Christmas time! Portico and wine

23 brilliant runners leg it 4km each way to help clean up a house for key workers in West Norwood, then run back to mulled wine and mince pies. Ho Ho Ho!

T'was quite a long time before Christmas, yet it was the last GoodGym run of the year. We were heading to one of our regular tasks and the brilliant John, who runs the Portico Gallery. We split into three groups and headed off on the 4km mainly uphill route to get there. Once we arrived, John led us up a mystery staircase to a small flat. It turns out that John is trying to get the flat shipshape to rent out at a reasonable price to Nurses, some of our absolute key workers that are getting pushed out of areas like West Norwood as house prices are so high. What a great idea and of course we wanted to help.

It needed a good old clean, so we set about cleaning the skirting boards and the windows, the kitchen, the bathroom and the bannisters on the stairs. It was looking much better by the time we had finished with it and John seemed pleased with our efforts.

With that it was back into three groups for the run home. We experimented with some fartleks - or running play - on the way home. We chose short bits to run really fast between and then slowed down for recovery. We also had some hills to tackle and it was fun.

Back at base, we had some delicious mulled wine, mince pies and panettone before Katie gave out a red t-shirt to Elise for 100 runs and a black t-shirt to Milly for her 50 efforts. Brilliant!

The brilliant task force also got a glittery card and some home made mango chutney for their efforts - massive thanks to Milly, Steve, Tom, John and Sarah!!

Lastly, the coveted December Shit Prize of the Month (SPOTM) was awarded to Emma for her BRILLIANT fancy dress efforts on Friday, where she dressed up as the Ritzy Cinema. Top stuff.

Katie then got a big surprise when she was awarded with her very own SPOTM! It was non other than a signed cricket bat by the 2011 women's England cricket team.

What a prize! Said Katie

She then had photos taken of her where it is clear that she doesn't know how to play cricket.

We gave some donations towards our lovely home Papa's Park and then headed off to the Queen's Head for some ale and grub to top off a fine evening. THANKS LAMBETH!