A big Bromley welcome back to Emma and Stephen who had braved the rain to come and join us at the wonderful Living Well Food Bank.

We were a little soggy and chilly so kept the warm up short, albeit with a few can-can-esque leg kicks thrown in for fun (and for the entertainment of the passing cars), before heading for the warmth and warm welcome from Rowena and team. We may have been a small group but we split into 3 to really get stuck in. Stephen helped Rowena clear, sort and clean the donation cupboard, Bradley and Tim tackled a mountain of pasta, sorting it into date order, whilst Emma and I did the same with many boxes of tea. Emma came up with a brilliant 'old or weird' label for one of our crates, most descriptive! Our super-sorters had soon finished, so Emma headed to the container to get some crates of pulses that also needed date checking and organising.

We decided to fore-go the fitness session to give Rowena as much of our time as possible, although lifting crates full of cans was a good test of both upper body and leg strength. Before we knew it, time was up and we returned the newly-sorted crates to the storage container and donation cupboard.

In true Tim style (how does he know so much random information?!), he told us that Penge meant sharp-bladed instrument in Hungarian.

As it's 'give it heart' month, we took advantage of a clean, dry floor to make a human heart, before heading back out into the cold and back to our start point.

Next week we're heading up the hill to return to the Crystal Palace St Christopher's charity shop, for some more rack and donation sorting, steaming and shelf polishing. Sign up here for some feel-good vibes on a Tuesday evening.

If you're in the mood for some more local goodness, sign-up to volunteer at Lloyd Park junior parkrun this coming Sunday, sign up here.

Looking further ahead, Danny from Hackney is looking for more volunteers to man a water-station at the Hackney half on Sunday 17th May. A big bonus is a free place at any of the upcoming Virgin Sport races. Find out more here.

Dodging the rain storms, 15 fabulous runners covered 5km, helped to weed and tidy at Forest Hill Station and enjoyed a special yoga class.

It was lovely to welcome Mark for his first ever GoodGym group run, he chose a great week to join us (surely he wasn't put off by the rain last Tuesday?!).

As we gathered in the garden (with one eye on a very grey sky), we talked weather, watering and wristbands. This week, GoodGym have partnered with the Jo Cox Foundation and are participating in the 'Great Get Together'. We all donned our red wristbands and celebrated everything we have in common. Here at GoodGym Bromley, we get together every week, to share our stories and experiences, with some of our runners visiting older people for a chat, or to help out in their home.

We also celebrated our newly-qualified Run Leader, Louise, who attended a course at Somerset House last week, so she can lead runs independently - go Louise! Putting her training straight to the test, she led the way over to Crystal Palace Park (home last week to the Dino Dash Relay, which was brilliant fun - well done all those who took part!). We had some fun warming up, with a few favourites, knee-tag, heads - shoulders - knees - and cone (knees and cone) and good old stuck-in-the-mud.

Rush hour

Up at Forest Hill Station, we met Ian and Emma, who had just been to a mission, helping an older person in their home - double good deeds! Vic also joined us and was already poised, gardening gloves at the ready! As it had been chucking it down, Quetta told us we would be better spending our time on some weeding and tidying, so we had groups working on the beds and planters at the front of the station, and others on the platform, clearing weeds in the little garden.

It's amazing how many weeds can be generated after a downpour, so there was plenty to do and also plenty of snails - good work Hannah on trying to take care of them, it's a shame Tim had other ideas horrified face . It's a busy place to work, with commuter trains coming and going, but we managed to find space and the beds were soon looking much, much better. We just had time to pause for a group photo in front of the sign and an approaching train, before heading over to Sydenham, for a rather unusual fitness session.

Namasteing power!

For the past few months we have helped GMax Trackstars get their 'Dragonfly Yoga' studio up and running. When we first visited, back in the winter, it was a (very) dusty shell, where we lifted and shifted flooring, ceiling panels, insulation rolls, bricks and eventually painted the walls. As a thank you for our hard work, Mark suggested we come along for a yoga session. It did mean an unusual structure to the evening and a slightly later finish, but we were really up for the opportunity to try out the space and to learn some new ways of looking after our bodies.

