Where has the time gone..... It's the last Group Run of 2021 - GoodGym fun - there's no sun - now the year is done. 🤩

Last night got me feeling poetic as 12 Lambeth Legends met at Papa's Park for the last hurrah of the year and a "classic" GoodGym autumn/winter task of clearing leaves at Brixton Road Youth Centre. 🍁

The group were ably led out by Tim who has been a great support while the Area Activator is on the inactive(ator) list and great back marking from Aislin. 💯 Thanks also to Nathan for the photos.

On arrival it was almost as if there weren't that many leaves on the ground to be cleared but the BRYCC team quickly pointed out the piles that had accumulated (or were swept there previously by GG'mers!) along the sides of the centre. The team set about doing what it does and 30 or so minutes later there were 30 full bags of leaves to be disposed of. It was back to base in no time at all for a quick warm down and a chance to admire the AA's stunning Rainbow Laces (click the link to pick up a pair for yourself) before heading to Canova Hall for a festive drink and a chat. ✨

The group took their seats right in front of the kitchen with the pizza oven warming us like a log fire and it was great to get to know people a bit better before Yianny went full geek grabbed his notebook and pen and asked for some suggestions and ideas for the Lambeth Community in 2022. Lots of great ideas were put forward and plenty to go away and work on so watch this space!! ✅

A huge thank you to all the runners, Task Force members, Mission and Taskers for their great work this year - wishing everyone a great end to the year - and a happy and prosperous 2022. 💖

A bumper Tuesday for GG Lambeth runners with two tasks, runs heading off in opposite directions, an Area Activator in a boot/on crutches and hand torches running out of battery throughout the evening! 😖

In true Lambeth style two Task Force members stepped forward to lead the runs - shout out to Charlotte & Sarah - the Autumn classic collecting and bagging leaves at Brixton Road Youth Centre and making a start on GROAD moving their donations into a new storage unit. 💪

The sprinters headed off for the 1.5kms to Brixton Road where it has been 'raining leaves' and were able to clear a huge amount (see photos!) while the middle distance runners made the 3.5km journey (with a long hill climb) to West Norwood and were faced with a Herculean mountain of donations to move. 🚀

There are still two more opportunities to support Get Rid of and Donate this week with Community Missions on Wednesday and Friday - if you are free please do sign up!

With some fantastic back marking everyone arrived back at base safely and in time to celebrate Michael's fantastic achievement of 150 Good Deeds while enjoying Rocky Road bites and vegan Blondies! (Thanks Charlotte & Tim) 😍

I don't know if a self indulgent pun is allowed but Sarah suggested it so I'm going with it.

Tonight was my last Group Run as Lambeth AA, which was kinda sad but also exciting, because the awesome Yianny is taking over! 🎆💥🎉

We had THREE good deeds to get done and I can confirm they were completed. ✅ ✅ ✅

---

But first... we met at PAPA's, welcomed Yianny and also Kaz here for his first Lambeth group run! We had a quick warm up outside and then split into 3 groups:

📬Aislin and Nathan took a group to finish off a task we had last week - flyering for the fab GROAD who take donated clothes, housewares and furniture and give it out as part of their refugee and homelessness projects.

🍂Sarah had a small group who were bagging up leaves at PAPA's - they included a little loop of the block to keep warm too!

🍂And the rest of us ran 2k to Brixton Road Youth & Community Centre to also bag leaves - and thank goodness there were 17 of us because there were a hell of a lot of leaves... The bags that Sharron had bought were mostly quite small... but that did wonders for our self esteem as we filled twice as many as we normally would! (Seriously - see pic of Issy & bags). After half an hour we headed back with a few press ups, tricep dips, a wall sit and some squats on the way!

---

When we got back, we did a few stretches and then it was cake time! Sarah had prepared a "Goodbye Mark" cupcake message 😊 and Nathan's carrot cake cupcakes were absolutely delicious 🤤🤤🤤🤤 Also shout out to Tim for an iiiiiiincredible card (and cheers everyone else for the messages!).

We then went round the corner for a beverage! 🍻 It reminded me what makes the Lambeth community so damn special. Everyone who rocks up from those on 2 good deeds to 200 (and beyond...) is so awesome and friendly and I will really miss our weekly hangs to do good.

BIG LOVE ❤️

-- said Mark to the whole Lambeth gang.

Puns today courtesy of Michael 🙏

A great atmossphere

Dayum it gets dark so early now. Nevermind. The darkness wouldn’t put off our team of 12 wonderful GoodGymers!

---

Tonight’s task took us to Brixton Road Youth Centre where we met Sharron and Kathy who had a pretty mossy job for us...

The ground clearly gets pretty moist and lockdown had given the moss a chance to grow on a lot of the ground around the youth centre. Our job was to scrape it up with shovels and rakes and bag it up with as many leaves as possible. Michael also was given an extra job of trimming some trees back away from the path with some pretty funky secateurs. ✂️🌿

It was a tough challenge, with some nasty scraping noises and some seriously stubborn moss, but in the end we had a good 10 bags of leaves, moss and tree cuttings!

Blink and you’ll moss it

---

On the way back, we had a few pitstops for some lunges, press ups, tricep dips, wall-sits (X2) 😏 and a few quick squats before the traffic lights went green.

It moss be love.

Great stuff everyone!

Next week we’re helping out GROAD to sort some donations and pack some bags for rough sleepers - click here to sign up!

4 of us met to help Brixton youth centre with some much needed leaf clearing. Most of us had done this task a million times so we knew what we were doing and we swept those leaves real good.

Let's try the inside out pillow technique said Frances

Before a demonstration of how the inside out pillow technique doesn't work.

I think the through the legs technique works best said Tim

Before a demonstration of how the through the legs technique doesn't work.

We should have taken a before photo said John

As we realised we had cleared the ground of leaves and the youth center looked sparkling ready for activities to resume next week.

No pun this week, folks. I'm too sombre with the impending lockdown...

The 12 disciples gathered for a spot of leaf collecting at Brixton Road Youth Centre. It's been a while since we've been there and we all know, the leaves at Brixton Road fall ALL THE TIME so there were plenty to pick up.

9 million bags and just 45 minutes later, we were done.

It took everyone ages to get out of the gate as we were too busy chatting, making the most of probably our last time together for a while.

Shout out to Trista for joining for her first GG sesh - lovely to have you along.

Here's the link to that bulbing session tomorrow.

I kept the blurry pictures because they look cool 🤙