No arbortrary effort!

Dispelling all myths about today being 'Blue Monday', 25 happy runners covered 6.5km and gathered, carried and threw many Christmas trees (for recycling!).

Special thanks this week go to Tom for our treemendous title pun...and he wasn't even with us!

Every Monday in Lewisham is Red Monday, there's something about running with a group of other people, chatting (and laughing) as you go, that makes the world seem a much better place. This Monday was also Medal Monday, a Mega Medal Monday. In December, a group of us joined in the Run up to Christmas, a virtual challenge to motivate ourselves and each other to keep going during the party season. As a team, we collectively ran 1269.5km! Today, I received the medals in the post (along with some Christmassy chocolates!) and we gathered to celebrate our achievements as a team. Extra shout-outs to our 100 (and150km!)+ runners Vic, Chris, Sarah, Conroy and, with a total of 157km, our ultra-athlete, Jacqueline. Well done everyone, it was all about the team and we all did brilliantly, supporting and encouraging throughout!

Fantastree!

Amongst our team was Monica, who this week is celebrating her one-year anniversary with GoodGym. In this time, she has carried out an incredible 77 good deeds, with regular missions and weekly coach runs, great work Monica, it's lovely having you as part of GoodGym Lewisham.

Tonight, we welcomed Emmet over to Lewisham for the first time. He has previously run with our friends at GoodGym Croydon, so we opened our Lewisham arms and hope he enjoyed our particular brand of goodness.

Did you see that rain earlier?! Yikes! I watched it through a skylight and hoped it wouldn't do that between 6.45 and 8.30pm and, of course, the GoodGym magic happened and we were tackling only blustery gales. The rain had made our warm-up spot a little slippery though, so we used our might (and balance) to remain upright through our hand-shake challenge, squat-high-fives and knee-lifts. Tonight's task was a little different, we weren't heading to a venue, but getting to know our local streets a little more intimately. Up at Hilly Fields there are a few recycling points for Christmas trees, but the streets are still littered with forgotten greenery (or dry, brown twigs in some cases). Our job was to seek out these trees and add them to the pile, yes, running with trees, along the street!

Fir goodness sake!

As we arrived at the junction of Marsala Road and Ellerdale Street, we split into two teams, one taking Marsala and the other heading up to Algernon Road, with all eyes peeled for those beautiful trees. Head torches trained on paths and gardens, we soon knew when a tree had been found, with whoops of joy echoing around the street! Regrouping in Ladywell, we saw happy faces emerging from the darkness, trees bouncing between them. Here, Lucy and Kim took a detour to pick up Lucy's parents' tree, very conveniently shorn of its branches for ease of carrying! Around we went, causing heads to turn, up and over Adelaide Avenue and to deposit our first lot of trees, seven in total!

Turkey twizzler

In our area we have lots of runners, many regulars at Hilly Fields parkrun. We also have a great community on Strava, each following the other's activities and marvelling at the occasional twizzle. 'What's this?' you ask, it's a twizzle, yes, a twizzle! When you see a series of adjacent, straight roads, go for it, run up and down them and enjoy the way they look on your Strava map :) So tonight we did our first bit of a twizzle, with trees (a trizzle?). Up and down we went, Phoebeth, Francemary, Arthurdon, Gordonbrock (aren't the names interesting, reportedly named after the children of the builder!). These roads were most fruitful, with many people now carrying all or part of a tree (or a wreath, does that count?).

Back now, towards Hilly Fields, with the odd whoop as another tree was hoisted out of a garden. With a ceremonial chucking onto the pile, we counted out loud, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen...but we had to get to twenty! On we went, with Jacqueline suddenly darting off like a whippet, remembering where she'd seen one earlier, then a last run to the park and a grand total of...twenty-two Christmas trees! Superb work everyone!

It's interesting how very light you feel when you run after carrying a tree! I'm not sure how much this helped us get up the hill though (apart from Emma, who flew up!). The view up here is amazing, especially at night, so we got our breath back whilst enjoying the lights. Back to base and a rather special treat. On Saturday, there is a crumble competition in Catford (really, we have it all round here) and our very own Stephen has entered. Knowing that we're always a bit peckish after a group run, he had made a selection of little crumbles for us to sample (I'm saying this in a very high-pitched voice because really, how lovely is that?!). The foyer of Glass Mill was now a-buzz with the sounds of 'Oooooh!' and 'Aaaaahhh' and a scene of utter contentment. If you want to fill yourself to the brim with sweet/fruity/crumbly deliciousness, the details are here and, of course, we wish Stephen all the best from his chief tasters.

Next week is our BIRTHDAY!!! We will be two! My, haven't we grown? We will visit one of our regular tasks, over at the wonderful Crofton Books and will celebrate together afterwards with some food and drink (we're still open to suggestions for a venue, but let's be quick!). Also, if you haven't already entered, have a look at the Big Half, we are lucky to have a massive team of GoodGym runners taking part and would love to welcome any first-timers to join us.

See you next week, it's going to be EPIC!