Copy and paced

Hello Justine and Chris - ladies and gents of GoodGym, put your hands together for these two who came to their very first group run tonight! Great to have you both with us.

While you're in a cheering frame of mind, why not put your hands together for Tom who raced the train for 14 miles in some tough conditions last weekend, and for all those who did park run and other 5k races, like Matthew. Racing is a fantastic way to bring down those times, so if you want to find the right one for you, or you're keen to join the race team, then just let me know.

Good luck to our very own Emily, who is off this week to do some bonkers things on a tuk-tuk across India. If you want to sponsor her very good cause, you can find her just giving page here.

A big shout out too to David who smashed three missions over the weekend and gave us a really nice talk about why he does it. He explained that it really makes a difference for an older or isolated person to see that somebody cares, and the difference you can make in such a small window of time means a great deal to them. Way to go, David! If you're more keen to be involved in missions, then do get your documents checked and if you have any questions just give me (or David) a shout!

Once we had headed outside to do our warm up last night, we asked - if you could choose to be the best in the world at one skill, what would it be? Wandsworth is nothing if not eclectic, and last night we had a range of answers, from sand sculpting, empathy, free diving, lots of dancers and musicians - but only one runner. What a talented bunch!

It was a slightly longer run, so we set of pretty sharpish for Wendelsworth Community garden. This huge space is being carefully cultivated by Martin, a local resident, and is a lovely area for the local communities who might not otherwise have access to outside space to enjoy.

As soon as we arrived we got stuck into the task, which was sorting, sawing, and clearing the leaf pens. It was all a bit Game of Thrones and we gleefully got stuck into the pile of saws, but after just 30 minutes both piles had reduced in size dramatically, and Alyx had spotted a mouse, toad and many, many snails. We'll be back in the coming months to finish off the job.

On the way back, we stopped half way to knock out a quick fitness session which focused on core strength and pacing. While one group ran together, keeping as a pack, around the common, the other group worked on a series of core exercises including russian twists, planks, and reverse crunches, before swapping over.

The group split up into two teams for the last section of the run back, with run leader Andrew taking the speedy team through their paces. There was some great running, and everyone tackled that last hill valiantly. We finished with stretches - and delicious cake and flapjacks by the talented Jo and Will - thanks guys!

Next week is bank holiday, but we will be running, because nothing stops us in Wandsworth! We will even sweeten the prospect by having a lovely social afterwards to see off the end of August in true GoodGym fashion. Sign up here!.