Grab a pew & welcome to this week's run report! Greenwich GoodGym sprung into February with the second week of our 2-part task at St Luke's Church in Charlton Village.

An ice-breaker discussion on the joys of those first flower shoots peeking out as spring approaches ,followed by short but sweet run around the periphery of Charlton Park meant we were energised and ready to go as we met Liz, Church Rector, to update us with this evening's to do list.

From bubble-wrapping the lovely hand-carved nativity set, vacuuming the aisle and pews, to filing the hymn numbers, we had plenty to keep us busy. The DIY experts in the group dismantled a table, while some of us got to polishing the brass in the church (of which there's lots!) including plaques dedicated to local figures with possibly record-breakingly long names.

A polished performance GoodGym-ers!

Next week we're painting at the Montessori School And we're litter picking in Charlton on Sunday

Until next time!

Today was a day of many celebrations! We started out celebrating the sunshine from yesterday. A shame it didn't stick around today but we daren't ask too much from good old Britain do we?

Several of our crew had helped out at Hornfair Junior Parkrun, making it a double deed morning. Some of us ran to Mycenae where Fiona and crew met us to divvy up the tasks. We got busy weeding and lopping branches off the trees and replenishing the dead hedge and so much fun was had an hour flew by and it started to blow up a storm so we took this as our cue to go for a celebratory coffee and cake.

We donned our party hats and our happy birthday banner, celebrating GoodGym Greenwich's 9th birthday AND Khai's 50th good deed!

Today we hit 108 good deeds and 1,176km travelled for the January challenge - we've smashed our good deeds target but got 150km roughly to get to our kms target! It's gonna be close!

Khai wrote a poem to mark our birthday which it's fitting to leave us with:

We root for the Parkruns from start to finish

We meddle with deeds as the weeds diminish

We sweep city streets for trash cans and spillage

We run to repair our home town and village

A sail needs wind like a sailor needs spinach

Where would we all be without GoodGym Greenwich?

To all of our friends we cherish and adore

Cheers to nine years and to many, many more!

It was brutally cold this morning as 8 of us arrived at St Richards. Special welcome to Viktor for his first good deed with us, and shout out for bringing four more members of your family to help out! We were out in force today and we had plenty of jobs to keep us all busy. 💪

Julian was a smooth lopper-ator*, lopping all the the branches he could reach off the trees, or should I say, pollarding lime trees as I learned it was called today!

Jenny and Marta worked up a sweat sanding down the lovely wooden door and giving it a fresh coat of varnish - what a difference it has made! And Khai, Cat, Linda and Viktor gained some ground in the war of the weeds out front and back. In fact, Viktor's family practically excavated half the back garden in very little time. A great effort in our mission to clear all the weeds and get the garden ready for planting. 🌻

An hour and a half later and we were ready to warm up with a nice coffee before heading home for some lunch.

Great job team. On Wednesday we're back at Dee's Nursery , continuing to create a roundabout for the kids in the garden!

Until next time 👋

*Credit to Khai, the GoodGym Greenwich Pun King

Last night was our first ever session at the Woolwich Service User Project (WSUP).

Khai's summary: 'Well, it was a jolly evening with an assortment of tidying tasks to be done. From artwork and toiletries to clothes for comfort. When the group is having fun lifting and squatting, time flies.' 😁

Jas was in the middle of a trustee meeting so he gave us a quick brief of the task which involved sorting out a load of donations and bringing some downstairs. The biggest challenge was manoeuvering 7 of us to sort the donations into zones in quite a tight space! We made quick work of it and even got some dumbbells in and then took our group pic* and went home to rest up for our painting task at Charlton Manor Primary today!

*Sadly it took the whole of the evening for me to come up with the WASUUUUP wise crack and yes all of my friends hung me out to dry with that picture. I won't forget that.

Well done team. Until next time!