Stephen did his fitness leader training last week so it was lovely for me to be able to sit back and relax as he led our run this evening to a new task for us - supporting Bromley Mencap by moving some heavy wooden sleepers.

We met in The Glades and had a 2km jog to Norman Park where we met Tim as well as Caroline and Louise from Bromley Mencap and we cracked straight on.

The sleepers had been sat in a shipping container for a while, so a few spiders took a ride to the sleeper destination.

They will eventually be used as some big vegetable beds which the community can use and enjoy out the front of Mencap's building.

Nice work everyone, and cheers Stephen for taking the lead 🙌

Me, Linda and Angela joined the Friends of Cator Park to de-weed the tiny forest, which is so important to make sure the trees have the best chance of surviving! It was a lovely evening and the weather was perfect!

We made our way to South East London Mind last night to help the centre get its therapy garden shipshape for service users to enjoy.

We were quickly set to work:

• James, Mark and Njck built four planters in record time
• Catherine, Fi and I de-weeded some raised beds and got a horticultural education in the process
• Tim got his hands on the litter pickers and made sure that no crisp packet was spared
• David and James cleared the car park of leaves and other hazards

After about 40 minutes of GoodGyming we ran back to base via Kent House for some wall sits and finished with a sprint finish up the hill to the Bridge House. David proved victorious on this occasion but I have a feeling James will be wanting a re-run soon!

On a very wet Sunday morning Mark and I headed over to Betts Park to help out the Friends to keep the park looking lovely!

Thankfully the rain help off whilst we worked on an area that needed some TLC. We pulled out lots of tall weeds where they start the tours of Betts Park. That's right, they offer tours!

They says you only get one first impression! A job well done ✅️

Linda and Nick met the Friends of Alexandra recreation ground for a spot of weeding. The challenge was to clear the weeds around the plant bed ready for some new flowers to be added for the upcoming Penge in bloom competition. After the weeding was complete we threw down a couple of barrows of mulch to keep the weeds at bay. A job well done ✅

It was lovely to see so many GoodGymers join us for another trip to the Crystal Palace Water Tower 🗼 this week 😁

At the Bridge House we introduced ourselves and answered this week's question - "Where would you like to run a marathon?". A wonderfully diverse range of suggestions came up, from the self-indulgent ("Edinburgh, because it's a flat course and I'm lazy" - your report author) to the far away (Tokyo), the safe bets (London and Boston) to the classical (Vienna and Athens).

We then headed out to Crystal Palace Park for some warming up, before splitting off into long distance and shorter distance run groups 🏃. Cat, Clare and James headed round the perimeter of the park with their group, while Hannah and I took advantage of the light to cut through the middle with all its steepness leading our group to get to the Water Tower.

There we met John, impressed with our number, and got to work inside. Having removed much soil and foliage over the last couple of years, we're now into the detailed work of removing stones and small rocks 🪨, as well as carefully uncovering the remaining pipework that sits around the edge of the tower, alongside the last bit of soil removal.

Hannah found the old furnace 🔥 and confirmed she'd fit inside (thankfully it's been turned off for a very long time), while James did a sterling job of cutting out the shifting of soil into our makeshift soil sorter (a supermarket trolley) using a shovel by simply lifting the wheelbarrow the soil was in over the trolley. Fast work, if not light!

At 8pm we still had good light, but it was time to say goodbye to John and head back down the west side of the park and back to Bridge House for our cool down stretches.

Great contributions from all - see you next time! 👋