We ladder wonderful time in Lewisham!

Running out into the dark, 26 tough types tackled 4km, delivered flyers for Blenheim and painted the reception at the Lewisham Irish Centre.

...all in an evening's work for GoodGym Lewisham.

It's October, already! Where has this year gone? A new month means a celebration of our September Heroes. Sadly some of our heroes were not with us this evening (too exhausted from all their heroics), so a big cheer to Anna in her absence, for taking on an incredible eleven good deeds!! Eleven! Taking on epic distances was Chris, who ran a whopping 234.9km (some of which was a casual marathon that he went off and ran 'for fun' last week!). Over in the cheering department, the ever-popular Conroy took a bow for 207 cheers, while Stephen was super-supportive all-round, giving an astonishing 1142 cheers to his fellow runners (he was probably doing some press-ups at the same time). This month's special mention went to Lucy, for her dedication to achieving a goal. Lucy has trained so hard and so consistently for her first half-marathon and we all wish her fast legs and a strong heart for this Sunday's Royal Parks Half-Marathon.

These days it's always Medal Monday in Lewisham and this week we were very proud of Nykolette (who really has the racing bug), who took part in her third Spartan within one year (nine months, to be precise!), thus gaining her trifecta. Basically, she ran a really long way whilst tackling some really tough obstacles, wading through mud, jumping over fire and no doubt helping and encouraging others along the way. Well done Nyk!

On a mission!

In all this excitement, I completely forgot to mention something very special that happened yesterday, Amber went on her first ever GoodGym mission! Rushing back from a trip away, she popped on her red t-shirt, grabbed her gardening gloves and went to make a difference in someone else's life. The woman she helped was feeling a little trapped by the overgrown path in her garden, but will now be able to pass through freely, knowing the plants have been cut back. Great work Amber!

What a great week then, for some new runners to join us, seeing just how much fun can be had whilst helping others! Our Lewisham Love goes out to Rebecca, Ploy, Enoch and Nasima. Also, whilst we ran to our task, Ambassador Conroy adopted a passing runner, who decided we looked like a fun bunch of people and ran with us, getting stuck in with the painting like she'd always been part of the gang! Hats off to Miriam for being such a good sport and throwing herself into it all so enthusiastically!

We warmed up with some games and hot-footed through the streets, to the Lewisham Irish Centre, with Stephen and Eva taking the role of back-marker, leaving nobody behind. Here we split into two groups, some stepped lively up the street, distributing flyers for Blenheim (under the very capable guidance of Caireen, thank you Caireen), while the rest of us headed inside to check out what we needed to do this week. A couple of weeks ago, we started painting the reception and lobby areas and this week we were finishing off those difficult-to-reach (still-difficult-to-reach) places, giving a second coat to the walls and glossing the door frames. Brushes, rollers, ladders and cloths were gathered and work began in earnest. It wasn't long before our flying flyers returned and even more hands made very light work of the task.

We were told that there have been many comments since our last visit, saying how much cleaner and brighter it looks!

Time to move on, with some saying goodbye and heading home (and Miriam continuing that run she was on until we scooped her up!) and the rest of us running back to Glass Mill, the chatter rising and clearing a path ahead of us. Some runs allow us a bit of time for a fitness session and this week we just had enough time to add in a little extra running and some good core work. In the spirit of a monthly challenge, we will be joining our neighbours over at GoodGym Bromley in a daily #planktober. Yes, that's right, a daily plank. Or two. Or three to be precise: thirty seconds front plank and thirty seconds on each side. Our middles are going to be rock solid by the time November rolls round!

With some floor-based stretching, news of next week's visit to Wildcat Wilderness (bring a head-torch!!), Thursday's Monthly Social and Sunday's Petts Wood 10k, we just about had enough puff left to sing Happy Birthday to Stephen for tomorrow, with some shortbread biscuits to celebrate (sorry they didn't have any candles in Steve!). Ah, Mondays in Lewisham are the best, thank you all for making it so special.