A Need for Seed

On a beautiful summer's evening in Lewisham, twenty GoodGym runners headed south, covering 7km, sanding a patioful of outdoor furniture, weeding and seeding an area and celebrating a 50th good deed.

A big thank you to Chris for this week's rather clever title pun :)

It felt like there was simply too much wonderful stuff to mention this week in our briefing! If you follow us on Twitter (@GoodGym or locally @GGLewisham), you might have enjoyed some of the buzz around the GoodGym Olympics on Saturday, at the Parliament Hill track. Our borough was incredibly well represented, with our athletes taking part in many events, from running relays to GoodGym task relays (really, it looked like such good fun!). A while ago, a few of us met up for an afternoon of crafting fun (and cake), working as a team to create our flag. Of course, we were unanimous in choosing local legend, the Catford Cat as the centre piece, with our borough's logo and motto ('The welfare of the people is the highest law') also featuring heavily. Well, our hard work and creativity paid off, with us winning in this category and also in the Bake-Off, with Monica's outstanding Lewisham cake (which was apparently so big everyone got to enjoy a slice!). Very well done to everyone who took part and to Tom, who organised the whole event, bringing people together not just from our London areas, but from groups in other parts of the country. Keep an eye out for the run report for the event...and check out the photos (above) to see some of our representatives showing off their lovely medals.

Kimtastic

This week we were also delighted to celebrate all things Kim. Now Kim only joined us last August, but today completed her 50th good deed! As soon as she got her DBS form in the post and became mission verified, she was off, once even completing three missions in a weekend, 'Well, it was a Bank Holiday', she said. Since joining us, Kim has been running at Hilly Fields parkrun, heading off to races either by herself, or with other members of the group and now, one year on, has the goal of taking on her first half-marathon. Well done Kim, we're all very proud of you.

In other news

To the task! We warmed up and reminded ourselves of each other's names. Joining us for the very first time was Paul - welcome - and returning after a little time away was Sarah, great to have you back! Our warm-up saw some more impressive teamwork and off we headed, over to Ladywell and up, up, up and over Blythe Hill, to Seniors.

Thank you Lucy, for back-marking.

We were met by Cathy, who introduced us to the task for this evening. We focussed closely this time on the area around the patio, with Team Tables (and benches) working hard again on sanding the outdoor furniture, ready for oiling or painting (these are going to be the smoothest seats this side of Forest Hill!). Along the other side, Team Weed got down and dirty, digging weeds and grass from between the slabs and clearing a gravel area, to be covered in wildflowers.

How does your garden grow?

If you take a look at the photos, you can see the raised beds and vegetable patch that our volunteers dug over on previous visits. These are now full of life, with beans, courgettes, fennel and other plants growing happily, ready to supply the cafe later in the season. With the patio now looking lovely, it was time to scatter some seeds across the area, with the hope that they will germinate and bring more colour to this calm seating area. Cathy commented that this sort of weeding activity could prove difficult for some of the people who take care of the garden so, to have the area cleared so quickly will make a big difference.

Tools were put away and our running brains were switched back on, to tackle the hills ahead. The thought of the view from the top of Blythe Hill was enough to push us on and we were soon at the top, pausing to take in a London panorama on a beautiful evening.

Whilst stretching, we congratulated Kim, ate ginger cake and recapped on a few things that are coming up soon. Next Monday we will revisit the amazing Wildcat Wilderness (if you've never been, now is the time to sign up, it's pretty special). Next Friday we will cross the border to Greenwich (it's allowed, occasionally), to show those hills what for at the Run Through 5 and 10k race. Sign up here (and on the official race website) if you fancy some Friday evening fun and a sociable drink afterwards.

Thank you everyone for a gorgeous evening, this is what Mondays were made for!