Shunning the Bank Holiday sofa in favour of a good deed, 18 epic athletes covered around 4km of running and cleared LOTS of weeds at Glebe Court.

Many of our runners took part in the London 10k this morning, with some also managing to turn up and take part this evening! Check out our lovely Medal Monday photo (and extra special well done to Kim and Vic, who both bagged a personal best time).

Thank you once again to Oli, who has done himself proud with this week's title pun (and others throughout this report). When is he going to win the International Pun of the Month?!

NEWS

• Thank you to those of you who joined our neighbours GoodGym Bromley at their volunteer takeover, at South Norwood parkrun on Saturday. It was a lovely morning and the core team and runners really appreciated our help. We have our own volunteer takeover on June 9th at Hilly Fields junior parkrun - no experience or special training needed, just a good clear cheering voice and plenty of energy! Sign up and find our more here.

• A little later in June we have another community mission, over at the children's centre in Bellingham, all details here.

• Don't forget, we're coming up to our Summer Social at Wildcat Wilderness! Have a look here and add your name to the list.

EDIT

It seems one of our runners very quietly hit the big 1-0-0 this evening without mentioning it! Congratulations Anna, it's even more special that so many of your good deeds have been to visit older people and help them in their homes, well done.

Last week Ian became a fully qualified Run Leader so, in celebration, he led the warm-up and took the front on the run. I loved having a chance to join in a game I normally get other people to play (and will definitely be using pegs instead of cones from now on, ingenious!) and all those squats, we were definitely fired up to run. Thank you to Marta taking the role of back-marker on the way out and to Chloe for taking over on the return leg.

Out with the old (chairs), in with the new (location)

We haven't been to Glebe Court before, so it was great to hear from Jenni about the work they do here. This Salvation Army residential space is home to a number of older people living with dementia, who require around-the-clock care, so the outdoor space is important for residents and staff to enjoy, with some taking time to go outside and tend to the plants. Our job was to clear away some old furniture (Jenni told us they will be moving to a different space in the next few months, so this is very helpful), clear weeds, tackle brambles and generally have a good tidy up.

Night out on the pull

A few people stayed around the front of the building, doing a fantastic job of improving the appearance of the area that people see first. It seems that one of the residents used to be a gardener and had commented that 'You won't be able to do anything with that!' I think he might be pleasantly surprised! Around the back we had a trail of helping hands shifting the unwanted furniture to the skip, while others pulled, chopped, swept and turned over (or fell over in Vic's case, as she pulled and pulled and pulled at a stubborn weed that eventually threw her off balance as she got the better of it!). As we spent time here, we could see what an oasis this must be, with birds coming and going to the feeders, with roses in full bloom all around.

A sense of (Lady)well-being

Gathering up tools and tidying away the rubbish, it was time to head back towards our start point. As we were so close to Ladywell Fields, we took advantage of this lovely space for our fitness session, working in pairs on a lucky dip game. Great determination from everyone to complete the challenges, even if racing legs were tired! Next week we will have another new task, again in Ladywell, working in the outside space at the Children's Centre - sign up here to join us.

Have a great week!

With a chill in the air and a spring in our step, 27 terrific runners took on 5km of running, two tasks AND a time trial

Thank you this week to Lucy, for our sublime title pun, that somehow manages to encapsulate both of tonight's tasks, skills! Thanks also to Ollie, who has graced us with his pun-wizardry throughout this run report.

What's been happening? Well, Nykolette only went and shaved off all her hair! To raise hundreds of pounds for MacMillan, she 'Braved the Shave' and I think we're all agreed she looks just amazing! We've had some interesting challenges in the past, to raise awareness and funds for charity, but this has to be the most original. In addition to this, there was a general air of celebration this week, as we welcomed back Chris, who has been on the other side of the world for the past few months, what a treat to see him bouncing in this evening! We also welcomed new faces, with Will joining us for his first ever GoodGym group run and Maddie joining us from GoodGym York, Lewisham Love to you both.

The biggest celebration this week though, was Marta getting her wings, as she completed her 100th good deed! Marta has been with us since March 2017, but those good deeds have mounted up quickly because she visits GoodGym Greenwich too most weeks (I really did try to find some statistic that could tell me she has been to us more, so we can claim her as our own, but...). Just recently she has also started going on missions and sharing her goodness at the weekend too. Well done Marta, we're very proud of all you have achieved with us.

Tonight was a double-task week, with most of the group heading over to Beecroft Garden Primary School with me, with a smaller group joining Conroy at GRACE (thank you Conroy). Before we went our separate ways, we did a little warm-up, with jumping and bobbing, squatting and fact gathering (I thought it might be fun finding out where our friends come from, even if we have known them for ages and especially if we have only just met!). With Conroy and co heading towards Lee Green, with Bradley and Marta back-marking, I took my group up to Crofton Park, with Jacqueline keeping everyone together at the back.

