Bonflyer Night

Running under a sky filled with sparkle, 21 eager athletes covered between 5 and 7km and delivered many flyers for King's Christmas Trees.

Our top class title pun this evening comes from Emma, who shared it on the the run out, now that's worthy of a cheer! You will also see some beautifully crafted wordery amongst this report, from regular punner, Oli.

Talking of cheers, I started the evening with a little round-up of the Heroes of October. I haven't done this for a while, so thought it might be nice to celebrate some achievements, but none of the October heroes were here tonight! Maybe give them a cheer for all their cheering (Clare - 617), being cheered (Vic - 247), distance covered (Vic again - 166km!) and good-deed-doing (Nykolette - 10). I also mentioned our Christmas social, which is happening on December 12th, at the Catford Constitutional Club. Please sign up here if you are coming, so we know how many to book for. Yum.

We had two absolute first-timers joining us tonight, a big welcome and all our Lewisham Love to Emily and Jonny, we hope you enjoyed your GoodGym debut.

Flyer-works display

I handed over at this point to Simon, who is from the King's Christmas Trees project, so he could tell us all about the fantastic work that they have been doing now for ten years. We heard how the sale of the trees funds the weekly feast for a whole year, providing hot food at a drop-in, with 4500 three-course-meals being provided last year for rough sleepers and vulnerable people in the local area. Our task this evening was to help to spread the word about this project, delivering flyers in the Telegraph Hill area.

Letters entertain you

After a brief warm-up, with Ian's team just about winning the game of over and under, we gathered together, flyers in hand, with Amber acting as back-marker, making sure nobody got left behind as we ran along Lewisham Way towards New Cross. As we went, we regrouped at crossings, pausing to look, open-mouthed, at the fireworks popping all around us. We were soon at the foot of Jerningham Road, the start point for our flyering. Splitting into smaller groups, I assigned roads to everyone, along with a few little tasks to keep us focused:

• Taking a group photo by our road name

• Spotting an interesting item/door/name/garden ornament

• Carrying out a wall-sit for 30 seconds (or more!), with photographic evidence

• Coming up with a smashing pun for the run report

First past the post(box)

I ran up and over Jerningham Road, giving a little nod to the road I used to live on as a student, many years ago. At the top of Telegraph Hill, I could see far and wide, colourful stars filling the sky. It wasn't long before our first runners made it up the hill, with Team Pepys powering up (though 'powering up' is maybe not the term to describe their 'wall sit', ahem). As they still had a few flyers in hand, they decided to keep going for a few more minutes (I think there was a competitive edge between Oli and Tom...). More red t-shirts appeared, so I did a quick head-count and we gathered for a group photo (thank you all for contributing photos to this run report too).

It was interesting running back a different way, exploring some new roads and very nearly losing everyone as they scattered along Shardeloes Road, feeling the urge to continue flyering! Soon, we ran down and over towards Lewisham, sprinting back in to Glass Mill. Really great work from everyone, teamwork at its best, well done. Next week we will return to Beecroft Garden Primary School to work on the sensory garden, so expect a 5k run, a good physical task and possibly some Hilly Fields fitness session fun ;) Don't forget we have a community mission on Saturday as well, another chance to do good! Sign up here to help out at the bulb planting session in Hither Green.

See you soon!