Last night 9 members jogged/walked 2.7km to assist the residents of ECCO, tidy up the boulevard.

We welcomed back Tim who last came to a group run in 2019, he had signed up to attend prior to last night however the demands of family life have kept him away, but it was good to see him and hear about what he has been doing over the last 3 years.

We also welcomed back Mrs D'Silva who recently got married and was coming back from her honeymoon full of joy and smiles.

Almost forgot to give a shout out to our deserter Paul despite working in Croydon and signs up for almost all our weekly runs he finally made an appearance, I wonder if it is because he's managed to twist my arm to participate in the Dino Dash and he wanted to ensure Iwasn't going to desert him so he would have to complete two legs in my absence.

We were joined by Jerry and two other members of ECCO as we cut back the over growth and weeded, it was only a couple of months ago we visited ECCO and and tidied up another part of the boulevard however with the recent rain and now glorious sunshine weeds and trees are basking in the great growing conditions.

After 6 years of operating in Croydon you'd like to think we have gained some form of notoriety (Red T-Shirts GoodGym across the front would be a giveaway of who we are), however without fail each time we are at a task with ECCO, there is always someone who thinks we are there as a punishment, dished out by His Majesty's officials not that we have all voluntarily decided to go out and do some community service out of the goodness of our hearts. We had to succumbed to some jovial advice about staying out of trouble and not to get caught in the future.

Only trouble we got into last night was with the thorns and spiky bushes who ensured our punishment for trying to cut them down and root them out was swift, so much for not getting caught, those words fell on deaf ears.

All in all we had a good time a lot of conversations and planning for our end of the month litter pick and picnic in Park Hill where when we will be celebrating our 6th birthday. Sign up here and take a tasty treat or beverage with you, we will be having a few games and competitions

I know I have jumped ahead of my self by providing the sign up for our birthday celebrations before providing next weeks but I'm just so excited about it.

Next week we will be heading to St Augustine's to add some final touches to the garden before the judges arrive to judge for London in Bloom, sign up here.

We are in need of a new start location, sadly Solutions will be closing down on 30 June, they have been our home for 6 years, despite the various change in their staff they have always been very accommodating to us and will be missed. Especially on those freezing cold nights when tasks are canceled at the last minute and they have been generous to let us have our fitness sessions inside.

We are in the process of trying to find a new start location, so far a few positive conversation have been had with potential replacements but still need to iron out a few things. We are working on getting this sorted before the end of the month so wish us luck or if you are aware of a space we could use with somewhere to change and store our belongings when we are out in the community doing good, please let me know.

Last night we welcomed Magdalena to her first GoodGym, session due to work commitments she was unable to join us last week, but she was here tonight to take part in our 10 years celebratory run to Park Hill Junior School.

Having seen some of the run reports and pictures of the night before and not wanting to be out done I thought it would be good to show some of Croydon's iconic places after all everyone knows about the wealth of talented and famous people who lives or lived in the borough. We had two groups who took different routes to Park Hill as there were so many places to have a photo op with our new flags. Look at the pictures and see for yourself the fun and joy all participants had running around posing for photos before our task.

When a plan comes together

Both groups arrived at Park Hill School within minutes of each other, Esther must have realised we were out having fun before we arrived and as a punishment the we were locked out! Not for long though as Tim and Emma had made their was to the task and started without us but knew re-enforcement was coming.

Esther had a lot of tasks for us to do, weeding, digging up, fixing the raised beds, sorting out the compost area, cleaning the pond and even cutting up some Christmas trees into smaller pieces. Despite it being 9 months since Christmas these trees was still in great condition apart from the leaves being brown as opposed to green. For those who didn't want the conventional Christmas tree but wanted the Christmas smell these trees would have been great but sadly no one in the group last night had that shabby chic taste.

The group chatted about races, training, parkrun and many other topics as they worked on the various task we had to complete, but unlike last week this week we were more prepared because when darkness descended on us we had our torches and flood lights primed and ready to go.

*Thanks to Paul, Nicola and Juliet for leading the two groups around Croydon for our photos, anyone wanting an arts tour or history tour be sure to contact me and I'm sure one of my trusted guides would be willing to assist.

Anyone fancy joining myself, Martin and Paul at South Norwood Parkrun on Saturday? I will be pacing Martin in an attempt to complete the course in under 26 minutes, then grab a bite and head to Park Hill for Super Saturday! Have you signed up to SUPER SATURDAY AS YET? See below link it would be nice to have as many people there as possible and remember you get to choose how long you stay and what time to arrive.

Upcoming events

21 September 2019 Super Saturday

28 September 2019 Royal Betlehem Parkrun takeover we still have various roles to be filled.

Beddington Park 10K join our two latest recruits Magdalena and Dovile in this local race.

Launches

GoodGym continues to grow over the next few weeks we have 2 launches:

• Leeds, 25th September.

• Crewe, 2nd October.

We're very excited about these as it's great to bring GoodGym to some of the smaller communities (Crewe) across the country. If you know anyone in Leeds and Crewe please tell them how great it is going to be. and encourage them to sign up.

Next week were staying local again as we head over to our friends at ECCO, sign up here it is within walking distance with a great fitness session planned.

Today 14 runners ran 3km to help Tunstall Nursery prepare for the new school year.

We welcomed Nina and Olivia to their first group run, hope you enjoyed your first visit and we look forward to seeing you again.

When we arrived we were met by Jane, who informed us of what tasks she wanted us to tackle, there was a ton bag filled with sand that was to be used and refill the sand pit. There was some sweeping to be done and if we had time there was also some tyres that needed the soil to be topped up.

At first glance it looked like there wasn't a lot to be done, but those little ones sure did have a massive sand party towards the end of term as I think they had emptied all the sand in the play ground. Everywhere seemed to be covered in sand, that explains why the sand pit had to be refilled.

Juliet, Paul, Andy and Olivia were busy transporting the sand from the car park to the sand pit in the play ground, with just two wheel barrows available the task seemed like a never ending one, but that wasn't meant to be as Paul had a genius moment realised there was an empty recycle bin and decide to use that too to transport the sand.

Meanwhile in the playground Martin and Ben, were having mini wheel barrow derby ferring soil from one corner to another.

Before long our time had come to an end but not before Paul, Martin and Jennifer had a go at doing some squats with a big tyre that was in the play ground, needless to say the fellas were outdone by Jennifer.

After we bid our farewell to Jane we headed outside the nursery for the regular lap of Tunstall, no records were broken however we had some impressive sprint finishes. We then headed back to solutions for our cool down stretches.

Save the Dates

21 September Super Saturday

28 September 2019 Bethlem Parkrun takeover we still have many roles to be filled, are you able to take part.

Next week we have another short run to Park Hill Rec, sign up here.