Abs-sense makes the core grow stronger

New faces, an amazing charity, a special pilates session and post-run drinks at the Battersea Arts Centre. It was winning all round for Wandsworth GoodGym last night.

As usual we met at the BAC and were delighted to meet some excellent new runners. Hello Trish, Emily, Jordan, Neil and Isobel! We cheered our weekly Wandsworth heroes; hat tip to Dany, Jessie and Matthew for the greatest distance covered. As for good deeds, the list is long but glorious, and can be found here: https://www.goodgym.org/heroes

With a few warmups to get our heart rates going before we set off, the weekly CoRUNdrum was revealed. Which is the only London tube station to span the Thames, with entrances on both banks? With that in mind, off we went on our merry way towards Clapham Common.

Our task this week was with a wonderful charity. Omnibus is a multi-Arts space in the middle of Clapham Old Town that, after being closed as a public library, spent a number of years fighting off developers to remain devoted to public and community arts. It now relies on volunteers to support it, and GoodGym was only happy to help! The lovely artistic director Marie met us armed with buckets, mops, sponges and several gallons of cleaning equipment, and the team divided itself up to tackle different zones in the amazing old building. The prize for the happiest and most tuneful of all the groups goes to….the Ladies’ Toilet Choir who clearly took inspiration from their surroundings and belted out some cracking songs. Such talent! Just have a listen here: https://twitter.com/GGWandsworth/status/775441561274507265

Then it was a short hop to Clapham Common where Planking Queen Maddy led us in a session of pilates for runners. A strong core improves running technique no end and Maddy put us through a gruelling but super effective workout. There will be a few tired abs today no doubt. Hands up who is trying not to cough or sneeze? Back to our starting point we ran, with Emily, Jack and Sarah putting on a very impressive sprint finish. Maybe it was the thought of drinks waiting for them that proved a motivating factor, or maybe it was the reveal of the CoRUNdrum answer. Well done to Jack, who not only knew it was Blackfriars, but also got to meet a real life Paralympian yesterday. A Good Day all round.

See you next week when we’re off to doing some planting at Wendelsworth Community Gardens. It’s a big job, so it would be great to see as many Wandsworth faces as possible! You can sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/group_runs/community-gardening-in-wandsworth