Lewisham, where the streets are paved with Goldsmiths

Sixteen dynamic pairs of legs covered 8kms to help out at the Goldsmiths Community Centre in SE6. Dust was created, as doors were sanded and we left with a smile and a layer of grime.

How lovely to welcome new faces tonight and to catch up with familiar friends who have now become regulars at GoodGym Lewisham. We chatted about coach running and celebrated having had a our first Lewisham mission at the weekend - well done to those who attended and finally finished off the painting over in Catford, a job well (and truly) done! We talked about races and gave a remote high-five to our fellow GoodGymmers who took part in the Worthing Half at the weekend (and looked ahead to other races in the calendar).

After a quick warm-up and a little getting-to-know-each-other head-count, we headed at a steady pace over to the Goldsmiths Community Centre. This was our longest group run yet, in terms of distance covered, so we took it steadily, regrouping at junctions and crossings - thank you to Dennis, who kindly offered to back-mark and did a brilliant job, looking after some new-comers tonight.

Once at the community centre, we were welcomed by beaming faces and told all about the history of the building. We hope that our help will take the centre forward a little, towards reopening again fully in the future (you can read about the crowdfunding campaign being run at the moment, here). Runners were keen to get stuck in and were soon armed with rolls of sandpaper and a door to work on. Time flew by quickly and Adele heard about all of the activities that take place at the community centre, including a 'Silver Mondays' weekly get-together and the annual dance, which we hope to be involved with in some way in the future.

Doors beautifully sanded and faces suitably dusty, we gathered to run back to Glass Mill Leisure Centre. Chatter ensued and we observed, with great relief, that the return leg was slightly down hill. For many of our runners, this was possibly their longest run in a long time, or even ever! Really well done, all of you! A longer run meant fewer drills and some good, hard, core work (well, it's a good, hard core that we are aiming towards!). We stretched and chatted ('Come and join me on Twitter!' pleaded Adele - @ggLewisham) and ended with a chorus of 'See you next week!'s.