With a massive new task ahead of us, 38 amazing GoodGymers turned up to run 4km and transform a neglected community garden!

And we also got to welcome new runners Mitzi, Julia and Anna - give them a cheer! It was also great to see visitors from other areas including Croydon, Barnet and of course our lovely central officers- a big Wandsworth welcome to you all!

We kicked off the night with a bumper news session. To recap:

Inspired by the London Marathon on Sunday? Ballot entry is now open! It's one of the best major marathons in the world, and if you're thinking about taking on the ultimate challenge, you've got nothing to lose by entering the ballot! Just going to leave the link here...

The 2019 GoodGym Olympics are fast approaching! If you haven't been before, this is a very fun day where every GoodGym area goes head to head to compete for the title! Events include track racing, the sack race, a baking competition and lots more. There's the chance to race competitively or just to have a lovely day out - so sign up here to help defend Wandsworth's silver medal position!

Interested in making a real difference in the life of somebody suffering from isolation in the local community? Coach running - where GoodGym pairs you up with an elderly person, 'your coach' - is a fantastic way to spend just a small amount of time which has a big impact on both your own wellbeing and that of the person you're visiting. If you've got any questions come and talk to me about it!

Well done to Oliver who took on the Dubrovnik Half Marathon at the weekend and still made it for the run last night!

Garden State

After all that chat, we headed outside to do a warm up and discuss the best superpowers to have - flying came up pretty high, as did mind reading, the ability to teletransport, speak any language and never to get a hangover!

We set off for our task at Doddington Activity Centre, which was 2 km away, at a good pace. This huge patch of land in the middle of Battersea has been shut for the past eight years, but the decision has been made to open it up again so it can be enjoyed by the community. This is a massive job as it has been so neglected over the years, but something for GoodGym really to get its teeth into! So while some of the group went off to collect the tools, the rest of us got ourselves ready for the job in hand with a few squats and lunges - what better way to prepare?

Getting Turfed Out!

As soon as the gates were open we got cracking with a list of jobs that included rolling up massive sections of old astroturf, sanding down benches, digging over soil, weeding, sweeping and generally making the place more welcoming. We have three weeks planned at this task, and it is going to be incredible seeing the place slowly transform into somewhere the community can be proud of! I'll save the before and after pictures until we're done - watch this space! Amazing efforts from everyone, well done gang.

After 40 minutes of hard work, we popped over to the local community centre to drop of the tools and do a quick fitness blast - unfortunately after all that fun hard work we didn't have much time left for a full on session (I could see you were devastated...!) but we still managed some bear planks, hollow holds, lunge kicks and inchworms. Nice work.

All that was left was to head back to the BAC, tackle that last hill, and stretch it out. It's bank holiday next week, but don't worry, you can still get your GoodGym fix! We're back at the garden for week two of the transformation, then we'll be doing some fun fitness games, and we'll even follow the session with a social at the local pub. What's not to love?! Sign up here. Until then, run happy everyone.

27 runners, 6 km, one massive skip full of junk - all for an incredible charity!

Lovely to see some new faces tonight - welcome to the group AJ, Timothy, Hamish and Jules! Give them all a big GG cheer.

We WILL be running next Monday as normal, but we won't have anywhere to store our bags as the BAC will be shut. So leave the bags at home next Monday and sign up for some Easter fun right here!

GoodGym will be doing a takeover at Fulham Palace parkrun on Saturday 29th June to celebrate their 300th run. There are loads of pacing and volunteering slots to fill, so sign up here for all the details and to choose your role!

Tonight's task was at Oasis play, an incredible hidden space that provides innovative and inclusive outdoor play and learning opportunities that enable disabled and non-disabled children and young people to lead happy, fulfilled lives and play positive roles in the community. The place is huge, and managed by a voluntary management committee. So, after a warm up where we discussed our favourite condiments ( sweet chilli came out top, with ketchup lagging surprisingly low with only three votes) we set off for the organisation.

David, who manages the site, was waiting for us there with a few jobs. The biggest was clearing an area of rubbish that needed moving so that a huge mural can be painted on the wall behind it all. So after managing to dismantle the fences we got straight to it, working together to clear and shift - team work makes the dream work!

Meanwhile, a smaller team had gone to the other site to help move more junk, and weeds and nettles were being cleared as well. It was amazing how much you guys got done in a short amount of time, in between playing on the swings, trampoline and spotting frogs and foxes! David was really pleased and said that the kids were going to be really excited when they saw it the next day, so a huge well done.

With the GoT deadline looming, we only had a short fitness session in the park next door, but it was still a tough one. Alternating three sets of core exercises and then sprints, we knocked out twists, dead bugs, plank walk-outs and much more, before heading back to the BAC for stretches - thank you Sophie!

We also enjoyed some fabulous cake courtesy of Sophie and Luke - thank you guys so much for the treats and of course the excellent singing too!

Sadly the kitchen was closed, so we have rescheduled our monthly post-run social to Monday 29th April - check out the sign up page for all the details.

Have a lovely week gang - run happy!

• Thanks to Beth for this week's pun! ;)

We cannot get enough of these light evenings to start our group runs in Wandsworth - there's no better way to kick off the week!

We began our night with lots of lovely news....

A big GoodGym welcome to the gang Hannah and Sachin

Well done on some spectacular running this weekend - there were lots of great performances from Oliver at the Adidas city run, Chris at the Manchester marathon, to a parkrun PB for Frances!

Fancy a new sort of challenge? Why not get a team together and try Take the Bridge at the end of April? The idea is that you hit a certain number of checkpoints throughout the city with your team - there are some pretty nice prizes on offer and a lot of fun to be had!

Huge congratulations go to Luke and Jessie!

After a warm up outside during which we discussed our favourite things about weddings - turns out that we love dad dancing, the late night buffet, good-bad DJs and the cake. But most of all we rate a free bar!

Time to shift

We had a new task last night at the amazing Elays network. It was a short run there so we soon arrived to find Abdi, the organisation's coordinator, waiting for us. He started off by telling us about the incredible things the charity is doing. Abdi and his team run a place which supports young people whose prospects have been challenged by issues including gang crime, exclusion, violence and mental health. They run programs and support networks to help these young people, many of whom have a Somali background, and help them to achieve their potential - Elays even means lighthouse in Somali!

With the organisation going through a big refurb, our job tonight was the shift a load of furniture and other bits and pieces ready to be cleared out. Super organised Abdi had already labelled everything with post-it notes of various colours, so while one team went outside to weed and litter pick the entry area, the rest got on with sorting the furniture into the correct areas. There was also a back room to sort out, and some sweeping and clearing to be done, and after half an hour we were done. Abdi kindly invited us to Iftar at Elays, which sounded brilliant, so watch this space for more details! If you want to keep up with all the fantastic things Elays is doing then or get involved yourself then check out their website here.

Short circuits

We popped over to the park next door to make the most of the light evenings and the blossomy trees for our fitness session, which given that it was a short run, was some tough circuit training. With 11 stations, each featuring a regular and a tougher option, we spent 40 seconds working hard and even threw in a couple of burpee and tuck jump challenges in for fun! Then came the power round - a loop of 15 seconds for each station with no rest in between. It was great to see such fantastic effort being put in.

All that was left was a good steady run back to base, and some stretching. Don't forget that this weekend several GGers will be meeting at Clapham Common to do the parkrun then brunch -all welcome - and that next week is our monthly GoodGym social where we will be staying around after the group run to take advantage of the burger offer at the BAC. Hope to see you there! Until then, have a great week everybody.