With perfect conditions for an evening run, 10 GoodGymers met at our usual spot for our second session at a local church garden, where we were helping the volunteers prepare the ground for planting donated roses.

It was certainly a lot nicer weather than the week before where we got completely drenched, so we were in high spirits for our pre-Halloween run and were really happy to welcome Josie to her very first session!

During our warm up we had a quick poll on scary movies - love them or hate them? The results were almost unanimous, with just one horror fan among the whole group!

On our run down to Balham we were entertained with the spooky houses of Wandsworth, counting pumpkins as we went. Soon we had covered the two miles, and arrived to find Marian, lead volunteer, at the church garden with tools and water waiting for us.

We got straight into the flower beds, tackling the weeds and turning over the soil. I'm always amazed at just how much we can achieve together at GoodGym in a short window of time, and this week was no exception. Great job everybody! Marian was really pleased, and it was great to see a task through from start to finish.

Our run back was nice and steady, and we capped all the fun off with a stretching session. Next week we will definitely be running, but I'm just waiting for the task to be confirmed - keep an eye out on the website for more details coming very soon!

Have a great week of happy halloween running - don't forget to treat yourself well!

It is a testament to true GoodGym grit and commitment that in the pouring rain, a group of ten lovely people turned up to help their community - amazing job. It was wonderful to see some faces new to Wandsworth, and some familiar ones back again.

We even had a reporter from the South West Londoner newswire there to do a little piece on us, despite the drizzle. Fame at last!

Our task was at St Mary's church in Balham, where head volunteer gardener Marian had asked us to come and help prepare the ground ready for the planting of several rose bushes that they had been donated. Before we set off we did our weekly warm up and talked about our dream holiday destinations, which featured Hawaii, the Philippines, Costa Rica, and Cuba. I think you could tell we were feeling the cold, because Norway was the only northern hemisphere country chosen!

It was a two mile run down to the church through the common and on to the busy streets of Balham. We soon arrived to find Marian waiting for us with tools, bags and bottles of water. We had a little lesson in a weed called alkanet - every day is a school day at GoodGym! - and then got cracking.

We dug, turned over soil, got rid of ivy, eliminated weeds and filled bags. Check out the very bad before and after shots to just about make out how much we got done. I can only apologise for the bad quality! Just under 45 minutes later we had made a big difference, so after one final group photo we braved the incessant rain and headed back to the Arts Centre, forgoing our usual fitness session (I ignored the cheers...)

All that was left was to stretch and dry ourselves off. Great work, team. Next week we'll be back to finish off the job - you can sign up here hope to see you there for some slightly less damp doing good and getting fitter. As always, everybody welcome! Until then, have a week of happy and safe running.