The Spider Who Loved Me

On Bank Holiday Monday, thirteen Lewisham lovelies pushed away thoughts of the sofa to run between 3 and 5km, paint an education centre, strengthen their upper bodies and toughen their cores.

Medal Monday

This week really was Medal Monday, with our runners collectively covering around 125km of race distance over the weekend! Wowsers! Congratulations to Helen, who ran the Westminster Mile on Sunday, Chris, who ran the Edinburgh Marathon, Amber, Lucy, Jacqueline and Kim, who took on the Vitality 10000 yesterday (and I ran around in circles over in Kent on Saturday). Not only did these people show grit and determination to complete these race distances, a few people also managed to grab themselves a personal best time, so really well done! Give everyone a big cheer (which Stephen did, being the top support crew for our 10k runners, popping up around the course with Lucy's super GoodGym banner).

Joining us for the first time in the midst of this medal madness was Marion, who got stuck straight in and we hope was made to feel very at home. Welcome back also to Jaz, who we see quite regularly in passing, but who isn't always able to make Mondays, so we were pleased to have her back with us for a run.

Understandably, some of our runners chose to rest their race-weary legs this time, so we were extra impressed with the 10k-ers who sauntered down, keen not miss out on some Monday fun, which started with a name-check and warm-up (Stuck-in-the-Mud and some muscle-moving dynamics). This week's run (thankfully) was a shorter one, over to Ladywell Fields, where we were painting the interior of the Ladywell Fields Environmental Education Centre, a hub used for workshops and river-based activities in our local green space. As we arrived and piled in, it was clear that this week's smaller group was just about perfect - once we had shifted the furniture to the middle, there wasn't an awful lot of room to manoeuvre!

DIY Gifts

This point was a little like Christmas, with a box of unopened resources at our fingertips - paint, brushes, rollers, dust sheets, masks, gloves, even those forensic investigator outfits (as you can see from the photos, Kim was keen to go all GoodGym Investigates, but soon realised it was like a sauna!). Cabinets and tables were shuffled into the centre of the room, revealing the homes of lots and lots of spiders. Some might scarper into the park at this point, but it turns out we are a gentle group of Attenboroughites here in Lewisham, with hands cupped and voices lowered, our eight-legged friends were scooped to safety and released back into the wild (apart from that one James, erm, painted. Oops!).

Music pumping, chatter chattering, rollers rolling and brushes brushing, the room was quickly brightening up and looking fresh. As time ticked, we decided to focus on the main room and to leave the little adjacent toilet space until a future visit (where we might also have a go at the window and ceilings). With the rollers taking over, a top team of Jacqueline and Marion washed the brushes in the sink and a general air of sweeping up and sweeping out took over. Until next time.

A visit to Ladywell Fields offers some great options for a fitness session and we had enough time to tuck in to some Rock-Paper-Scissors action (or 'Scissors-Paper-Stone' as I called it. What?! What do you call it?). The 'winner' in each pair or group had the treat of running up and down the little hill (focussing on good form, high hips, high knees and strong arms), while the 'loser' worked through various actions, such as squats and lunges. Some where keen to go for the mile time trial, while the rest of us jogged up to the handy benches for some good upper body work - press-ups, tri-dips and then some planking-with-a-view. Perfect.

Our run back to base took us past the Mulberry tree that was the focus of a task back in December. What a treat to pause to enjoy the poppies, cornflowers and marigolds that are now in bloom!

As we stretched, we talked about next week's group run, a new task at the Lewisham Unitarians in Catford. Sign up here to join in a 5k run (that will take in the Catford Cat) and outdoor task. We also talked about this Friday's mega-mission in central London and thought ahead to another racing opportunity. Why not join us for either a 5k or 10k race in Greenwich Park on June 23rd? We will race, cheer and catch up with a post-race drink in Greenwich. Don't forget also, to join in the conversation over on Twitter @GGLewisham, a good way to keep up with any news and updates on runs.

See you soon!