Hot cross fun

Skipping joyfully in the daylight - hoorah - seven spritely runners took on 3km of running and a fair bit of rolling at Penge Congregational Church.

We were a small(er) but definitely perfectly formed group this evening, with some of our regulars away, so how lovely to welcome a new face! Hello and welcome to Emily, who was joining us for her first ever GoodGym group run.

It seems to be a regular thing at the moment to be celebrating good deed milestones, this time with Kate reaching number five, Bradley on number eleven (having done number ten last night in our neighbouring borough) and Clare on twenty-six, having completed her 25th last time she was here. That's a lot of goodness being totted up there, great work!

Tonight we were returning to Penge Congregational Church, where last week we washed, taped and made ready the walls. We were met by Chris, who had everything set out and ready to go, so we filled trays with paint, grabbed rollers and brushes and started work on our beautifully prepared space. As we worked in the entrance area, with lots of talk about plans for the Easter weekend (varying from camping - actually the far nicer older sister of camping, glamping - to spas), in the church behind us were a group of Brownies on an Easter egg hunt. It was rather tempting to have a little hunt ourselves and see what we could find! We chatted about parkrun (running and volunteering), upcoming races, cake sales and new GoodGym areas (Liverpool last night and Newcastle coming up). Pretty soon we were finding it hard to tell where we had painted, so Chris prompted us to leave enough time for refreshments.

And relax

On our last visit we were treated to fairy cakes, this week we were offered little carrot cake fingers and country slices, yum. Taking the whole refreshment thing very seriously, everyone sat down for a little rest; we could get used to this level of hospitality. As we nibbled, Chris told us about a cycling challenge he is working towards, where he will ride from Lambeth to the National Memorial Arboretum, quite an undertaking! We look forward to hearing more about this and wish Chris well in his planning and training.

Talking of training, it was time to tear ourselves away from the sweet treats and do some good hard working out. A little jog down the adjacent road and we were in the park, ready to go for it. Getting into two groups (not before startling a tiny white dog!), we played a very quick game of 'Over and Under', passing a ball along our lines and sprinting to a dot on the ground (which was impossible to see in the now darkness!). This got us fired up for a few rounds of squats, mountain climbers, burpees and push-ups. Give it a few more weeks and we will be able to work on the grass, instead of picking grit out of our hands after getting down on a gravelly path. Wending our way ever upwards, we were back at our start point before we knew it, stretching out and planning our next task. Once the Easter fun is over, we will be back here on Tuesday, for some wheelbarrow/shovel/raking action in the Secret Garden, sign up here to join in and to work off some of those Mini-Eggs.

*In all the excitement of having two different cakes to choose from, I forgot to take a group photo, but you can piece together the two mini group photos above in your own head. Magic.