Yesterday’s moody weather meant a smaller number turned up at Papa’s Park last night. It felt very intimate with just eighteen of us as compared to the 30-40 we have been used to for the last few months. As everyone arrived it was also apparent that most of us were a bit below par on this gloomy Tuesday evening;

I was tired and a bit emotional after an over indulgent weekend and Katie was much the same only she at least kept a lovely smile on her face. Beth was tired from her marathon effort of organising the Bournemouth trip and Tom was tired from the marathon itself. Will was recovering from being poisoned with red ink and Alex was recovering from being poisoned by a weekend of beer. George had a sore ass from meeting it pummelled by Daley Thomson (true story) and Robbie had a sore arse from it not working properly when he ran. Lucy was on the come-back after a back injury and Elise was on the come-back after a sprained ankle. And Emma had broken her wrist.

That left only Maya, Marie, Jackie, Abby, Imogen, Grace and Jo in full working order. The whole ensemble made me think of the Raggy Dolls (remember them? Google them.. they were all a bit broken but an awesome force when together) and to the casual onlooker we may not have looked capable of making a big difference to Lambeth that night… but we are GoodGym Lambeth and so we got to work.

Half the group ran a solid 5 miles up and down Brixton Hill to The Portico Gallery where they were met by John, his cat, his terrapins and the offer of tea. In return they moved a large amount of furniture in 20 minutes which would have taken John half a day.

The other group ran two miles up to Holland Park Estate where Ameena met us with gardening in the children’s playground and flyers to be delivered to the whole estate letting people know about an upcoming community day, like group one, the job was done in 20 minutes.

So there’s a moral to this story. Don’t underestimate GoodGym. Even at 70% we can still make magnificent shit happen.

I don’t have photos from last night, so instead here are photos of some of my favourite underdogs who also did great things against all odds.