Roller up! Roller up!

Flying through the borough of Bromley, our fabulous fourteen covered 5km and covered the walls at Beckenham Baptist Church with a fresh coat of paint.

So many new faces again this week! Word is spreading about how much fun can be had in Penge on a Tuesday night :) Welcoming our newcomers with open arms, we said a big GGB hello to Adam, Molly and Richard. Give them a cheer, go on, it makes people feel warm inside.

On Saturday, a few of us met at Crystal Palace parkrun, with some neighbours from GoodGym Lewisham coming over to join us. Well done in particular to Stuart, who ran his first ever parkrun and took something like four minutes off his previous 5k time and on a hilly course too! Thank you also to Louise, Elly, Ian and Hannah for coming along and pushing themselves when most people were enjoying a cup of tea in bed. If you don't know how parkrun works, have a look here and sign up - once you've printed off your barcode you've got your number for a life of free, timed 5ks!

To the task!

We returned this week to Beckenham Baptist Church, to finish off what we started last week. With Nicola kindly taking the role of back-marker, we headed out onto the streets...along with the rest of South East London, it seemed really busy! This hustle and bustle did mean that we got ourselves some friendly toots, always good to receive some passing support! As always, a run and chat goes way faster than a huff and a puff by yourself and, before we knew it, we were ducking in and heading to the garden behind the church, to meet Nigel.

We quickly divided the group into those who would finish the garden room with a second coat of paint and those who would venture inside to coat the freshly plastered walls. As rollers rolled and brushes brushed, I jogged between the two spaces, taking photos and mostly marvelling at how speedily our volunteers worked. Over in the church, we heard about Nigel's London to Brighton bike ride (very impressive!) and tried to talk him into joining us at the Petts Wood 10k in two weeks. In the garden room we heard Adam recounting his weekend of obstacle traversing at a Tough Mudder event - that's twelve miles of running AND ice AND electrocution AND big things! This might explain why his arms were aching a little when he painted the ceiling, sorry! Once again, the painting skills of our group were second to none and, as I was counting down the minutes, we realised that there was just a small patch of ceiling in need of magnolia. With a determined look on her face, Louise grabbed the roller extender and got the job done.

Run for the hills!

Running back towards our start point, we remembered that it's all up hill, but no worries, we're strong. Before the hill got too steep, we dodged sideways into the little park and worked our way round. This was partly so I could decide if there was enough light to do my planned fitness session and, as it was definitely too dark, our little loop built up our run to nearer 5km, pausing at two handy benches for an alternative session of pairs push-ups and triceps-dips. Just that last little push to go, up and over and time to catch our breath and stretch. Another evening well spent.

Why not join us next week? Our task is just being confirmed, so keep an eye on your email and also on Twitter @GoodGymBromley. You can sign up here and book yourself an evening of sociable running and goodness.