Wandsworth

Group run

You should have seen us Ran Gogh last night - we're absolutely floorless

33 GoodGymers made their way 6km to help their local community in Wandsworth.

  • James Kerry-Barnard
  • Davinder Sanghera
  • Jessie Woodward
  • Jenny
  • Anastasia Hancock
  • Kate Dunford
  • Ruth
  • Removed User
  • Greenwich runner
  • Nick Hudson
  • Matthew Stuart
  • Sophie Humphrey
  • Sally Williams
  • Birmingham runner
  • Jordan
  • Judith
  • Trish Regis
  • Sarah McKean
  • Joanna
  • York runner
  • Luke Woodward
  • Lambeth runner
  • Wandsworth runner
  • Samantha Cook
  • Al Smith
  • Rachael Williams
  • Alyx Murray-Jackman
  • Jamie Matheson
  • Leicester runner
  • Jamie Farrell
  • Rosie Washington
  • Imran Matin
  • Greg Hamilton
 
Monday, 6th of November 2017
 
Led by Anastasia Hancock
she/her

It was a Sally-themed night in Wandsworth last night, as we said a tearful goodbye to one of founding members and task force. But don't worry, Sally will still be part of the GoodGym family in Bristol!

We had some good news to temper the tears, with a whole gang of lovely new runners joining us for the very first time. Put your hands together and give a cheer for Davinder, Rosie, Imran and Greg. Great to have you join the team! We also had the pleasure of having lovely York and Barnsley trainer Egg along for our run.

After a bit of news (don't forget the last social of the year this Thursday for all GoodGym groups) and a well done to those who raced at the weekend (congratulations Nick for coming 6th in the poppy run this weekend!) we headed outside for our warm up. After some dynamic exercises to combat the cold and get our heart rates up, we did a head count and found out our favourite things about Sally, as wel as our best puds. We unanimously agreed that Sally is friendly, welcoming, modest, funny, an inspiring runner, has great curls and a lovely smile. She is also a big proponent of a word that shall not be mentioned in this run report, but rhymes with lobnut. We also decided that the best desserts were ice cream, banoffee pie, apple pie and anything chocolately.

Tonight we were splitting the group (sniff), with two tasks to choose from. The larger group were heading off to tackle a massive painting task at a local school, led by ace King's trainer Alyx, while a smalled group were running to an amazing refugee support charity, KLS, to lug a whole load of packets of flooring up 3 flights of stairs.

This latter group headed off into the night and thanks to a nice downhill start, at a fair lick. We soon arrived at the charity to find the flooring waiting for us, and got cracking straight away shifting the boxes up the stairs. Within minutes we were done, and so we finished off the job by clearing a whole load of broken tiles out of the bathroom. Great upper body work out team. Now - legs. It was a short run through Battersea to a nearby hill, where, in twos and thinking about form (especially those arms - it's all about the positive backwards arm drive) we knocked out three quick but tough hill sprints. This was only the start, and we made our way to the common for some more lovely fitness.

Meanwhile, the painting team were busy at work at Allfarthing Primary School, where they were tasked with finishing a job we had started this summer. Here's what Alyx said about the task...

The celebration party took Dave and Sally on a 3km run down to Allfarthing Primary School to paint more of their playground fences. There was a bit of confusion over the colours needed for each fence as it was pretty dark by the time we arrived, but a couple of runners 'sage'd the day and realised there were two different colours (safe and forest) just before we made any mistakes! We got most of the fence done and there are just a few left that we can go back to finish another time. Once done we split into two groups to run back to Clapham Common to meet Ana and the crew for a gruelling fitness session.

The fitness

We met up at the common, and the real hard work began. We started with a quick time trial featuring two hard laps of the common, and then got stuck into some conditioning exercises including planks, sumo squats, and Egg's marvellous press up challenge, before hitting the same route to see if all that firing up of glutes and abs had made a difference to our times. And it had! Great running team.

All that was left was to sprint back to the BAC and complete the run with a proper Wandsworth finish which saw Sally making her way through the full guard of honour. It was back to the bar for a cheeky lemonade and to say our goodbyes. We'll miss you Sally!

Next week we're doing a spot of gardening at our favourite community garden. Go one, sign up here for some more GoodGym fun.

Report written by Anastasia Hancock


Discuss this report

sign in to add a comment

Share the love

Join us on the next run

Jobs at Doddington roof garden!

Monday 18:30 - 20:00
Led by Anastasia Hancock


Battersea Arts Centre

Find out more

Become a member

with an optional monthly donation

  • Run, walk, or cycle to help older people
  • Access sessions across the country
  • Claim your GoodGym t-shirt

Need help with a community project?

If you're a community organisation and have a physical task then we'd like to help.

Request a task

Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more