Lending a (clean) hand

It was raining cats and dogs as seven GoodGymers including first-time Group runner, Daryl, entered the safe haven of Old Spike Roastery. Everyone had arrived in time and with 5 minutes extra, Sam took his sweet time to explain ways to get involved with GoodGym as well as other recent news.

Everyone had to take the brave decision to leave the comforts of Old Spike and head out into the rain to start the warm-up. Sam had recently been on a few group runs in other areas and took some inspiration from Simon in Islington with his warm-up. Since tonight was the first Wednesday of the month, we had organised to check out Four Quarters, which is a bar with retro arcade games. Thus, the ice-breaker question was: What is your favourite arcade, video or board game?

Many chose board games like Articulate, Cluedo and Catan, but we also had some retro games like pinball, Pacman, Pacwoman and Time Crisis 2 🎮

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Disinfecting my house

Since the destination was only 100 yards from last week's task, Sam mapped out the same run as it is the quickest route, but it does involve a gradually inclining hill. The 2.7k run took us around 15 minutes to do. We all arrived to Janet's smiling face as she came outside to greet us!

The rain hadn't completely gone away, so we opted for the whole group to stay inside and tackle the main task, which was to clean all the toys and playing mats that the 30 kids use three times a week. This task is often done twice a week, but GoodGym likes to lend a hand from time to time to take the work off the brilliant staff at the Salvation Army Camberwell Corps.

We were armed with cloths, sponges, 3 x buckets of warm/cold disinfectants, towels (to dry) and importantly, gummy babies for energy.

The team had done this before and knew we had to empty the cupboard of toys first, lay them out and then individually bring them to the tables (that were set up) to clean before setting them aside to dry.

Benjamin, Claire, Daryl and Lindy tackled the smaller toys. Whilst Emma, Nelly and Sam cleaned the playing mats and some of the larger toys (slide and cars). Towards the end of the session, the last item to be cleaned was the playhouse and since Claire is currently looking for a home....so it just seemed right to give her this task 👀

As we reached towards 20:00, we quickly started packing all the toys back into the cupboard, but in a specific way. We finished everything on the dot with just enough time for a group photo.

Everyone ran back apart from Lindy who had to rush back home to do some work 😥.

We ran a 2.7k flat run back to the Old Spike Roastery via Peckham High Street and Rye Lane before our exposed stretching on the corner near White Horse.

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Four walls of a female prison

Thanks to all those who came out for a drink...or two at Four Quarters. Emma and Sam made it to the final stage of Time Crisis 2, but ran out of coins to complete the game. The same thing happened for House of the Dead 2 when Sam teamed up with Ben, but we were further away from the end than we thought.

It was great to catch up with everyone as we discussed all things GoodGym, holidays, Sam's political correctness and reminisced on our University days, especially Claire's first year accommodation where she was paying £45 a week to live in a prison 🤣 Even though, we started drinking around 20:30, we did not think we would end up leaving quarter to 1! Time flies when you're having fun 😀

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came and ran not only in the drizzle, but up Grove Road hill (again!). Thank you! Thanks to those who stayed for the social and played a bit of Time Crisis and House of the Dead 2. Next month, we'll head to the Common if the weather allows us, otherwise we'll check out another venue (TBC).

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Thank You Janet

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Janet for opening up the centre after hours to let us help you clean and disinfect your children's toys. We will be back in the summer when we can hopefully tackle the side garden and parking lot too!