Thanks to Kerry for this week's title pun, which became the punspiration for the rest of the report!

We had a very special line up in store for this evening's group run in Bromley, as we were celebrating our two year Pengiversary!

A very warm welcome to Helena (let's give her a cheer) who joined us for her first ever GoodGym group run this evening - what a jam-packed evening to pick! A welcome return to Bradley and hurrah to an excited Mark who was looking forward to his first GoodGym-Bromley-not-watering-plants-at-Forest-Hill-station. Here's your stats page Darryl (for anyone else who loves a good stat, just add /stats to the end of your GoodGym profile page URL).

After a quick warm up of everyone is it (shamelessly stolen from GoodGym Lewisham last night because it's super fun), we set off on the short but steep slog up the hill in Crystal Palace Park to this evening's task at the Upper Norwood Library Hub.

You Can Do It - is what Ice Cube would have said if he were there to cheer us on up the hill

Chris was waiting for us with the selection of gardening tools from their Library of Things that hadn't already been borrowed, and everyone soon got stuck in, tackling the weeds that had taken over the library car park.

Don't stop weed it, weed it - more inspiring lyrics from our title pun-inspiring soundtrack for the evening

With a slight shortage of tools and gloves to go around we got inventive, with marigolds proving an acceptable alternative to gardening gloves, and a stray piece of wood being the perfect tool for smashing particularly spiky weeds into bags.

We be clubbing (weeds into bags) till the day we die - I could keep going with these lyrical puns, but they're getting tenuous

In addition to the weeding, Chris needed help sorting out the large lockup in the corner of the car park. It had got a bit out of order, and it was no longer possible to reach some of the useful items stored at the back. Helena, Stuart and Bradley were a bit worried about emptying the whole thing out and getting it shipshape within the time frame, but with a good plan in place soon made light work of it.

I'm gon' sort it, gon' sort it, gon' sort it, sort it, sort it - sorry, last one!

The best part about any task located at the top end of Crystal Palace Park, is the downhill run back, guided by Fiona who later told us all about the history of the park, and the rogue statues that can be found littered in the bushes we had run past! Inspired by reading the run report from the very first Penge-based GoodGym Bromley group run, we rounded off the session with a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to squeeze a few sprints and some bonus planks into this evening's short but hilly run.

After some stretches (and when we couldn't wait any longer for the prospect of a picnic) we met up with Adele who had made the trip over specially to celebrate our Pengiversary, bearing a divine chocolate cake with real (white chocolate) dinosaur bones in honour of Crystal Palace Park's famous dinos and even a table cloth - how fancy! Special note must also go to Hannah's delicious courgette pie, Kerry's drool-worthy homemade sausage rolls and Nicole's incredible handcrafted cheese straws. Not forgetting Tim's homegrown Japanese cucumbers, which we were initially confused about how to tackle, but with a good old snap over the knee (my personal favourite manouvre for fitting one in the fridge), everyone was soon keen to try a bit. What an epic feast!

Everyone now wants a nibble of Tim's cucumbers! - Stuart

And finally, thanks to everyone for being so supportive on my first official outing as a Run Leader! It sounds as though I had a lot to live up to after a cracking first Run Leader outing from Louise last week.

After our names and numbers and a quick brief about the task, we'd already caught up on everyone's mission sign ups and mission cancellations (which was a shame, hopefully it can be rearranged!) whilst we sat in the beer garden/meeting point waiting for everyone to arrive, without a drink I'll add, we then popped into Crystal Palace Park for our warm up.

The run to St John's Church was quicker than I expected which meant more time for the task and upon arrival, everyone who hadn't been there before, marveled at the size of the church and I can see why they needed such a big Christmas tree last year - everyone was keen for that to be a task again this year! We weren't going to be inside the church today, but instead in the gardens.

Helen was there to brief us and divide the tools between the group. The main objective was the clear the weeds, nettles and thistles. Everyone got stuck in and carefully divided themselves by those wearing shorts avoiding the huge nettles/thistles!!