At Beecroft Garden

Here we had a few tasks to complete, with one group stepping up the effort to dig hard and form the steps that will lead up and around the sensory garden. One challenge though, was the removal of a tree that was slap bang where the steps were due to go. We were loath to just kill the tree, so there was a treemendous effort to dig it out, roots intact - amazing work on the tree-conservation task team! Also in this area is a newly installed shed, that will become a space for relaxation, with lights and textures to enjoy away from the noise of the playground. Here we had top painting pros Helen, Vic and Jacqueline, giving a lick of paint in a nice relaxing shade of blue and feeling a great sensory of achievement. Around the front of the school were a crack team of weed smashers, tugging up dead plants, weeds and roots from the raised beds, making space to grow more plants over the coming months.

Over to Conroy for some words about...

Gracious Grace

It’s the turn of the season and our friends over at GRACE needed our help in changing their shop display. Ten runners ran to their help, we divided into two groups. Group one began to sort and hang the winter wear, while group two were busy taking the summer wear of the hangers and packing them away in bags. Usually our visits to GRACE would unearth a few treasured undergarments but not this visit. There were a few sexy summer dresses and a great big red jumpsuit, but time did not allow for us to get glammed up into the party numbers. We were on a mission to get those summer wear off the shelves/racks so that the winter wear would be out in time.

In true GoodGym professionals style, we all arrived back at Glass Mill at the same time, like a well-oiled machine of goodness. With a few minutes to spare and some energy to burn (yes, really), it was time for our not-really-monthly time trial. Some opted to take on one, some two, some three and some all four laps of Cornmill Gardens, to sit themselves firmly on the Strava segment leaderboard (which Kim is still topping...). After a stretch and a chat, we tucked in to some chocolate biscuits (I will bow my head in shame here and admit I bought them from M&S and didn't lovingly hand-craft them at home. Gasp).

• Good luck to all those taking on everyone's favourite local 10k trail race, complete with samosas (Petts Wood 10k) on Sunday, have LOTS of fun!

• Join us next week as we head off to a brand new task at St Peter's Church, Brockley

• Hang around after the run too, to enjoy some pizza at Mama Dough in Ladywell, to feed Kim after her longest ever run and to celebrate a few birthdays (please let me know if you're coming, so I can keep track of numbers).

See you soon, lovely people! x

Feeling the wind in their hair and the sun on their cheeks, a fabulous thirty ran between 3 and 4km to help paint the railings at St Mary's Church.

Thank you this week to top-punner Tom, who wowed us with his wordy skills for this evening's title pun.

After two weeks away from my Monday night fun, it was great to be back and with so much to celebrate!

• First up, we congratulated all those who took part in the I Move London Relay over the past month, both running and volunteering. Everyone involved will now be a World Record breaker and will have helped raise £45,000 for some great charities - well done!

• Next we gave a BIG round of applause to Conroy, who will be heading a little further south as of next week, to be the new trainer for GoodGym Croydon. We all wish you well Conroy and will no doubt be coming on tour to support you, and will always be here when you need us for some Lewisham Love.

• And finally...a HUGE well done and a very big cheer for Kim, who tonight completed her 100th good deed! Kim joined us two years ago and has gone from strength to strength with her running in that time, taking part in her first race at the Petts Wood 10k, catching the bug, then working up to her first half-marathon and is now training for the Venice Marathon in October, what a journey! Kim is a great friend to many in our group, being there for everyone and offering support on the run (and at the top of The Hill at Hilly Fields parkrun, with our own four-legged mascot, Molly, at her side). Well done Kim!

No first-timers this week, but I was very pleased to meet a few people who joined while I was away - hello and welcome!

Get me to the church on time!

Tonight we ventured towards Ladywell Fields, to visit a brand new task. St Mary's Church is the oldest building in the borough of Lewisham, with a church having been on this site since the 11th century, so quite a special place to spend our evening! If you haven't sauntered through the passageway alongside the church in a while, you might like to take a wander down here to enjoy the incredible changes that have taken place in the garden. Over the past couple of years, a team of volunteers have worked with the Ladywell Unit, which is part of the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), to create a beautiful Therapeutic Garden (I was lucky enough to enjoy some potatoes, picked fresh from here on a recent visit!). Our job this evening was to make a start on cleaning and painting the long stretch of railings that run alongside here.

We were met by Marion and fellow volunteer, Carmine, who had everything set out for us, ready to get stuck in. We were also met at the task by Lucy, who is very familiar with St Mary's, having been christened here, what a lovely connection! With such a large group, we had to divide the tasks and the equipment carefully, with some using wire brushes and sandpaper to get rid of old paint and rust (thank you to those of you who also brought brushes from home), whilst others were wiping down the surfaces, post-sanding, and another group set-to with the sticky black paint, transforming the railings and smartening up the entrance to the church.

As the time passed, I wandered around, making sure everyone was happy in their work and saw some interesting and varied approaches to the job. Stephen had a very focused technique, working hard to clear all traces of paint on one particular piece of railing, making it as smooth as possible. Matt was brushing with such great determination that he wore down the whole of one side of a brush and, alongside him, Nykolette and Helen were so anxious to reach the end of their stretch of metal, that I almost had to drag them away! Great work, everyone.

