It's not goodbye, it's fareBell House

Southwark News

• Next week the awesome new trainer Ian is taking the group on a 7k round trip to Galleywall Nature Reserve to get stuck into the allotments. Find out more and sign up here.

• Saturday 7th September come on down to paint Peckham Rye parkrun red. Sign up for a volunteer spot on the spreadsheet found here. And if you're looking for an extra fix of good there's litter picking pre-parkrun for Peckham Rye Summer Fete.

• Final call for Big Half community places! Only £10! Email me lucyj@goodgym.org for details, you must be signed up by the end of August. I'll be coming back for it so look out for a pub lunch being organised afterwards.

• Surrey Docks Farm are putting on a gardening workshop for us! Date yet to be confirmed but keep your eyes on the website for it.

A flipping good handover

Last night an all time Southwark-record-smashing 37 people (THIRTY SEVEN!) descended on Old Spike Roastery to run 6km to Bell House in Dulwich. There was a queue for the sign up sheet! There's never a queue for the sign up sheet! Unbelievable scenes.

Bell House is a stunning Georgian House that currently houses an educational charity that offers support outside the mainstream school curriculum, lifelong learning, short courses, exhibitions, talks and musical events. You can find out more about them here. We've been visiting for nearly two years and seen the garden taking amazing shape.

The rain stopped, just for us!

We set off in two groups - party pace (slower) and 'in a hurry' which quickly became three groups because there was so many of us! To get to Bell House we run straight up Barry Road which is a solid mile of uphill - tough going! Then we pass through gorgeous Dulwich park before ending up at Bell House. Our tasks? One group turning and moving compost, one group weeding (and fussing over Clementine the dog). We got an insane amount done - giving the beds a good sorting out and turning over huge amounts of compost - that would have taken George hours to do on his own.

Hello and welcome to Ineke who came on her first group run tonight!

Before we knew it time was up and we needed to split into three groups to run back home where we stretched and went immediately next door to Batch.

And now the soppy bit

Being at Old Spike Roastery every single Wednesday evening come rain, shine or anything in between has been the joy of my week since February last year. There is no other job (or anything) in my life that has grown my confidence, strength and compassion like GoodGym Southwark. Last night saying goodbye to people individually I realised that as trainers we are in such a special, privileged position. We are a constant in lives that twist and turn around us, we are a reliable friendly face, a hug, a question about that race you did, we are there to support every single runner in whatever capacity they need that day. How do I express what that means to me? All I can really say is that whether you've come once or you've come a hundred times to a group run please know that your presence has at some point made my day.

There are many, many thank yous to say. First of all to the amazing individuals on Southwark taskforce who have been with me every step of the way, from last minute task cancellations to finding new task contacts to being the lively, joyful heart of the group. Thank you to those who arrive early and chat with me about their day, thank you to those who arrive (just about) on time and scrabble for the sign-in sheet. Thank you to the people new to running who bring their enthusiasm, their interest, their fresh energy and thank you to the veterans for their wisdom and encouragement. Thank you to all of you for putting up with the same exact intro speech and jokes for the last year and laughing politely at the particularly bad gags about peanuts. Thank you to those that organised and contributed to my gifts - what an amazing peanut butter gluten free cake! Who knew such wonders could exist! I look forward to putting my fabulous tea towel to good use and of course those amazing gardening tools. Thank you for becoming my friends and my family. I cannot wait to see what you all do next.

And last but by no means least, thank you to Ian for taking on this wonderful group of people and undoubtedly taking GoodGym Southwark to new and exciting heights. I know you will love it as much as I do because, after all, there's really nothing quite like it.

Keep running happy,

Lucy J