Can we dig it? Lift it? Sort it? Pack it? Yes we can!

32 people dug and bagged up 50 bags of dirt, shifted enough paving slabs to make several patios and loaded up the Streetscape van from top to bottom and side to side

Before tonight I was a Good Gym virgin. I had been put onto the gym and the good it does by my brother James. It sounded like a great and rewarding way to spend a Tuesday evening. I signed up and managed to rally a few mates to join my brother and I. We landed, got kitted up ( James was rocking head to toe lycra ), signed in and were poised to run and do some good. The meeting point soon filled up and I was surprised to see there was a fair few faces along for the ride. I think in total there was about 40 Good Gymers. It's quite cool to see so many other like minded people up for some exercise, chats and good deeds. It was not so cool to see that my brother was the only one in head to toe lycra. I opted to disown him from that point onwards. At 19:00 we set off and it was a steady paced hop skip and jump to Myatt's field where we were to meet Streetscape for some hands on assistance. People were in good spirit and talkative on route to the park. Once we got to the park there was no mucking about. We were all straight in there shifting slabs, stacking pots, piling wood and constantly high fiving. If I was to nit pick I would say there was not enough fist bumping going down but hey - it can't always be that HipHop. Many hands make light work and all that. As a group we finished our tasks in about 40 minutes and the dude ( very nice chap ) from Streetscape was chuffed and very thankful for our assistance. Once the deed at Myatt's filed was tucked in we regrouped and it was off for a solid 5K circle up Denmark hill and back down to Brixton. I 100% over cooked it on the hill ( my mate told me I would do that ) and had to kick back my pace on the home stretch as the tank was empty. Once back in Brixton it was stretches and chats about how enjoyable the evening was. If you are thinking of having a crack at Good Gym DO IT. Crack on and sign up. It is a great exercise session with like minded people and you get to give something back to the community. It's a really good idea and I thoroughly recommend it. BIG thanks to the people at Good Gym and to Diane for organising the session. We ( inc my brother and his lycra ) will defiantly be coming again.

Alex Perkins

We joined the 32 runners assembled at City Pantry in Brixton Market yesterday evening for our first GoodGym session. After a pep talk from the lovely Diane, we set off on the 2k run to Myatts Fields at a steady pace. When we arrived Guy from Streetscape was waiting for us and told us about their good work. Streetscape is a social enterprise providing apprenticeships in landscape gardening for the young long-term unemployed, help them develop skillsets and get into work. The problem the Streetscape team face is they have to spend a helluva lot of time sorting and prepping for their training, time that could be put to much use getting more people in need of help involved. Which is where we came in. After a quick briefing, we donned our gardening gloves, siphoned off into groups and set to work sorting, selecting, stacking and shovelling! As first timers, it was amazing to see how quickly everyone fell into a rhythm, working together to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Backwards and forwards the scrap carriers went, to-ing and fro-ing with piles of wood and broken plant pots all to be loaded into a van destined for the dump. The strategic ones in the group found wheelbarrows, others grabbed armfuls off offcuts. Special mention must go to Alex Perkins ( lot of love for him!) who positioned himself at the back door of the van and took responsibility for getting everything in. His strategic stacking in this giant game of garden scraps Tetris made all of the difference. Sorting the good plant pots out to used by the apprentices in future training sessions proved increasingly tricky in the fading light. Thank goodness for the forethought of people with head torches, who found their popularity levels rising by the minute.
With the digging dug and the van full to the brim, our work for the night was done. 2 teams formed for the run home. The keener beans set off on for a fu 'it was epicrther 7km (including a loop of the fields and the vertical nemesis that is Denmark hill.) The others took a slightly easier way out, heading back the way we had taken out. All in all, a GoodEvening spent in GoodCompany following GoodPursuits. Fun times. See you next week!

Leigh and Lucy

Thank you to Alex, Leigh and Lucy for your inspirational and entertaining run reports. Thanks also to the 2 Alexs' for helping with the Denmark Hillers on the route home. These runs would not be possible without the help of our run leaders. I know you all nailed it up the hill - those hills will make us so strong! We achieved a lot last night and a special mention for Guy who organised us famously and could not thank us enough for our help - he said 'it was epic!' Thank you to everyone who came last night, you were all amazing!

Diane