We were back with a bang in Wandsworth last night with a fabulous group of GoodGymers raring to go!

It was lovely to see Wandsworth regulars, faces from other boroughs coming to join us, and to welcome Kelly to GoodGym for her very first run. Cheers all round!

After a quick warm up where we talked about the task ahead - helping out at a local community garden transformed from a multistory carpark and run by volunteers - and discussed our New Year's resolutions. Several of us pledged to be on time more (every year for me - going to happen any day now, I'm sure of it), while others vowed to walk, cycle and run more. There was even the excellent intention to be more Nigella.

We set off for Doddington, with only a minor hiccup along the way as some of us took on a little additional mileage, and arrived at the garden to find Malissa waiting for us with jobs that included digging over and sieving the compost, as well as clearing leaves from the pathways.

After forty minutes of hard work, we said our goodbyes and headed off into the night, stopping along the way for several fitness stations which included the dreaded progressive squat and pavement toe taps.

There are loads of exciting things coming up, including several missions this weekend - you can check out all the options here. If you fancy a free tickets to the National running show on the 22nd - 23rd Jan at the Birmingham NEC (https://nationalrunningshow.com/birmingham) you can get a free one thorugh Wandsworth runner Oliver with free ticket code - OCANNON. Thanks Ollie!

Don't forget parkrun every saturday at 9am - a couple of GGers said they were doing Wimbledon so look out for some friendly faces.

Next week we're off to a local theatre and arts charity to lend a hand, you can sign up for more fun right here. Hope fully see you then, but in the meantime, run happy into 2022!

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!

With blue skies as far as the eye could see, it was the perfect night for some running about doing good - and what made it even better was seeing some lovely new faces to GoodGym Wandsworth! Welcome everybody.

We started off the evening with some warm ups (not that they were that needed) and a gentle jog down to the local park next to the school where we were set to help out. We launched straight into some not-so-gentle tabata, after a discussion on how to pronounce it properly. If anybody has the magic answer let me know! After a few short but intense rounds of mountain climbers, high knees and squat jumps (all the classics), we moved on to a round of ab-based tabata where you all proved you had cores of steel. Amazing work.

Pumped and ready for our task, we headed round the corner to meet headteacher Colette, who showed us into the magical secret garden the kids use to grow fruit and veg and learn about nature and wildlife. There was a mountain of wood to shift, but we cracked on with it, slowly but surely filling the massive skip with loads of wood and clearing a new space for the kids to use. Check out the after shot - I cannot believe how much you managed to get in there!

After admiring the fruit (and perhaps sneaking a tiny sample, just in the interest of keeping blood sugars up of course) we waved goodbye to Christchurch school and the little kitten who had overseen our work, and headed back to the BAC. Finishing off the evening with that big old hill, we eased our weary muscles with some stretches. We also chatted about:

• For anyone not competing in Hackney Half, on 26th Sept but in the mood for something to do (and a material incentive!) here's a page for the GG Aid Station It's now operated by a different company, so the incentives now include money off road races, duathlons AND triathlons

• If anybody is doing a parkrun on saturday and fancies some company or a coffee afterwards, pop it in the whatsapp group to see who is about!

• Next week's run is full at the moment as the task has limited capacity, but I'm hoping to add on another extra task close by so watch this space!

Until then, happy running everyone!