With the penultimate run of the year and two tasks ahead of us, we were feeling decidedly Christmassy in Wandsworth last night !

We kicked off the night with a bumper news session...

If you're free on Friday and can sign up for this mission on Friday for the amazing Evolve housing charity, please do as soon as poss! The organisers need eight people for the mission to go ahead and will cancel it if they can't get that.

Next week is our last run of the year but we're back on the 7th January for our first run - perfect for shaking off those January blues and any vestiges of a NYE hangover. We'll also be doing a starter session, so let your friends know if they wouldn't like to find out more about GoodGym!

Remember all those bulbs we planted for the Kambala Cares project? They're having a Christmas party on the estate, complete with local choirs and mulled wine, and we've been invited! Check out the details here.

We had to bid a tearful farewell to Alyx who is leaving us for new adventures in NZ! She's been a big part of the GG family, and we'll miss her. Thanks for all your amazing efforts and enthusiasm over the last two years Alyx! Come back to visit please!

Two Task Monday

It was a biggie last night, with two tasks to choose from. The first was a shorter run down to the Venue Community centre to various jobs at this local centre, and the other was a longer run to a family refuge centre in Balham to do a painting and weeding job.

So after a warm up and a discussion on our favourite veggie meals, we divided up into two groups, with Alyx (who might have thought she'd get a night off on her final run for a while with us) taking one half on the longer run.

The Venue group made it down to the centre in very quick time....perhaps a bit too quick as the task owner hadn't turned up yet! But after a quick call while Helen led the group through a few exercises and our weekly plank minute, we got our instructions, and started by taking compostable waste over to the local community garden. On returning, we knocked out a few less fun jobs, such as clearing rubbish and cleaning, before moving onto the creative bit - decorating the community centre! The decorating methods were pretty inventive - from some lovely tinsel garlanding, to some trolley-based arranging ("I've never been so tall" said Beth!) - but very effective. We left the place looking very festive, and jogged over to Battersea Park to do some competitive fitness. Dividing up into groups, everybody had a turn in choosing the exercise (including dancing like a fairy? Apparently this worked our ABCs...!) before sprinting, with one team just pipping the other to the post - but not by much. Excellent effort guys!

Over to Alyx to hear what the guys who ran down to the family refuge centre got up to:

After a long but steady run, we arrived at the house ready for action and were greeted, welcomed in and shown our task. One of the bright yellow rooms was to be painted yellow, plus there was some weeding to be done outside! We took it in turns painting and doing 1 minute planks, so despite the long run we still all got in an abs workout too. After just 30 minutes we had weeded an area of the garden, laid down some wood chip and painted an entire room - many hands sure do make light work! We ran back to the BAC to meet Ana and the rest of the team for some stretches.

Next week it's our final run of the year! (sniffle). But don't worry, we are really going to go out with a bang. Sign up here for a very festive running and caroling task in support of a local cancer centre, a very Christmassy fitness session and then our very last social of the year in the Four Thieves across the road. See you then for a Christmas cracker of a run!