We were met by Lindsey, who took us down to the studio, a really peaceful space, considering it's on a busy road! We all found a mat and took a comfortable position to begin. This was a particularly special and useful session, because Lindsey had tailored it for runners, helping us to work on areas that become tight and that we often overlook - there were a few groans, so I think we all came away knowing exactly what we need to work on! Thank you and namaste!

Next week we will run over to Anerley to help in the meadow at St John the Evangelist. I noticed they are collecting women's sanitary products to be taken to the local food bank, you might like to bring some items along to add to the box. Kim will be leading this run, so make her feel at home and have fun!

An active eight eased towards the lighter evenings, with a nice 4k round-trip to help at Gmax Trackstars.

We hadn't seen Reece for a little while, but he returned on top form, gracing us with this brilliantly apt title pun.

A big welcome this evening to Sarah, who I wrongly assumed was a 'tourist', but it seems we are her local group, so welcome to the Bromley family Sarah! To start off the evening, we did a little celebration of our Heroes of March. For those who don't know, you can look at the leaderboards for different areas, to see who is doing the most good and so on. Here is our round-up for the month:

Most cheers given: Hannah - 119 Most cheers received: Bradley - 184 Most distance covered: Bradley - 359.30km (!!) Most good deeds: Tim - 6 (closely followed by Louise and Ian with 5)

Well done everyone, though I think we could get a bit more cheery, right?!

Tonight we were visiting our good friends at Gmax Trackstars over at the new Dragonfly Studio in Sydenham. An extra special thank you to the top team of Bradley and Stuart, who took the lead on the run tonight and to Reece for back-marking and making sure nobody was left behind.

We were met at the studio by Mark, who showed us all the good work that has been done since we were last here. We were blown away by the progress! The space we had worked in last time, moving insulation, was now a beautiful studio space, calm and peaceful. Other new spaces had also been constructed, creating offices and treatment rooms. Our job though, was not to simply admire all the work, but to shift a great big stack of bricks and to sweep the floor of the studio. Of course, a human chain was quickly formed and a jenga style game was being played.

As I flitted between the two spaces, I could see some great strength work going on, with Stuart showing us his squatting skills, Kerry doing some excellent lifts and Vic and Stephen doing some marvellous lunging. As seems to be the way when we come here, the task in hand was sorted in record time, allowing us to head upstairs to move some lengths of metal to be collected for scrap. Now these were wedged tightly between some other materials, so Bradley squeezed himself in and set about passing them out to some incredibly strong workers, who trailed back and forth with ease. Once this was done, we were ready to take our group photo in front of the lovely new sign (check the poses!).

I know everyone had worked very hard at the task, but I felt I could urge that little bit more out of the group, one last push to really work our bodies. Pausing at the little park near our start point, we worked through a brisk HiiT session, smashing some high-knees, squat-jumps, tricep-dips and burpees - that's not easy, but even tougher after a physical task!

As we stretched, I told everyone about next week's task, a rescheduled visit to Leaf and Groove in Forest Hill, to clean the metal shutters ready for a mural to be painted. Sign up here for a nice 5k round-trip and fun task - see you then!

As snow fell on South East London, eleven athletes endeavoured to run over to Sydenham to help out at Gmaxtrackstars.

As we went to press, we were in third place in our division for the January Challenge, just a few places away from second - can we change that in the next two days?! We had a few extra good deeds happening over the weekend, with our coach runners busy visiting older people for a chat, Ian and Bradley over at South Norwood parkrun for a bit of pacing and others helping out on missions in people's homes - excellent work!

• We do have another opportunity to do good this coming Saturday, with a community mission to collect donations for the Rainbow Trust at the Sainsbury's in Crystal Palace - find out details and sign up here.

The biggest news today though, was that we now have our first wings in Bromley! Congratulations to Bradley, who completed his 100th good deed, thus earning himself the very special red winged t-shirt. Bradley has been with us less than a year, so this is quite some achievement, especially when you consider that he had never run before he joined us! He has really grown in many ways in the past year, going from strength to strength as an athlete and sharing his skills widely through volunteering at other groups outside of our sessions. Well done!

