17 runners turned out tonight to help friends of Addiscombe at the Railway Park garden, we had three newbies joining us tonight Ben, Louise and Julian, our regulars made them feel at home and bombarded them with all things goodgym so much so Ben has already signed up for Morden Hall Park - Trust10 Trail Run don't just read and awwww click on their names and give them some cheers!

It's always fun watching the new runners integrating with the group and how each member of the group steals at least a minute of their time by talking to them and making the feel welcomed.

Following our introduction we went outside for our warm up, before setting off to the railway park gardens where we were met by Richard, who seemed quite surprised by the number of the group that had turned up to help.

Not wanting to waste anytime Richard quickly went through the list of task he had for us to complete, watering the trees in the Orchard, cutting back the overhanging buddleias, watering the community garden, digging earth from the soil heap and sieving it to remove the stones.

Instructions given the group divided into small teams for the watering and digging the earth but there were a lot of overhanging buddleias so that was a bigger group, there were some cutting while others carried the cuttings to the designated rubbish heap. After those who had been watering completed their task they too also helped with the mamouth task of cutting back the buddleias.

Well done to Julian and Ben who filled up a massive bag or earth they had dug up and sieved, unfortunately they did not uncover any gold nuggets or hidden gems but they had a good time taking turns in digging and sieving, they sure worked on their twist an squats.

This week's achievements corner

Julian, Louise and Ben on completing the 1st Good Deed

Erin on completing her 15th good deeds

Rachel on completing her 25th good deeds

Happy 49th to Mr Tucker

Well done Paul on completing not only the volunteer role but also for doing 4 stages of the London City relay and he's not finished as yet. Why not join him on a stage?

Congratulations Nicola on achieving your highest parkrun finish (7th) while on your jaunt to Canada!

Thank you, to Sarah for organising our July Social be sure to sign up.

Upcoming races

3 August 2019 The GoodGym Olympics will you be out representing Croydon!

Next week we are heading to St Augustine's sign up here, the run will be about 6km but remember you do have the option of either running to or from the task and completing all or part of the journey by public transport.

Additional Photos taken by Karim

12 of us met in the lobby of Solutions Gym, where we exchanged pleasantries and chatted a bit before heading off to Addiscombe Railway Park to do some gardening and litter picking. Tonight, we welcomed new comer Kate, who was doing her first run with us.

Upon arrival we were told about the various tasks awaiting us, we got stuck in and began tackling the various tasks. There were pruners, diggers and litter pickers. The diggers were busy digging up the soil from the mountain of soil, sieving it into bags and putting the stones into another bag. Through all the heavy lifting and shovelling they were left shaken ‘n’ sieved. As they laughed and chatted, they shake rattle and stoned, shake sieved and put the fresh earth in.

To Cut or not to Cut

Hedge today Gone Tomorrow

The pruners armed with secateurs and a saw cut back the edges while ensuring that the trees that had been identified as wanted were leafed alone.

Hide and Seek

While doing the rounds ensuring that everyone was accounted for and that they were working within the safety guidelines, Ingrid who had opted to do litter picking was missing, upon walking along the path calling out for her I heard her voice in the distance, she had been clearing the path of litter and got a bit carried away off the beaten track she explained that while clearing the path she noticed there were a lot of litter in the bushes so decided to clear those as well.

Task completed we all gathered around the pond looking at the tadpoles and frogs, the pond had been dug by us on a previous visit it was good to see the finish product with its occupants and plants.

This week’s fitness session we worked on lunges and planks, if you do get a spare moment please try and completed a few of each.

As mentioned in my closing this evening there are various events happening in the GoodGym community if you fancy taking part or even turning up to cheer have a butchers at the link below. At the end of each event there is always a social so pop along and get to meet GoodGymers from other areas.

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/races

Stanka will be leading next weeks group run please sign up and give her your support in my absence.

As I will be away next week we agreed that our monthly social will be on Tuesday 4 September, following our group run. Task force members please can you canvas ideas and a venue.

We ran around 5km to water, restore a path and admire our previous good work!

A beautiful evening with a lovely cool breeze made for a less hot and sweaty run than we’ve been having recently. We headed off to Addiscombe Railway Park’s community garden where we met Richard and Lauren to find out our jobs for the evening. The recent lack of rain has really affected some of the young trees in the orchard and also the bushes and lavenders further down the park. So our first tasks was to load up a trolley and a wheelbarrow with all sorts of water containers and head off to the far end of the park on our rescue mission. For some of the poor plants it was probably too late but hopefully we’ve managed to help rescue most of the others. We headed back to the garden and split into two groups – one continued with the watering task, this time in the orchard area, and the other loaded up with stones to help repair a path.

With both jobs well done we had time to admire “our pond” and all the tadpoles and froglets enjoying their home before we had a quick fun fitness session. An old favourite, Heads and Tails, although I’m not sure those who endured the burpees loved every minute of it. Andy performed well under pressure with his impressive press-up and the pressure he was under to complete “just another 10 then we can finish”

A comfortable run back to base followed by some stretches led by Ellie saw us finish a lovely evening and the we all headed home to reflect on a job well done.

