Southwark News

• Looking for plans THIS Sunday? Join us for a Gardening Workshop from 2-4pm at Surrey Docks Farm! Grab the last spaces here

Wall of Honour

• High Five to Tara for completing her first run with us!
• Big Shout to Allie for running tonights session with a 15kg backpack! Ready for her Rhino suited Half Marathon next week!!
• Show it off! This weeks Champions are Sam for completing his first Half Marathon in under 2 hours! and Helena & Ed who ran the WINE drinking Marathon Du Medoc last month! Thirsty work!

Let’s have a Recap

Last night 15 runners ran 6km in total to the beautiful Bell House Gardens, home to a magnificent Grade II Listed building, and charity offering educational needs such as dyslexia support.

It was a dry night (after 2 heavy days of rain!) but with a slight temperature drop, conversations once again debated how many and which layers to wear for the evening!? We jumped through a brisk warm up passing the first test of names and numbers (always a tricky one!) and headed on a straightforward route up Barry Road and through the peacefully dark Dulwich Park. Managing to not get locked in and with Helena back-marking we arrived to meet Graham in the Bell House tool shed.

The daylight was well gone, but fear not we came prepared! With head torches and garden lamps we got to work on our first task - moving over 20 large bags of manure! Despite the smells and varying weights a chain was formed to deposit the bags into the compost heap at the back of the garden, with thankfully few mishaps!

Reece & Richard gave some man power to a tired lawn mower and helped move the heavy machine from the bottom of the garden back into the shed! And although we faced a challenge in the dark, we were able to illuminate the back of the garden so that the final task could be completed in true GoodGym style, turning over soil and digging out weeds working in an organised team being careful not get a stab in the dark! Much to Graham's surprise ALL 3 tasks were completed within 25 minutes, so we bid goodbye to the garden until Spring!

Leading the way home Richard navigated us along Woodwarde Road, sharing a few jokes along the way! And back up the hill towards the library. After adding in some loops backs and extra sprints for the front runners we all arrived together for a final stretch and appreciation for Allie's Rhin-ormous effort!

FACT OF THE DAY A Black Rhino’s skin can be up to 5cm thick! - No wonder those costumes are so heavy!

Next week we will be running 6km overall to our friends at Salvation Army in Camberwell. There will be plenty to get stuck into helping clear up after their recent building work! Sign up here

Dom T will be taking the ropes next week. Any queries, please get in touch at dom@goodgym.org

See you soon! Chin Up!

Southwark News

• Next week the awesome new trainer Ian is taking the group on a 7k round trip to Galleywall Nature Reserve to get stuck into the allotments. Find out more and sign up here.

• Saturday 7th September come on down to paint Peckham Rye parkrun red. Sign up for a volunteer spot on the spreadsheet found here. And if you're looking for an extra fix of good there's litter picking pre-parkrun for Peckham Rye Summer Fete.

• Final call for Big Half community places! Only £10! Email me lucyj@goodgym.org for details, you must be signed up by the end of August. I'll be coming back for it so look out for a pub lunch being organised afterwards.

• Surrey Docks Farm are putting on a gardening workshop for us! Date yet to be confirmed but keep your eyes on the website for it.

A flipping good handover

Last night an all time Southwark-record-smashing 37 people (THIRTY SEVEN!) descended on Old Spike Roastery to run 6km to Bell House in Dulwich. There was a queue for the sign up sheet! There's never a queue for the sign up sheet! Unbelievable scenes.

Bell House is a stunning Georgian House that currently houses an educational charity that offers support outside the mainstream school curriculum, lifelong learning, short courses, exhibitions, talks and musical events. You can find out more about them here. We've been visiting for nearly two years and seen the garden taking amazing shape.

The rain stopped, just for us!

We set off in two groups - party pace (slower) and 'in a hurry' which quickly became three groups because there was so many of us! To get to Bell House we run straight up Barry Road which is a solid mile of uphill - tough going! Then we pass through gorgeous Dulwich park before ending up at Bell House. Our tasks? One group turning and moving compost, one group weeding (and fussing over Clementine the dog). We got an insane amount done - giving the beds a good sorting out and turning over huge amounts of compost - that would have taken George hours to do on his own.

Hello and welcome to Ineke who came on her first group run tonight!

Before we knew it time was up and we needed to split into three groups to run back home where we stretched and went immediately next door to Batch.