In single pile

Tonight we were super excited to be heading to a brand new task! Our beneficiary this evening was the Gmaxtrackstars, an athletics club who work locally with people at all stages in their sporting journey and are in the process of setting up their new space on Sydenham High Street. A short run there in the rain and we were set to go. We were met by Mark, who was up in the back of a big lorry, bringing in some lights and air vents that had been donated to the space. He quickly showed us our job for the evening, pointing out a big pile of flooring that needed taking downstairs.

Dust a minute!

Mark proudly showed us around the space, telling us his plans for the various areas, with a focus being on a yoga studio (we can't wait to come back and have a go!). Embracing the dust, we quickly found a rhythm, carrying a pile of planks on our shoulders, sharing the load with a friend, slotting lengths of flooring under our arms, all done with a great deal of teamwork as we maneuvered between each other on the stairs. Some took a few moments away from the flooring, to help Mark bring in some materials from the lorry, then resumed lifting and shifting.

Plank you very much

When we first saw the pile, we did wonder if we could do it but, as time ticked away, it was clear that yes, we could! A few quick jogs up the stairs and we had cleared the space. This flooring will be laid in one of the studio spaces, which we decided to use for our fitness session - it was a choice between dusty indoors or snow! There was some great work here, using the space for its intended activity. We did rounds of squat jumps, lunges, push-ups and a special plank - could you feel those glutes working?

Running back towards the Bridge House in the snow, we made use of one of the bridges for our stretches, steam rising from our hot bodies! Next week is another new task, this time in the other direction, at Anerley Town Hall, where we will be moving some tables into the basement, sign up here to join in. See you then!

On a bright, chilly morning, eight eager runners helped to keep the Secret Garden looking lovely, covering 1km of running and drills.

How wonderful to be out in the fresh air to start our year as we mean to go on! A very big welcome to our newcomers, Rachel, Lizzy and Mary and welcome back and a Happy New Year to Clare, Darryl, Stephen and Oli!

Thank you also to Oli for our rather delightful title pun (and others in this report), we will be in the running for International Pun of the Month, surely?!

As this was a starter session, we did things a bit differently, meeting outside the Information Centre in Crystal Palace Park instead of our usual Bridge House. Well done to Clare, Stephen, Oli and Darryl, who ran Crystal Palace parkrun before meeting us, what a great start to the day! We did our introductions then I cracked open the container to gather tools. At this point Penny appeared, with a rather fancy trolley for us to use, so we piled everything in and trundled over to the Secret Garden. Here Penny told us about the various groups that use this space and we admired the lovely new community orchard that has popped up since our last visit - we will enjoy seeing this grow over time.

Top Secret: For Your (Mince P)ies only!

Once in the garden, we took our pick from the various tools and jobs on offer, with some grabbing rakes and clearing paths, some getting to work with loppers and shears and others tending to the raised beds. As we worked we were watched closely by a beautiful and very friendly robin, waiting patiently for any grubs and worms that we might unearth.

Time passed quickly and we were soon scooping up the last of the leaves, putting away the tools and gathering to warm up for our fitness session. It's always fun to get playful with our warm-up and even better to be able to see each other at this time of year! We did become the focus of attention for a very playful dog though, not so great! Today's session was looking at form, so we performed some drills to encourage high knees and to drive our arms, before we ran as a group around a 1km loop, picking up the pace on my signal - otherwise known as 'fartlek' (stop giggling a the back!).

As we finished our loop, I introduced a little game to embed the idea of driving our arms backwards, encouraging our upper bodies to be more still and our arms to do more work. To test this, we took to the hill, where I saw some really strong work from everyone - now just remember to switch this on next time your body tires and you start to lose form.

Tea-for-new (GoodGymers)

After a little stretch we went into the office, where Penny had very kindly left mince pies and Christmas cake for us to have with a hot drink - thank you, it was just what we needed! On Tuesday we will have our first Tuesday group run of 2019, when we will run up to the Upper Norwood Library Hub for some painting and general tidying - sign up here.

