Consider yourshelf at Home (Park)!

In sub-zeros our thirteen heroes took on 5km and many, many books.

That's right, sub-zero, time for all the layers! How lovely to see Alice and Cath back after a little break (I say break, work took over so it's not like they had their feet up!) and to welcome David, Helen and Joe back after their first visit last week - they weren't put off by the crazy hills! We also welcomed a visitor all the way from GoodGym King's College London, welcome Sophie, I hope we made you feel welcome south of the river!

To get the evening going, we basked in our own glory a little, having won our division in the GoodGym January Challenge; excellent work everyone who took part! We also warmed ourselves up with some dynamic stretches and a few 'bounces', which it's impossible not to do when it's this cold! We were very excited this week to be heading to a brand new task. It's always lovely going somewhere new and running in a different direction, so off we went, towards Sydenham Community Library.

Our run took us past some very grand houses, their beautiful stained glass prompting lots of 'Ooohs' and 'Aahhhs'! We were soon approaching the building and finding the entrance around the side. Here, we were met by Ilse, who ushered us in and told us what we would be doing this evening. The library is run by volunteers so of course, when they are busy doing to the day-to-day running of the building, seemingly small jobs such as cleaning the shelves, are overlooked. We were here to make a difference by pulling out the books in the children's library (which has 90 school children passing through on a Thursday!) and cleaning the shelves. Our taller members were tasked with giving the windowsills a wipe and to do a general dust and tidy up all round.

As everyone busied themselves with these jobs, I wandered around, taking photos and asking what we're all reading at the moment (and I might have shuffled some newspapers and flyers into neat piles, I like a neat pile). It was a delight to see just how varied our reading is:

• Stuart - The Fisherman
• Louise C - The Pie at Night
• Tim - Le Grand Meaulnes (fancy!)
• David - Stoner
• Helen - Homo Deus
• Joe - Prisoners of Geography
• Louise C-W - Thinking, Fast and Slow
• Cath - Swing Time (and Frog Belly Rat Bone)
• Alice - The Distance Between Us
• Hannah - The End of Eddie
• Jane - The Glorious Heresies and The Power
• (Sophie couldn't remember the name of her new book!)
• Me - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Isn't that wonderful? So much to talk about while we run!

The space was quickly filled with piles of books, carefully ordered, to be put back as they were found. Once wiped down, the shelves were refilled, with a bit of sorting in the process and some pauses to enjoy the illustrations. There was just enough time to dip in to the snacks that Ilse had very kindly provided, before we guarded ourselves to head back outside. I'm sure we will return soon, to continue these jobs and to do some much-needed painting.

Once outside, it seemed churlish not to venture into Home Park to have a play on the outdoor gym equipment. It's a great little set-up, somewhere to stop off on your run to do some body-weight exercises. Whenever I pass one of these park gyms, they are always busy, with all sorts of people having a go. Heading back up towards Penge, we took The Hill over the railway line at Penge East and reached our start point for some stretching. Next week is a visit to one of our favourite tasks, helping our at Living Well. Expect a slightly shorter run and a great lifting, shifting and sorting task at the food bank. See you then!

Don't forget, it's the GoodGym monthly social on Thursday, this time in Holborn. Details and sign-up here.