready for their 6.5 km run back to Ealing. What a GoodGymer wouldn't do when the triumphs of good over evil and hoover over dust are at stake?

Kash and Sevan returned to Miss S for the second weekend in a row and and found that Miss S had returned from hospital. She greeted them and asked for work to continue in the back garden or, as she called it, the secret garden. As Kash and Sevan headed out to find the tools in the storage, Miss S told them to have fun.

The usual selection of tools was in the usual place, with a new addition. The strimmer now had a charged battery. Kash strimmed the grass and weeds while Sevan lopped away the brambles under the tree. They had fun, except for every 90 seconds, when a plane passed overhead. Miss S' house is right under the Heathrow flight path.

"Which area are you going to strim?" - Sevan
"[Drowned out]" - Kash
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU"
"WAIT" - Sevan
...
"This part by the fence" - Kash

Despite the delights of the regular interruptions, they managed to co-ordinate what they were doing well enough to clear the half of the garden nearest the house. Once they'd finished, they found that there may be a path and definitely was a mini-pond, which were both hidden before. The even more secret part of the secret garden (the bit at the back) stayed unexplored and was left for the next mission goers to discover.

As Kash and Sevan left, they showed Miss S photos of what they'd achieved, which she was very pleased with. She spoke about the plans for the back garden and also trimming the cherry tree in the front, which is a whole other adventure.