See you soon!

As the sun went down, seven runners ran up and over Crystal Palace Park, picking litter and covering 3km along the way

We opened our evening with lots of talk about community missions, since we have two coming up in our area in the next few weeks. On Sunday October 14th, we are joining the Friends of Baxter Fields, who are having a bulb planting session. We can join in with the planting, or we can carry on with some painting, as it will be light! You can read more and sign up here. Another opportunity has arisen on Thursday October 18th, when two of our runners, Jenn and Ben, will be performing in a concert with their orchestra, the South East London Orchestra. We have been invited to help out at the concert, with jobs such as handing out programmes, serving wine and nibbles and, best of all, we get to enjoy the music too! All the details and sign-up are here.

With our planned task having to be postponed until the spring (yes, this feels like a very long time away!), we had the chance to do something different in our area this evening. We often pick up litter at our tasks, but sometimes it's good to make that our focus for the evening and really blitz and area. Running into the park, we grabbed litter-pickers, hoops, bags and gloves from the container (I was very impressed with Kat at this point, who had brought her own litter-picker!). After a little warm-up in the dark, we ran alongside the water of the lake and found that this area was actually quite bright, with the massive floodlights of the running track lighting our way. Time to pause and pick (this is a thoroughfare from the train station, so is often pretty messy). As I wandered, I noticed some people sitting at one of the benches, with a fox right next to them! He/she was so tame, picking through bits of discarded food, eyes lit up by my head-torch.

Outside the station we found that the parking area is a dumping ground, it seems by fans of McDonald's, so our pickers were clicking busily, as commuters poured out of the station, set on getting home. At this point I can explain our title pun. There is a little green space near the station, with trees and a bench and, as Bradley pointed out, is usually home to the 'shady fellas'. Well, these shady fellas are partial to a few cans and certainly kept us busy (as did fox number two, who ducked in and out as we worked).

Our journey continued back into the park, where we observed the military fitness gang, a music video recording and the comings and goings of the many other activities that happen here in the evening. Finding the most well-lit area, outside the sports centre, we downed tools (and now heavy bags) and warmed up for a fitness session (tonight's run had become more of a chat and walk...which was quite nice actually!). Heart rates up, muscles fired, we got stuck in to some HiiT, with rounds of mountain-climbers, burpees, high-knees and squat-jumps. Stuart made even more friends as we rounded off, by suggested a quick plank, thanks Stuart!

After our run, a few of us stayed behind for a quick drink, deciding that our bigger social should wait until next Tuesday, when some of our other regulars should be back. We wish strong legs and heart to Louise, who is taking on her first 10k race this Sunday at Petts Wood (don't forget to drive those arms up the hills Louise!) and we also wished congratulations to Kat, who took part in Swim Serpentine the other week, putting me to shame by doing it in just a cossie!

See you next Tuesday, when we will visit one of our favourite tasks over at Sydenham Community Library.

An energetic eight took to Crystal Palace Park to clear the litter along the path and to cover 2km of running and a TOUGH abs session.

Yes, it's STILL hot! Really hot. Water in hand, we made our way out of the Bridge House garden (it's oh, so tempting at this time of year to while away the 90 minutes with an ice cold drink in our hands, but our plastic bottles would have to do!). This week we were tasked with the challenge of clearing litter from the path near the train station, leading into the park. We now call this plogging (picking up litter whilst jogging), it sounds so much nicer than litter picking ;)

Joining us this week was uber tourist, Chi, who was completing his penultimate London GoodGym, with tomorrow's group run in Waltham Forest making up the full set (we think it's about 24). Well done Chi and welcome to GoodGym Bromley.Before setting off, we had to congratulate Tim on the success of his Oxford challenge, something he has been telling us about now for while. On Sunday, his nephew Harold, a super-fast marathon runner, took on the almost marathon distance, finishing with a swim across the river to a pub, which you can read all about here, in the Oxford Mail.