We had an excellent team clearing the large nettles and weeds, with occasional ouch being heard when they came across a particularly spiky plant and the rest of the group clearing the beds to allow the volunteers to have a clear space to carry out some planting.

Towards the end of the task, Tim had dug up a rather large root in one of the beds, unfortunately and despite much perseverance the root couldn't be removed and that'll be a job for the volunteers in the coming weeks.

Two trips to the compost pile later and retrieval of a trowel from the compost heap, we began to clear the paths, tidy up and put the tools away.

Before we left, Helen quickly told us the history of the garden and that it is completely maintained by volunteers, if anyone fancies joining the volunteers to help maintain the garden then they meet on a Wednesday afternoon and I'm sure they'd be grateful of any help!

Group photo taken, we were on our way back to the start point and back in the park was did a quick plank circuit - great effort everyone! And after we decided to stretch in the park rather than next to the busy road!

Thanks for having me and it was lovely to pop over to another borough. The next group run is at Forest Hill Station - sign up here.

Kim x

Embracing a beautiful evening and all the hills south east London could offer, 15 fabulous runners covered 4km and tending to the saplings at Baxter Field.

(...ah-ha-ah-ha!) Nicole has made her punning debut! I'm sure you'll agree, she's set the bar high!

We certainly pulled out all the stops in making our newcomers feel at home this evening. A very big welcome to Michelle, David and George, who were at GoodGym Bromley for the very first time - we hope you enjoyed it!

We had an entertaining pre-run briefing, with Nicole and Ian telling us all about their experience of volunteering at the St Christopher's Fun Walk at the weekend, with Nicole covering a whopping eight miles and Ian a slightly less intense three (though he somehow bagged himself a medal...which Nicole very nearly prised out of his fingers!). Well done both of you. We also chatted about Bradley's epic run over at the Hackney Half-Marathon, another amazing time, though this time he battled with a stitch, rather than public transport.

REMINDER!

• Saturday is the big day! At last we will be taking over South Norwood Country Park for our parkrun volunteer bonanza! All the details here - I know there are still spaces for marshals and we could definitely do with a few more pacers (any pace!).

• Dino Dash Relay - sign up here (and don't forget to sign up on the actual event race page too!). If you don't have a team, please let me know and I will try and match you up.

Tonight's task was taking us up a big hill (easily done around here!). First of all we had to warm up and we were treated to a special guest warm-up leader. Emma runs mostly over the border in Lewisham, but has visited us in Bromley many times (and on missions, she's very into missions). Last week Emma qualified as a Run Leader, so celebrated with us this evening by making us run around and connect body parts. Ahem. I did feel slightly worried when she shouted 'heads' and Dom ran towards me at speed! Emma also led the way on the run - with Ian and Louise back-marking - winding up at Baxter Field nice and early and eager to get stuck in.

We were met at the task by Ruth and her fellow park friends, who quickly showed us the saplings we were to work on tonight. We gathered tools, gloves and trugs and gradually uncovered the little plants from amongst the long grass. When this was done, we took some mulch and gave them a nice sprinkling. At first we thought we might just make it to the end of the lower stretch of park but, with such a big group, we were up and around the playground in no time!

As the clock wound down, so did we, putting down tools and picking up snacks (thank you!). I'm sure we will be back soon, either for more of the same, or to continue the good work we started on the railings last summer. Our return had a delicious downward pull, taking us back into Crystal Palace Park, where I had a musical fitness session waiting. Poor Stuart, he has just returned from holiday and this was what greeted him :) Great work from everyone, don't forget to stretch out your quads tomorrow if they feel a little sore...

Next week we will be in the park, starting off at the Crystal Palace Museum to collect tools, then over near the station to work in the orchard. Bring gloves if you have them and ALL the bug spray if you're prone to being bitten!

See you at parkrun!