Welcome to Marianne on her first run, hope you enjoyed yourself and see you again soon.

Finally…. Next week we are off to St Augustine’s Church in south Croydon to help in their garden. Sounds like they’ve got a few great jobs lined up for us.

Photos not wanting to upload so I'll get them up ASAP

We ran 5km to dig, move earth, water and plant in Addiscombe Railway Park

A perfect night for running and doing good in Croydon and what a lovely bunch of people to spend the evening with. 15 of us headed of to Addiscombe Railway Park to help with a number of tasks in their community garden. After a warm-up near the Job Centre Amatare took the lead and led the group to the park with a few loop backs to keep the runners at the back - mainly me - together.

Once we arrived Richard and his team explained the tasks that needed doing. There were newly planted fruit trees to water and hopefully we managed to save one of the small sapling that was on it's last legs. Over in a corner of the garden some of the runners got straight down to planting and weeding and sitting on the bench as you'll see from the photos! During our last visit last month the runners had dug out a pond which has now been filled with water and plants and we were lucky enough to spot tadpoles and some tiny frogs too. The third task of the evening involved some serious earth moving to help create a wider path around the pond and to build up the sides so the slope wasn't as steep. The gents in the group really fancied this manly task so grabbed the equipment and got busy digging, shifting and reshaping the pond area. Us ladies were allowed to help at the end by stamping down the soil!

On the way back we headed to a quiet(ish) street where we split into tow teams for a relay race and some exercises to keep the waiting runners busy. The level of competitiveness was impressive and hopefully those signed up to the GoodGym Olympics will retain that spirit and get stuck in on the 30th of June. Those who don;t want to compete can still come along and cheer loudly and eat cake.

We had 3 lovely new runners tonight Ben, Hope and Sovia - it was lovely to have you there and hope to see you back soon.

Stretches were led by Andy today followed by a chat about upcoming events and all the runners all took some leaflets to post locally about the week long Festival of Peace starting this Saturday in Wandle Park and finishing on Saturday the 23rd in Park Hill Rec. There will be a yogathon at 11am so I'm hoping some of us can join in - t-shirt on of course!

GoodGym Olympics on the 30th of June– it was a great day last year so sign up and do Croydon proud

Peace Garden planting – Josi has kindly agreed to pick up some red and white flowers for our part of the Peace Garden so we will either be planting them (in a GoodGym logo) next Tuesday or at the weekend. If it's not on Tuesday I'll email and ask for some help.

Finally…. Next week we are off to Park Hill Rec & Park Hill school for a variety of tasks - so drag out your friends and family as we need numbers for this double task next week.

A warm evening. 2 community projects in need of a hand. A group of 29 lovely runners.

These elements combined beautifully last night for GoodGym Croydon's second birthday.

The runners

It was great to see some new faces last night! Liz, Marcelo, Dre, Chris R, Heather, Catherine, and Chris T all joined us for the first time, and got to join in with the GoodGym Croydon magic! It was also great to see a few runners back who have been part of the group's journey in the past, like Helena, and one of our pals from Lewisham and Bromley, Conroy, join us for a spot of GoodGym tourism!

The task

One group, led by Ellie and Juliet, ran 2km in total to help at Park Hill; helping get the Peace Garden ready for the Festival of Peace they're holding in June. This involved tackling weeds, moving plants, and generally getting the space a lot more ready for the festival. Another group, led by Helena, Amatare, Conroy and myself, ran around 4km in total to help our pals at the Addiscombe Railway Park do some bits in their community garden. Amongst other things we tidied around some apple trees, planted some lavender on a bank, and dug a MASSIVE hole that will eventually be turned into a pond. Both task holders were really happy with what the groups had done, a testament to what a big group of energetic runners can get done in a short time.

The social

Once we got back to the start point we stretched out and most of us headed over to Matthews Yard for a cracking birthday social. It was a cracking time, and great hearing people's different experiences running with the GoodGym community so far. There was even a beautiful group rendition of Happy Birthday To Us (I can only apologise for starting that off!). Kudos to Juliet, who has made our group all the things we love (inclusive, stimulating and fun) from our first run two years ago! Its been two great years so far, and great to see so many willing to get stuck in with our third year.

Here are a few dates for diaries, for those I chatted with about upcoming events:

• Every GoodGym Croydon group run starts at the same time and place, details about the next run will always be here

• GoodGym Southwark will be doing pacing at Burgess parkrun on Saturday if you'd like to join in with that - I'm doing my first pacing ever for 30 minutes!

• The GoodGym Olympics will be happening on the 30th June. Not as intimidating as it sounds, it's a big fun sports day in North London with GoodGym joining from all over; last year Croydon got a gold (three legged race), but it'd be great to have even more of us up there this year!