And now the soppy bit

Being at Old Spike Roastery every single Wednesday evening come rain, shine or anything in between has been the joy of my week since February last year. There is no other job (or anything) in my life that has grown my confidence, strength and compassion like GoodGym Southwark. Last night saying goodbye to people individually I realised that as trainers we are in such a special, privileged position. We are a constant in lives that twist and turn around us, we are a reliable friendly face, a hug, a question about that race you did, we are there to support every single runner in whatever capacity they need that day. How do I express what that means to me? All I can really say is that whether you've come once or you've come a hundred times to a group run please know that your presence has at some point made my day.

There are many, many thank yous to say. First of all to the amazing individuals on Southwark taskforce who have been with me every step of the way, from last minute task cancellations to finding new task contacts to being the lively, joyful heart of the group. Thank you to those who arrive early and chat with me about their day, thank you to those who arrive (just about) on time and scrabble for the sign-in sheet. Thank you to the people new to running who bring their enthusiasm, their interest, their fresh energy and thank you to the veterans for their wisdom and encouragement. Thank you to all of you for putting up with the same exact intro speech and jokes for the last year and laughing politely at the particularly bad gags about peanuts. Thank you to those that organised and contributed to my gifts - what an amazing peanut butter gluten free cake! Who knew such wonders could exist! I look forward to putting my fabulous tea towel to good use and of course those amazing gardening tools. Thank you for becoming my friends and my family. I cannot wait to see what you all do next.

And last but by no means least, thank you to Ian for taking on this wonderful group of people and undoubtedly taking GoodGym Southwark to new and exciting heights. I know you will love it as much as I do because, after all, there's really nothing quite like it.

Keep running happy,

Lucy J

Southwark News

• Big Half community places! Normal price is £46 but we have 30 community spaces going for an absolute bargain of a tenner. The route is the first half of the London Marathon... but backwards... It's a great race and our community places close at the end of August so contact me lucyj@goodgym.org for info.

• THIS SATURDAY the lovely folks at GoodGym Lambeth are doing Clapham Common parkrun followed by a community mission to set up Stockwell Festival - get your weekend fix of good! Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week we're running to Southwark Tigers to spruce up their benches. Find out more and sign up here.

• 21st July GoodGym is manning an aid station at the Asics London 10k. You get some swag, it's a super fun day and you get free entry to either Hackney Half, Oxford Half or the next London 10k for volunteering. Bargain! Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night was a gorgeous evening and after a warm up that featured a cameo from a passing child who wanted to join in, we got running the 3km up through Dulwich Park to Bell House. It's a gorgeous Georgian House that now houses an educational charity. It's got stunning walled gardens and loads of vegetables growing. Sarah split us into three main groups:

• Watering the rose garden.

• Watering the vegetables patches and greenhouse.

• Weeding and de-mossing between the cracks of the patio.

We spent a good 30 minutes there working away - the patio looked fantastic by the time we left and I'm sure all the plants were very grateful for a drink. Before we left, Sarah told us a bit about the charity and the garden - there's a gardening group every Saturday morning at 9.30am right after parkrun at nearby Dulwich park, a perfect morning! We thanked Sarah and headed off back home, stopping en route in Dulwich park for a legendary game of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Cone.

Great work team, see you next week!

Lucy J

Southwark News

• A huge thanks to the 8 people who helped out at Crisis warehouse last Thursday for a last minute Community Mission. What an awesome turnout! They were delighted!

• Next week it's a longer run - 5km there and 5km back. There's a bus option home so bring your oyster/contactless. It'll be a wicked challenge! We leave at 7pm on the dot because of the distance and we'll be home later than usual - around 9.45pm. We're unloading 3 tonnes of compost for Schools for Food. Find out more and sign up here.

• This week Ed and Helena are at the top of the Southwark distance leaderboard! Woop woop for them!

• A big hello and welcome to Joanne who joined us for her first group run last night!

Showing you who's moss

Bell House is an educational charity that offers support outside the mainstream school curriculum, lifelong learning, short courses, exhibitions, talks and musical events.

Last night 8 runners ran 6km to Bell House in Dulwich to rake moss out of the lawn. If left to spread, the moss kills off the grass and you end up with a lawn of moss! The alternative to raking is to put down moss killer which just kills everything and is pretty industrial stuff. We helped Graham out massively - he said it would have taken him another 3 odd Saturday mornings to get as much as we had done. Great work team!

We mossed it!

The basic idea: identify orange mossy areas, rake them out of the grass (harder than you think!) and then scoop into wheeelbarrows for the compost heap.

After half an hour we thanked Graham and Erenie for having us and ran off to Dulwich Park for some Easter-themed fun. We played a few rounds of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Cone with forfeits and then a cone-and-fitness easter egg hunt.

After that we were ready to head off home where we stretched and went next door for the monthly Southwark social at Batch next door.

Great work team, see you next week!