226.8 Miles and Porti-coping Nicely

I'm going to make a bold claim here. I think on Tuesday 21 February we might have set a GoodGym record for most miles collectively covered on a task.

For our return trip to the incomparable Portico Gallery...

...GoodGym Lambeth covered a total of 226.8 miles between us. That's a whopping 5.4 miles x a whopping 42 people.*

"What about elevation?" you ask. I'll bloody tell you: it was 179ft x 42 people, or 7518 ft - that makes the Burj Khalifa look like an idiot. You can skydive from that height.

"What about elevation?" somebody asked.

Ok, that's the mathematicals out the way. So, tonight's run was a surprise to many, who had signed up for the 1 mile run to Brixton Youth Club, which fell through at the last minute. In steps John Price, the Portico hero, who (characteristically) only had some flippin' fabric for gazebos (gazebi?) that needed caring for and some walls that needed sugar soaping! You know what they say -

Any Portico In A Storm

The surprise, and surprisingly mandatory, jump in distance meant that interim run leader John was quick to offer the bus as an option for the way home, which would have been totally understandable for any number of runners who weren't confident with their distances.

And out of those 42 people, who ended up taking the bus home? Here's the answer in bulleted list form because I worked out how to do them:

• Absolutely

• Frickin'

• Nobody

NOT TODAY TFL.

And this massive bunch of GoodGymmers was only too happy to get stuck in at the task too. Efficiently organised by Tom Benson, Tom Hunter, and people not even called Tom, everyone got to work readying West Norwood's finest community hub for all the activity goes on there.

What is all this in aid of? Well, without clean walls and nice dry gazebos (gazebi?), would things like this be possible:

WOMEN'S NEW MOON CACAO CEREMONY, featuring:

• Shamanic Dance!

• Fire Ceremony!

• Vegan Food Circle!

?

I hardly think so.

And of course, finally, with it being Lambeth, there are some heroics to celebrate.

Tom Benson breaks the 200 good deeds tape with his chest.

Beth Hoskins smashes the 400 good deeds glass ceiling with trainered foot.

Jay bulldozes into our hearts with delicious tiny cakes.

GoodGym depends on the energy, generosity, and general being a legend-ness of its people, and Lambeth provided that in spades tonight. As one famous Lambeth pun-smith suggests as the title for this run report, tonight we were "sheeting all over the other boroughs". I salute you all.

John

*Yes, Beth had to help another runner back to base after a slight injury, so technically 2 people only made it part of the way, but they were there in spirit and also it's still head and shoulders massively huger than anything else, so no letters please.