As usual, we enjoyed picking up our equipment from the container in the park, filling two wheelbarrows with litter-pickers, bags and hoops, hedge trimmers and gloves. With the barrow boys bringing up the rear, the rest of us ran up towards Crystal Palace Station, passing the little farm on the way (it's well worth a visit, with lots of cute animals to see). The heat was really quite stifling, making the hill hard work! At the station area, we gathered our tools and worked in twos and threes, chatting and picking (and finding treasure, oooh!) and making our way gradually along the path. It wasn't long before time was up and we were heading back to the container, with about six full bin bags. Great work!

It took a while for everyone to assemble, because some people just couldn't stop picking litter on the way back...it's a compelling activity.

Whilst on tour, Chi has become known for his abs. I say his abs, but what he is known for is working everyone else's abs in his 'Abs on Tour', which we were delighted to sample this evening. I say delighted, but it was really hard work, with some serious gurning going on, a fair bit of moaning and a shout from Emily that she had already done an abs session this morning - ouch! During the plank, I noticed all the ants around me and quite soon felt the effects of their stings - it's all very well rolling around on the grass, having fun, but the ants were not impressed! Thanks Chi for the awesome abs attack, I hope everyone feels happy to come back next week (you now know I take it easy on you!).

Next week we are heading to Forest Hill Station to do some watering, a nice 5k round-trip and we might even go and see that steeple on a hill that Tim keeps telling us about. Have a great week and see you soon :)

For 90 minutes of impressive play (and graft), nine super goal-focussed runners took on 4km and cleared a bed of weeds and rogue plants.

No first-timers tonight, but it was great to welcome back Ian, who has been on his travels, this time doing what sounds like a GoodGym task taken to the extreme. Spending time in Argentina with Habitat, Ian worked with a team of volunteers to help families build their own homes. He told us about the challenges they faced, wheeling supplies, materials and equipment across a muddy space each day before they could even get started. All this hard work paid off though, with the foundations fully in place and ready for the next team to come in and help build the walls. What an amazing experience, well done Ian!

Ian also mentioned this race, that's happening tomorrow evening at Norman Park. Short notice, but if you're feeling 10k-ready, you might like to join in!

As this week's task was taking us into Crystal Palace Park, we headed that way for our warm-up, playing a little game of Shark Attack. Great work from our team of sharks, Louise, Hannah and then Jane, who ran hard to try and catch their prey.

It's always lovely to run alongside the lake, sweeping up and around, then to grit our teeth to take on the hills that lie ahead. It felt particularly challenging this evening, in the heat, so well done all! We were met at the Crystal Palace Museum by Mehul, who showed us the area that we were due to clear. As you can see from the photos, it was incredibly overgrown, with sycamore, buddleia, dandelions and grass taking over, in between the plants we were to leave intact. I was very pleased to get a 'before' picture on this task, because the transformation is quite something!

Clocking on

As everyone got stuck in, I wandered over to the 'shed' to collect some more tools and was delighted to have a little behind-the-scenes look inside the space that used to be used for timekeeping, where you can still see 'in' and 'out' painted on the wall.

With heads down, everyone worked incredibly quickly, pulling up weeds, raking away grass, digging up sycamores and sweeping it all away, with Stephen working solidly on wheelbarrow duty. Gathering up the last bits of greenery to be taken to the compost heap, we all paused to watch a local park rat having a good sniff around - eeeeeek! - then asked a few questions about the space, which Mehul kindly answered for us. I think we'll have to come along one Sunday to learn some more!

Run for the hills!

Our position put us in a great spot to run along the top of the park, towards a nice little (but steep) hill, for our fitness session. We did have to pause en route to capture a line-up with the transmitter in the background :) Partnering up, our teams took it in turns to run up and down the hill, with partners working on strength, through walking lunges, push-ups and sitting squats. Feel the burn!

Next week we have a very interesting task lined up, at the Upper Norwood Library Hub, home to the Library of Things. This will be the first time we've built a shed together, so maybe study some flat-pack instructions to gear yourselves up for this construction challenge!

See you soon!