All is not glossed!

Starting their week with some good, sixteen eager runners took to the streets of our wonderful borough, covering 8km and painting the walls and woodwork at the Ewart Road Clubhouse.

As we waited for everyone to arrive, we rather cheekily eked out the last bit of warmth we could grab before our start point closed early, pointing at the one still unlocked door as people trickled in. It was an evening of celebration and recognition, with our April Heroes (or Lewisham Lovelies as I think we shall refer to them from now on) being credited for their contribution to all things good in the past month. First of all, we gave Steve a VERY big round of applause as he joined us, having completed his first ever half-marathon yesterday, check that massive medal! Cheers could be heard echoing around Cornmill Gardens for these achievements:

• Most Good Deeds, Kim (she did three over the weekend!)

• Distance Covered, Ian (closely followed by Conroy)

• Most Cheers Given, Conroy (almost 800 cheers, really!)

• Creative Excellence, Lucy (for her beautiful GoodGym banner at London Marathon)

• Most Promising Newcomer(s), Wisdom and Freda

Click on their names and give them a big cheer (especially if you have plans to beat Conroy's record this month!).

Time to get warmed up with a quick game of bluffing. A runner was appointed to bluff the others, decided whether to run to the first, second or third point. A great way to raise the heart rate, warm up the muscles and keep everyone on their toes. Partnering up, we then did a few dynamic leg swings and hip openers before our run over to the Ewart Road Clubhouse.

If you've never been to a GoodGym group run before, you might be worried about getting left behind. We make sure this doesn't happen, by appointing a back-marker. A very hearty high-five to Lucy and Steve for taking on this role tonight, motivating and encouraging from the back.

At our task, we were met by Dominique and Moira, who had already laid out the dust sheets, brushes, rollers and paint for everyone to get stuck straight in. Those who had visited a couple of weeks ago were keen to give the wall another coat of paint, covering the remains of the pink, once and for all! Others had moved out into the hallway and were painting walls and woodwork, everyone focusing closely on their own little area. It wasn't long before time had ticked away and the last of the paint was being teased out of the bottom of the tin, no waste here! We took our group photo, were thanked by Dominique and promised to be back in a few weeks to move onto another space.

Our return run took on a loop-the-loop pattern. On these longer runs, we can quite easily find ourselves splitting up so, to try and lessen the chances of this happening, we were periodically turning and looping back to meet the runners behind us. This led to some chat about what this might look like on Strava and James suggesting a GPS drawing challenge as part of the upcoming GoodGym Olympic Games (though Caireen was pretty ambitious with her suggestion of 'Lewisham' as a run...!).

As we neared our start point, there was a buzz of excitement and a lot of 'aaahhhhh's, as Kim appeared with her lovely dog Molly, who had joined her along the way, our first canine visitor to GoodGym Lewisham! She was very excited by the whole thing and was even wearing a red collar to look the part, good work Mol!

Next week we will return to Seniors' for some more work in the garden, come and join us!