To mix things up this evening, Southwark had a new leader, and lots of new faces too - welcome to the crew Catherine, Laura, Jag, Ralph, Sandra, and Matilda. Give them a cheer! We still met at the Old Spike Roastery and had a quick introduction to what GoodGym is all about (getting fit and doing good, in case you've forgotten). We then headed outside for a warm up and to find out what everyone's favourite ice cream flavour is, with rum and raisin proving surprisingly popular.

With a short run to the Allotments, but a lot of uphill, we took the run at a steady pace and stopped half way for some wall sits to push those legs even further for the evening. With some excellent directing from Helena we soon arrived at Grove Park Allotments and Liz wasn't too far behind to let us in and get us all started on a few different tasks. We had an organised bunch sorting out the big shed and ordering the tools, some got stuck into weeding the paths, others were watering, and one lucky GoodGymmer even got to strim some of the grass.

A little birdie told me that apparently sometimes when you come here the "bee man" comes along and gives you a bee hive lesson, and lets you try the honey - sounds like a dream and like we'll definitely all need to come back so we can experience this!

In what seemed like no time at all, the weeds were gone, the plants were watered and the shed was clutter-free, so we headed back down the hill for our final run. We didn't end it there though, once we were back to base, we did a quick abs blast with a core triathlon followed by a plank off. I have to say that Southwark have some of the sturdiest abs I've witnessed, and we ended up having 3 champions of the plank off as we couldn't wait any longer, with the social looming.

Thanks for having me Southwark! Lucy will be back next week, so don't fret, all things will be back to normal.

Southwark News

• Next week is the third Wednesday of the month and you know what that means! Social! We're heading to Batch next door for a drink after the run - sign up here.

• Tonight is the monthly GoodGym social at The Mulberry Bush by Southbank. Expect International Pun of the Month, heroes and more! Sign up here.

• Next week I'm on holibobs so Ben from Greenwich is popping over to cover. We're going to Grove Park Allotments our old fave, total distance 3km. Sign up here.

• Hello and Welcome to Danielle and Beth who joined us for the first time last night. We hope to see your faces again!

Knock on the door we're twenty-four

Last night at whopping TWENTY FOUR GoodGymers gathered at Old Spike Roastery to tackle two tasks at once. One group was off on an 8km round trip to see Barnaby at Bee Urban and the other went on a 6km round trip over to Bell House in Dulwich. It was a beautiful evening and with the slightly cooler temperatures, we were keen to head out. The long runners set off early with Helena and Girija and the shorter runners warmed up with me and then set off for Bell House.

The long runners encountered a bit of an issue - Barnaby at Bee Urban had confused us with Lambeth who run on a Tuesday and had been expecting us the night before. Oh no! Luckily we got in touch with him and found plenty of leaves and rubbish that needed shifting. We still managed to get our good done! Big props to the long runners for using their initiative. You can find out more about the Barnaby's projects here.

The 6km runners went to beautiful Bell House where we got to work loosening the soil in a bed we cleared last time we were there and then planting. With the help of Sarah and George we got plenty of bulbs in and can't wait to see them make the garden even more beautiful. For more info on the gorgeous Bell House and everything they do - click here. It was hard to tear ourselves away but we managed to tidy up and get ready for our group photo. We went for 'moody indie album cover' before our usual happy selfie variation. We'd make a mean gardening-based indie band. Any thoughts on names?

Great work team. Have a great night next week, see you on 22nd August!

Keep running happy, Lucy

Ps. sorry about the Taylor Swift pun

14 runners ran 4km to help move flood-damaged flooring at Cossall Estate

Southwark News

• On Wednesday morning GoodGym celebrated reaching its 100,000th deed. That's an absolutely incredible amount of good done all across the country. Wow. Congratulations to everyone who's been a part of this amazing feat. Davina McCall made us a wonderful little vid saying well done - watch it here. We are SO VERY PROUD that the top GoodGym runners that helped achieved this include our very own Beth Hoskins who has racked up 617 good deeds. Give Beth some love by clicking 'cheer' and then cheer everyone else because you've all been part of something awesome that has benefited (and continues to benefit) so many people around the country.

• I'm planning a parkrun takeover! Fill out this form to tell me what parkrun you want and when! At the moment we're looking at the start of September. At a takeover you can choose to pace - we try to provide pacers every minute from 20 up to 30 OR you can just turn up in your GG tshirt and be a lovely smiley face. We had a massive reaction from Burgess Parkrun last time and it was a huge amount of fun.

