Poetry in Motion

Nine bouncy GoodGymmers flew along Lewisham Way to lift, shift and put away a book sale at New Cross Learning, covering a distance of 5.9km in total.

As we gathered in the foyer of Glass Mill, we chatted to some community support officers from Lewisham Police (one of whom is in training for the London Marathon), who have promised to join us on an SE13-based task soon...we hope we'll have flashing blue lights, but they are very welcome to join in, flashing lights or not. We were very soon forming a circle to welcome newcomer Bec and to say 'hi' to Catherine, who has been a few times now, but only when we are off to New Cross Learning. We promise you Catherine, we do go to other places sometimes! We also had the pleasure of John's company tonight, camera in hand, to capture all of the Lewisham action on this evening's task.

The Lewisham Way

Off we went, out onto the grass, to warm up and fight the icy cold wind that was gusting around Cornmill Gardens. We paired up for a quick game, then checked our form with some high-knees and phone-staring Strava set-up action.

Anyone who has visited this bit of Lewisham in the past few months, will tell you that it's pretty much like a building site, with diversions, diggers, cranes and dumpers to negotiate and tonight was no different, with a new obstacle course to get in some lateral bounding before we were set free to head towards New Cross. We gathered and regrouped at crossings and gave a fond little wave to last week's social venue, Meze Mangal, breathing in that delicious char-grilled perfume...

On reaching New Cross Learning, we did the group-shot thing, then tip-toed quietly into the library. We don't normally have to be all hush-hush here, but there was a meeting going on, so Gill briefed us and pointed everyone towards the boxes of books that had very helpfully been labelled 'toilet' or 'basement'. You might wonder why the books might go in the toilet, but this is quite some loo, lined with shelves and doubling as a store room. This labelling system caused a moment of confusion later on, as Jacqueline commented 'Poetry's toilet'. After some gentle defending of the genre by Caireen, we realised that Jacqueline was simply locating the best spot to place her box and not damning all literature in verse form.

The up and down stair-work on this task saw a steady stream of red t-shirts getting busy with crates and boxes, then tables and then some sacks, which were taken up to the exit. Gill helped to guide the stacking of boxes in some rather nifty moveable shelving (I'm sure there were ten of us when we started...) and very soon we returned - quietly - upstairs to say our goodbyes and head back towards our start point...but not before a quick look at some odd jumble that had been left in the reception area - frilly knickers anyone?! As we departed, Kathy proved just how varied the activity at New Cross Learning really is, by inviting us to a Psychic Night on Friday, only £5 and with cheap wine. That's our next social sorted then.

Our runners now groaned, as they used their newly tuned psychic powers to picture the stair repeats that awaited them at Deptford Bridge Station. As if running up and down the stairs carrying heavy boxes wasn't enough! So, a steady jog through Deptford, complete with top market hoover-buying tips from John, got us quickly to the DLR station and its marvellous stairs, ready to sprint up, jog down, box-jump up, jog down, lunge up, jog down and so on. And all this was simply an exercise to fire us up ready for the next bit. Well, our return leg is the perfect time to push that little bit harder, right?

To avoid the bike/runner collision possibilities, we ran in a line, with the last runner sprinting to the front, starting a nice chain run all the way to Elverson Road. Everyone pushed so hard, really digging in as we got tired towards the end - really well done! Things slowed down now and we paused at the lights to make sure we hadn't lost anyone, before sprinting back to base for some stretching.

We all breathed deeply, allowing our heart rates to slow, relaxed our shoulders after all that lifting and talked about upcoming missions and tasks, before scattering into the night to refuel and get cosy with our pyjamas and sofas.

Same time next week?