What a fantastic way to close out our year of GoodGym runs! This evening’s mission marked our last run of 2024, but not to worry, if you’re itching for some GoodGym action next week, I’m happy to set up a community mission on Monday—just let me know!

We started with a warm-up and the all-important question of the week: Should we retire the question of the week? I was expecting a mixed reaction from some of us thinking it was a fun tradition but it was time to draw it to a close, and others wanting to see it continue into 2025. Unexpectedly the result was unanimous - question of the week is here to stay! (But we might start taking it in turns...)

It was also fantastic to welcome Jack for his very first GoodGym session! Hope you enjoyed it, Jack, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Our task tonight took us to the Gwynneth Morgan Day Centre, a vital local hub supporting older residents of Wandsworth. Age UK Wandsworth provides this space for social interaction, activities, and vital services to improve the quality of life for the elderly. It’s wonderful to be part of a project that gives back to the community in such a meaningful way.

Our jobs for the evening were varied. We started with washing buses, ensuring they were sparkling clean and ready for action. Next, we attempted to fix and move a planter (a tricky job with a bit of a fight back from the planter itself!), and we finished off with some leaf clearing, making sure the area around the center was tidy and welcoming. There’s always plenty to do, and we were glad to be part of it.

A huge thanks to Frank for the thoughtful gift of chocolate, which definitely fueled our run and work! We were also pleased to see GoodGym Wandsworth included in the Age UK Wandsworth annual report—a lovely reminder of our visits. And of course, there are always more jobs to do—so we'll be back in 2025!

Before we headed off, we enjoyed a fitness session featuring Tabata, which was intense but at least kept us warm. We even finally figured out how to correctly pronounce “Tabata”—you’d be surprised how long its taken me!

Finally, don’t forget to RSVP to the GoodGym Wandsworth Christmas Party on Thursday, December 12th! It’s going to be a great time, and we’d love to see you there. Details here - and rest assured there is no pressure to sing, we welcome spectators and performers alike!

That’s a wrap for 2024. Can't wait to see you all next year—stay active and keep spreading the good vibes!

I helped them to pack away all the unsold clothing at the end of the sale. We packed them all away in huge boxes and cages.

Every session at GoodGym is special, but last night was especially special for a few reasons!

First of all we got to welcome Carol, Abi, Adam along for their very first group run with us - let's give them a big GoodGym cheer! It was also fantastic to welcome back some familiar faces too.

The evening was in collaboration with Sport England's This Girl Can campaign, which aims to remove all of the hurdles for women to participate in sport. This is particularly relevant at this time of year when the clocks have gone back and the evenings are darker. There is a lot of anxiety around running after dark, especially for women, and last night's session was a chance for us to help make wider society more aware of this and what we can all do to help.

So just before we started the task we went round the group to reflect on how running after dark made us feel. There were lots of different answers from us all, including concerns about running in parks (which takes away some fun and freedom of going for a run) , worrying about trip hazards, how every sound is amplified, being hyper aware of everything around us, and the disappointment of avoiding it all together. It was really interesting to hear everybody's thoughts from lots of different viewpoints.

If anybody in the group every wants to go for a run but doesn't feel safe, then feel free to message the group in whatsapp and we can hopefully get a buddy system going - I for one am always up for a social run!

What also made the task slightly different yesterday was that, rather than run to a community organisation like we normally do, we had our session right at our meeting spot at the BAC. So all we had to do was turn the corner to find the amazing permablitz garden. This space is available for the whole community to use, and anybody is welcome to help themselves to the produce grown at this edible garden. It's all planted so it's sustainable, organic and full of pollinators.

This is a wonderful community resource but it's also a huge space, and so we rolled up our sleeves as head gardener Polly took us for a tour of the garden. We saw fennel seeds, curry plants, learned about walking onions and admired all the amazing herbs. Some of the volunteers who work at the site have accessibility issues and the leaves falling around the planters have made the paths slippery and unsafe. So while half the group set about litter picking in the beds, the other half got stuck in clearing the walkways.

Meanwhile there was plenty of planting to be done, so we grabbed our gloves and a big bag of bulbs and got stuck in. Great work everybody, you've made an amazing difference in just a short amount of time. And good news! The blue keys were eventually located....

With no run involved, we had to make up for it with an full body work out. It was so good to see everybody throw themselves into loads of different circuit based exercises, including those dreaded hill sprints, tricep dips, bunny hops,lunges, lateral jumps and so many more - all of which were made doubly hard by doing them on that incline!

Next week we are back with a bang - expect lots of lovely Diwali and Bonfire night fireworks as the back drop for our run! We'll have an extra great view of them as we're going to the Doddington rooftop community garden for our monthly session followed by the pub quiz social. Everybody welcome, the more the merrier!