• Task drive! I'm on a task drive! Are there any tasks you remember doing once that were really cool but you don't remember going back? Have you seen a local group and thought "hmmm I bet GoodGym can help"? If so I want to know about it! It must be a not for profit, charity or community group. Send me an email with task location, details of the task owner and contact details lucyj@goodgym.org

• As requested: details of the York Marathon and 10 Mile race - there's a big London contingent and it's officially hosted by the amazing GoodGym Yorkies. It will be super duper fun, you'll meet GoodGymers from all over the country and get to run a really lovely race. To find out more - check the sign up page (and sign up!) and email Egg the York trainer egg@goodgym.org

• I'M NOT FINISHED YET! Phewf a lot of news this week... Last night we welcomed three runners brand new to GoodGym - go on a click 'cheer' for Harry, Chris and Georgia. Great to meet you and hope to see you doing some more good with us soon!

That's enough of the business

Last night we visited our old friends at Cossall Estate to finish a job we started a few weeks ago. A radiator burst in the hall a month or so ago leading to the flooring getting ruined! Luckily the council have agreed to refurb but in the meantime a lot of damaged wood and all the carpet needed pulling up. Nine people got to work on this whilst four set about watering and weeding on the raised planters outside.

We did an absolutely smashing job in the Tenants Association Hall, getting every last bit of carpet pulled up and Jaki was thrilled with how gorgeous the planters looked after our gardeners had a go at them.

A great job well done. Jaki and Alan were thrilled and can't wait to have us back again!

Next week it's a longer run - 8km total - to go and see Barnaby at Camberwell Subterannea. It's been a while so it'll be lovely to go back! Sign up here.

Great work team, see you again next week!

Keep running happy, Lucy

12 runners ran 2km to shift woodchip, move logs and water plots at Grove Park Allotments

Southwark News

• There are PLENTY of coaches waiting for pairing in the area. If you think you could spare 20 mins every week for a social visit to an isolated older person in Southwark, now is the time! If you've had a DBS check and you haven't heard anything for a while send me an email. It may have got stuck in the system... Let's get this show on the road!

• A big huge whoop to Nikki who joined us for her first ever group run last night! Click through and give her a big cheer!

• Over the weekend 80 odd GoodGymers descended upon Stratford-Upon-Avon for the Shindig. It was spectacular. We brought Red Thunder to parkrun, workshopped ideas about GoodGym's future and impact and much much more... and of course there was a quiz too! It was amazing to see runners from all over the country come together to discuss this thing we're all so passionate about. Read the report here and get excited about coming to join next year!

• Next week we're helping clear out the hall at Cossall Estate - they had a big flood and the council are funding its renovation so they need us to pull up the old flooring ready for the new flooring! There will be plenty of other jobs to get done too - sign up here.

• It's our very own Emma's birthday today. Joyeux Anniversaire Emma! She's always a delightfully smiley face to see each week so give her a cheer by clicking here.

Grove Park Allotments always gives us a sense of be-logging

Last night 12 of us gathered in the UNBELIEVABLE HEAT to run a leisurely 1km to our friends at Grove Park Allotment to do three big jobs:

• Moving a big pile of woodchip to spread in the new bee area, on the paths around the shed and wherever else it was needed!

• Moving chairs, tables and tarpaulin so the woodchip could be spread.

• Moving big logs inside the gate and arranging them in an area for children to enjoy - big cheer to Mikhail who got this done single handedly.

• Watering plots for some allotment users who are less able to do it themselves.

Un-bee-lievable scenes in the bee area...

We moved almost the entire pile of woodchip - this will be so useful everywhere in the allotment, it keeps the weeds down and when the rain comes (it will, I promise) it turns to mulch which is awesome for using on plants to retain water and keep them warm. We're always learning at GoodGym! The bee area is transformed - it used to be brambles and weeds and now it's a cleared, woodchipped area perfect for the bees. All thanks to many visits from GoodGym! Mikhail made a lovely picnic area for the kids to use (see photos) and we gave some gorgeous veg and plants a much needed watering. A big whoop for Kath who provided the photos tonight - just look at those sunflowers!

Solid work team, looking forward to next week.

Keep running happy, Lucy