How Much Wood Would a Woodpecker Peck if a Woodpecker Could Peck Wood?

It was seven heaven in Lewisham tonight, with an impressive few heading New Crossward to take on a brand spanking new task at the Woodpecker Youth Centre, with a game, a few sprints and drills and a 5km+ run for good measure. EPIC!

Oi! You! Yes, you there, on the sofa, looking out at that little bit of drizzle! That's nothing, you should see what we ran through in January and February! We think some people might have been a little deterred by the rain this evening, but not us, we know that, once you get moving, the rain can be quite, well, 'refreshing'. So, feeling well and truly ready to get up and at 'em, we jogged out onto the grass and set to with our warm-up, head count and a new game of chase-the-cones-that-are-blowing-about-in-the-wind-before-they-end-up-in-the-river. It was lovely to meet a couple of new people on tonight's group run. Hello to Sean (yes, we know you came last week, but lovely to see you back and it was my first time meeting you!) and hello too to Kim, who was an absolute first timer.

Once we were warm enough and the cones were safely back in the bag, it was time to embrace the Lewisham Way and run towards our task - it always seems a little mean making everyone run up a hill at this early stage in the journey, but hey, just think of the downhill coming back! A few moments of regrouping at crossings, some pausing as the lights went against us and we were into Fordham Park and very nearly there.

We were met at the entrance by Shalena, who thanked us for all the work we have done previously at the Ladywell and Honor Oak Adventure Playgrounds (word is out!), then showed us a fine selection of tools for the job - clearing piles of leaves, picking up litter and shifting all the weeds that were covering sections of the path that surrounds the building. It doesn't take long for a team of GoodGym volunteers to work out where to get stuck in, bags were shaken open, areas were claimed and minds were set to focus mode.

At one end, Sean took on a quite large area, tugging up rogue greenery, sweeping away broken glass and evicting cheeky bugs. At the opposite end were Kim and Helen, digging deep at a pile of leaves (which amazingly turned out to be an actual mountain that filled not one, not two, not three, but FOUR bags!! Well done you two!). In between these two points were Sarah, who was easing herself into tiny gaps amongst the concrete seating and the fence, quietly showing the weeds who's boss and Roni and Dave, attacking moss, sods of grass and cursing a brush that decided to really test Roni's patience (well, she did complete Ride100 yesterday, so she's allowed to take out a bit of tiredness on an inanimate object! But seriously, well done on even coming along Roni!).

The countdown clock ticked towards the 'Da-da-da-da-d-d-d-daaaaah!' and some last minute pulling, sweeping and bag-filling was done (it's a case of prising the tools out of their hands sometimes you know!), before stepping back and seeing what an improvement had been made, it really was quite impressive. Shalena thanked everyone and we promised to return in a couple of weeks to finish everything off.

Talking of finishing off, as if all that running and weeding wasn't enough, we also like to throw in a little fitness session on our return leg. It seemed like we were spoilt tonight, with a park right on the doorstep of our task, so into Fordham we went for a game of Deptford Dawg. You don't know Deptford Dawg?! It's a game where one person (the dawg) stands in the middle and tries to tag the others as the attempt to run past. If they are tagged, they join the team and so on. No really, it's nothing like that other game you played at school, really.

Nicely warmed up, we got into pairs and took it in turns to do sprints/jumping squats/star jumps/lunges/side lunges. Great commitment from everyone, clearly thinking about form on each move, executing every one perfectly; we're made of strong stuff here in Lewisham! Once breathing had steadied slightly, we were back out on the Lewisham Way, welcoming a break at the traffic lights and talking about local breweries (yes, we have our own beers here you know, there's our next social sorted).

The two men were chomping at the bit here, so were sent on ahead to burn off some energy, before returning to run with the rest of the group. Time to stretch, to hear about this week's monthly drinks (with International Pun of the Month, when will our number come up?), this Sunday's 4x1 mile relays and a chance to wish each other a great week before we meet again, same time, same place, different task.