Our hard work was rewarded with some refreshments, thank you for looking after us Marion, we look forward to returning next week, to continue the painting!

Lucky (tri) dip

Our evening wasn't over yet! Running over to the park, we positioned ourselves by a handy little hill, ready to take on a quick lucky dip fitness session. Depending what you picked, you might be doing hill repeats or strength training, or a mixture of both (if you were really lucky!). I quickly realised that I had been ambitious about this session working with a group of thirty, so paired people up to reduce rest time (sorry!), you keep me on my toes, always finding ways to challenge my carefully planned sessions ;)

Give me just a little more time (trial)

You have Conroy to thank for this little moment of off-piste activity, as he requested a time trial (it's been a while). For those of you who don't know, we have a (roughly) monthly time trial, which involves running four laps of the area outside our start point, which is (very nearly) 1km. This is a Strava segment, which you can view here - there's a leader board and everything, which Kim is at the top of (I'm pretty sure she's come along in her own time to bagsy that smasher of a pace!). Maybe you could get yourself up there, why not have a go? After all that effort, it was nice to be able to celebrate Kim's 100th good deed with some sweet treats brought along by Amber, thanks Amber!

I look forward to seeing some of you up at Hilly Fields parkrun on Saturday, which is Pacer Week...and Conroy's 100th parkrun! If not, see you next Monday to tackle some more metal.

It’s been an eventful weekend for our members up and down the country so a big well done to them all, however time to get back home. Our Lewisham members clocked up some serious steps this weekend from parkrun, missions, races and volunteering at various events. Have you seen the marvelous photos of the GG Water stand, at the British 10K? Not only were they keeping the participants hydrated but they also gave the loudest cheers.

**Stop! Hang on a minute, as she’s always writing the run report she only gets mentioned in the credits but not this week! I’m sure you would all agree that our trainer Adele deserves some special cheers, she splashed away in the Thames taking on the Henley mile what a way to keep cool in this weekend’s hot temperature!

Hey all thanks for coming along to tonight’s group run welcome to our first timers Katrin, Andrew, Hannah and Sabina hope you enjoyed your time with us tonight and hoping to see you at our next run one of our favourite task.

It’s Monday evening and there is a group of people in the lobby of Glass Mill dressed in rep tops, everyone walks past looking a bit puzzled wondering what’s going on as there are a lot of chatter amongst the group, there are folks still arriving each been greeted with smiles and hello as the group gets bigger and bigger.

We huddled closely together as I ran through the tasks and the safety briefing along with our regular words about good gym before moving out to the area that was once grass for our head count and warm up. Domestics out the way we headed of running towards Deptford for our tasks. Yes, there were two again tonight, a group of five being led by Kim to the Samaritans and 15 being led by me to the Woodpecker Youth Centre. As we arrived at our point of separation Kim led her group off to their task and my group carried on to the Woodpecker youth club.

As we arrived at the woodpecker youth club we were met by Charlotte who had been looking out for us, she ran through what she wanted us to do and proceeded to unlock the gates around the premises to give us free reign. In one area of the grounds the blackberries were begging to run wild and capturing areas they were not allowed in. Other areas had overgrown plants that needed a trim and bushes growing between the bricks. We break out into small groups armed with brooms, hedge shears, bin bags, bill hook, scissors and various other tools to regain control of the grounds.

As we worked and chatted it was really nice to see our first timers getting stuck in Andrew got into a tight scrape with the with the bill hook as he cleared the bushed between the bricks. Hannah who had been using a broom that had been broken off the stick was not going to be defeated in her endeavors to sweep up the rubbish resorted to duct taping the broom together while Sabina and Katrin ensured the rubbish was bagged up.

Over by the overgrown plants Clare had made a big inroad into the pruning before enlisting the help of Malcolm as she realized she had pruned it like a bad fringe on one side and needed to get the other side which was a bit higher so in subbed Malcolm for his height. Over by the black berries Oli and co was adamant not to be beaten by the overgrown blackberry they had less chatter a more determined look on their faces as they raced against time to clear the area. I am pleased to say that despite a few cuts after the buzzer had been blown they were victorious.

Berries wheelie bin naughty

The area had been cleared of the overgrown berries but there were still enough berries left over for those who wanted to refuel on them after the battle had been won.

What about our friends over at the Samaritans? Well they had to tackle clematis plants that had decided to invade the neighbouring garden, cleared weeds from the paving stone, cut back the brambles from the raised beds. Then as a final swan song they put the clematis cuttings into the compost bin tidied up and had a photo session while waiting on us to rejoin for the run back to Glass Mill. For the return leg of our journey we ran back through Brookmill park where we in co-operated our fitness session into the run all the way back to the point where we had to leave the park/Waterlink way to get back on the main road. We arrived back at Glass Mill safely in tact did our cool down stretches and said our farewells.