A litter of GoodGymers found in the park

Sam rushed from work to his home to collect the litter pickers and bin liners as tonight's group run was going to be a special one. Back in March, GoodGym sent out a document to all AAs as part of the "100 Days of Action" campaign and all other areas got involved with this activity, but Sam waited until the summer to use it. In line with the mid-year social, he decided to use it for this group run...."Litter Pick Bingo".

Sam met up with all the GoodGymers that had signed up for tonight at Old Spike Roastery apart from Laura, who was going to meet us at the start of the task. Sam's GG speech was slightly special as Daryl, who has been coming to GG Southwark regularly over the past 18 months or so, had finally reached the centurion club of GoodGym and claimed his wings! A massive congratulations again for hitting this major milestone!

The team did their usual warm-up on the green and this time, Sam decided to start with the run a 2.2k around Peckham Rye Park before meeting up with Laura at the Round Cafe in the middle of the park. It was here that he decided to say his ice-breaker question: Since it was Independence Day yesterday, who would you define as a true American hero OR when I say America, what do you think of?

We had all sorts of answers from Michelle Obama to Donald Trump and from Mickey Mouse to Captain America for American "heroes" and for the word "America", people said donuts, larger than life, loud, and alligators amongst other comments.

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Climate Changing Centurion

Armed with copies of the Litter Pick Bingo sheets, pens, bin liners and litter pickers (thanks Paulin for bringing yours), Sam (after some struggles with basic maths) split the group into threes (and one group of four). Each group had to put down their group name on the sheet before heading off in all directions to find items on the litter pick bingo sheet and take photo evidence. It was more a litter hunt than a bingo as the teams had 30 minutes to go out and try to find as many of the 25 items on the sheet plus they had to record distance (if it came down to a tie-breaker). All teams needed to be back at the start for 19:50!

During the time the teams were away, Sam quickly went back to Old Spike to retrieve something special for the teams after they finished their litter hunt.

Daryl, David and Tim were the first group back with a minute to spare as they collected 20 items on the list. Two other groups arrived just back on the dot as Lindy, Louise and Tam collected 19 items and Gemma, Rebecca and Nelly arrived back with 21 items....they were leading the pack until Claire, Clare, Laura and Paulin arrived back with 23 items. However, since they were 3 minutes late and for each minute, Sam reduced a item off their list, they ended up with 20 items. Thus, Gemma, Rebecca and Nelly were the winners winning a Body Shop hand cream each!

We all celebrated with an Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer before heading back to Old Spike to collect our things. Yet, the evening wasn't over as we walked over to Frank's (rooftop bar in Peckham) for our mid-year social!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was great to see you all getting competitive with your litter pick bingo and well done to Gemma, Rebecca and Nelly again. What a lovely way to end the night with our social at Frank's filled with delicious food, fancy cocktails and a wonderful view of London!

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Thank You to myself

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank myself for organising such a fun evening filled with activities, non-alcoholic beer and a rooftop social afterwards! What a way to start July!