This morning, 4 GoodGym runners headed to Goodrich Community Primary School in East Dulwich. Goodrich is the biggest primary school in Southwark, and their annual Winter Fair is an important opportunity for them to raise funds and engage with the community.

We had been asked if runners would be able to help them set up for the fair, before kick-off at noon. We quickly swung into action; Nat, Becky and I lugging up vast amounts of snacks and drinks to the cafe area in the upper hall. As we finished this, we were joined by Neil (with little Sophie in tow), who joined us in setting up several gazebos, and tying baubles and tinsel onto any possible object.

Once we had sorted this, and Becky had draped festive sheets over the more mundane aspects of the hall (imagine multiple stacks of chairs), we headed upstairs - where Nat was ALL OVER the task of labelling the teddy bear tombola - and we set about labelling jam jars full of sweets for their jam jar tombola. Never let it be said that Goodrich Community Primary School is lacking in tombolas.

After some time working away on this (and chatting to some of the parent volunteers about our journeys into running and good options for a first 10k), we each made our way for the rest of a foggy Saturday!

Southwark News

• This Saturday! Come and help Friends of Nunhead Cemetery set up for their open day from 8.30am - 11.00am. Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week we're cleaning the toddler toys at the Salvation Army in Camberwell. I'm not here so the brilliant Lambeth trainer Mark will be coming with you. It's a 6km run overall. Find out more and sign up here.

• Saturday 1st June we're doing a parkrun takeover at Dulwich parkrun. We need to fill the volunteer roster! We need 2 x timekeepers, 2 x finish token, 2 x funnel managers, 1 x barcode scanners, 1 x number writes for people who's barcodes won't scan and 1 x run report writer. Sign up to the event and choose your volunteer position on the spreadsheet.

• A huge big woop for Christina Lazarz coach runner extraordinaire who just did her 50th good deed! A fabulous achievement!

Uh Oh we're in trouble, GoodGym's come along and painted some bubbles

Last night 13 runners ran 4km to finish off painting the playground at Goodrich Community Primary School.

A beautiful evening perfect for painting! We set off after a quick warm up for the (mostly uphill!) 2km to Goodrich. We visited the school last week to start painting the lower walls around the playground white. Rebecca said the kids were thrilled and the parents loved it too. Schools have really struggled lately with all the cuts and they just don't have the capacity to do these kinds of tasks that can make such a huge difference.

An enormous hello and hooray to Sarah, Jodie, Lucy and Kate who all joined us for the first time last night. Excellent work!

With three extra runners we covered almost twice as much wall as we did last time. Blimey! Whilst the second section of wall was painted - including a rather technical part behind a planter and netting - team bubble set about decorating around the water feature. The large structure, when turned on, emits bubbles. The children love it! We painted some gorgeous bubbles on the wall above the water feature.

Having finished up we put away our implements, said thank you to Rebecca and got going downhill back home. 150 odd metres from Old Spike, Daniel set off as the hare and everyone had to chase him down.

Back at Old Spike and it's the third Wednesday of the month so you know what that means - social! We headed next door to Batch for some food and drink and some interesting conversations about sauna meetings (key to resolving Brexit we think).

Great work team! See you next week.

Lucy J

Southwark News

• Tonight tonight! Come to Batch Bar, just next door to Old Spike Roastery to meet GoodGymers from all over London and enjoy some of Phil's signatures cocktails. There will be International Pun of the Month, Heroes and much more. Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week we're doing some more painting! Don't wear brand new kit in case it gets painty! Lucy can testify to that one... FInd out more and sign up here.

• Saturday 18th May is Community Mission to help Friends of Nunhead Cemetery put up gazebos for their Open Day. Find out more and sign up here.

• Last but not least we're taking over Dulwich parkrun on 1st June! That means filling the volunteer roster. Gilian who will be run director on the day came to talk to us this week about it. We need 2 x timekeepers, 2 x finish token, 2 x funnel managers, 1 x barcode scanners, 1 x number writes for people who's barcodes won't scan and 1 x run report writer. Sign up to the event and choose your volunteer position on the spreadsheet.

That's enough of the business

Last night 10 runners ran 4km to paint the playground at Goodrich Community Primary School. After a briefing and a chat with Gilian about parkrun on 1st June, we headed off.

Due to the rain it was uncertain we'd actually be able to paint outside but alas we were in luck, we arrived at the school and Rebecca led us to the start of the wall outside her reception classroom. Steve, the premises manager helped us set everything up.

Hello and welcome to Hannah who joined us for the first time last night!

First things first moving everything near the wall away from it so we had plenty of space - this included some very heavy compost bags. Putting the 'gym' in the 'good'! With everything safely away from the wall and paint rollers set out we spread along the wall to get painting!

This simple white paint will give the playground such a lift, the kind of thing that recent cuts mean schools just don't have the time or capacity for anymore. The wall looked fabulous by the time we finished.

Before we left we said a big thank you to Rebecca and Steve for staying behind to let us help. Then we ran back home - downhill this time hooray! We got back to the Rye a little early so stopped for some shuttle runs and exercises including press-ups, burpees and star jumps.

Great work team!

See you next week for more of the same.

Lucy J