Going GRACEfully into 2018

As Storm Eleanor whipped around, twenty toughies ran 5km across Lewisham to sort through donations at GRACE.

It might have been one of the grimmest evenings to go running, but somehow, all these amazing people felt the need to pull on their Lycra and head on down to Glass Mill to do some good. Additional kudos and Lewisham Love go to our FOUR newcomers and one tourist, welcome to first-timers Mary, Tom, Mary Anne and Sarah and to Hannah, who was crossing the border from (our gorgeous neighbours over in) Bromley (I might be biased, they're my Tuesday night lovelies...). If you click on their names you can give them a cheer, go on, it feels lovely to get a cheer :)

A big thank you tonight to Jo, who has made my life so much easier by coming up with this week's title pun, good work Jo, I can get an early night now!

So, this storm. A few of us were blown this way by bike and some came flying through the doors sideways, which made our warm-up a bit more challenging. Well done to everyone for staying upright and for entering into the games with gusto! Gathering round, we set our various devices going (did you all get new watches for Christmas, there was a fair bit of beeping going on?!) and set off towards Lee. Thank you to Caireen for being our back-marker this week, making sure nobody was left behind (or blown away).

On arriving at GRACE, we were quickly given direction by Claire, who pointed out the many bags of clothes, shoes and random bits and bobs, which were to be sorted into the great big white bags, with the various categories, women, men, children, babies. As always, everyone grabbed a bag and got stuck in. Anyone who has been here before, will have noticed the changes over the time we have been visiting and we always marvel at the progress that has been made - when we came to this space the first time, it was an empty shell, full of dust and in need of a lot of attention. Now we see a shop space, a community space and an area to sort and prepare clothing to be taken to those who need it.

Of course, it wasn't long before the pants were out. It's tradition now for someone to uncover some either massive or 'interesting' items of underwear and tonight we hit the jackpot with some wide pants AND some frilly knickers. Good work Amber, Vic and Hannah!

Quite soon all of the white sacks were full to overflowing and full time had passed (we did push on for a tiny bit longer!). We said our goodbyes and promised to return in a few weeks, as Claire and her team have a few trips coming up and could do with our help. If you want to help out at other times, check the website here to find out how you can get involved.

Heading back, I invited Conroy to take the lead, while I wheezed away at the back (yes, even your robust trainer feels under the weather sometimes). Thank you Conroy for guiding everyone home and for keeping the group moving until we all regrouped for some press-ups and tricep-dips at the curvy bench. A quick round of planks (ouch, we've neglected those over Christmas!) and it was time for a stretch. Don't forget to sign up for next week, when we will run over to Seniors to take down the Christmas decorations (this is a slightly longer run, of around 7km in total) and also link your Strava to your GoodGym profile, to make sure all your miles count towards our January challenge!

Great work team!