Skipping joyfully in the daylight - hoorah - seven spritely runners took on 3km of running and a fair bit of rolling at Penge Congregational Church.

We were a small(er) but definitely perfectly formed group this evening, with some of our regulars away, so how lovely to welcome a new face! Hello and welcome to Emily, who was joining us for her first ever GoodGym group run.

It seems to be a regular thing at the moment to be celebrating good deed milestones, this time with Kate reaching number five, Bradley on number eleven (having done number ten last night in our neighbouring borough) and Clare on twenty-six, having completed her 25th last time she was here. That's a lot of goodness being totted up there, great work!

Tonight we were returning to Penge Congregational Church, where last week we washed, taped and made ready the walls. We were met by Chris, who had everything set out and ready to go, so we filled trays with paint, grabbed rollers and brushes and started work on our beautifully prepared space. As we worked in the entrance area, with lots of talk about plans for the Easter weekend (varying from camping - actually the far nicer older sister of camping, glamping - to spas), in the church behind us were a group of Brownies on an Easter egg hunt. It was rather tempting to have a little hunt ourselves and see what we could find! We chatted about parkrun (running and volunteering), upcoming races, cake sales and new GoodGym areas (Liverpool last night and Newcastle coming up). Pretty soon we were finding it hard to tell where we had painted, so Chris prompted us to leave enough time for refreshments.

And relax

On our last visit we were treated to fairy cakes, this week we were offered little carrot cake fingers and country slices, yum. Taking the whole refreshment thing very seriously, everyone sat down for a little rest; we could get used to this level of hospitality. As we nibbled, Chris told us about a cycling challenge he is working towards, where he will ride from Lambeth to the National Memorial Arboretum, quite an undertaking! We look forward to hearing more about this and wish Chris well in his planning and training.

Talking of training, it was time to tear ourselves away from the sweet treats and do some good hard working out. A little jog down the adjacent road and we were in the park, ready to go for it. Getting into two groups (not before startling a tiny white dog!), we played a very quick game of 'Over and Under', passing a ball along our lines and sprinting to a dot on the ground (which was impossible to see in the now darkness!). This got us fired up for a few rounds of squats, mountain climbers, burpees and push-ups. Give it a few more weeks and we will be able to work on the grass, instead of picking grit out of our hands after getting down on a gravelly path. Wending our way ever upwards, we were back at our start point before we knew it, stretching out and planning our next task. Once the Easter fun is over, we will be back here on Tuesday, for some wheelbarrow/shovel/raking action in the Secret Garden, sign up here to join in and to work off some of those Mini-Eggs.

*In all the excitement of having two different cakes to choose from, I forgot to take a group photo, but you can piece together the two mini group photos above in your own head. Magic.

On the vernal equinox, ten athletes ran with a spring in their step, covering around 3km and preparing the Penge Congregational Church for painting on our next visit.

A very big thank you to Conroy, who greeted, then led the group to the task, as I had a meeting that overlapped ever so slightly. He had been very organised and had checked out where everyone was up to with their good deeds, discovering there was plenty to celebrate this week. We had Ian reaching his 20th, Hannah and Louise reaching their 25th and Stuart and Louise reaching their 26th! It's great to see what a fantastic core team we now have, all running and doing good consistently. We also marvelled at Louise's achievement in completing the Vertical Rush last week, 42 floors and 932 steps of running in just over ten minutes! Well done!

It was pointed out to me later on this evening, that today was the one year anniversary of GoodGym Bromley but, as I only took on the group (at a new start point) in July, which is also when most people started, we will probably wait until then and celebrate our Pengiversary.

Action stations!

When I arrived at the task, everyone was already busy, with high volume sanding to be heard as I entered the church. Some people were up ladders sponging down the walls and others were using masking tape to cover switches, skirting and the edges of the lovely coat hooks - Tim wondered here how it might have looked in Victorian times, with all the hats lined up...Chris, who had met us here, had prepared everything very carefully, with a platform in the space, to allow us to reach the very high ceilings, ladders, bowls of soapy water and plenty of equipment to keep everyone occupied. Before long, we could see that the space was ready for painting, so we will step back, let the walls dry and return next week to get busy with the brushes and rollers.

Sent from Heaven

Before we left, Chris asked if we would like some coffee and cake. This is rather special and quite unusual at a task, so of course we called out a resounding 'yes'! Chris had baked the cakes himself, beautiful little fairy cakes (or butterfly cakes?), which were absolutely delicious! Thank you. This break gave us a chance to talk a little about the various activities that happen in the church and hear about how the minister's daughter will be getting married here in the summer, hence the need for a fresh and clean entrance :) Saying goodbye for now, we headed down to Royston Field, a new park to us, which had perfectly spaced lamp posts for the fitness session I had planned. Taking a different move between each one, we had runners squatting, frog-leaping (like leap-frogging but without the obstacle), high-kneeing and plank-walking (or crab walking?). This was all rounded off with a nice long wall-sit. Good work, hopefully the cake gave you wings.

On our return leg, we noticed the clear sky, stars all around, looked forward to the clocks going forward at the weekend and talked about our return to Penge Congregational Church next week. You can sign up here - we need all hands on deck to get the painting done.

See you soon!