Core! You're aMAZEing!

Penge looked on with great admiration as thirteen task-thirsty runners took to the streets to cover around 3km and tackle the weeds and shrubbery of Crystal Palace Park.

We don't know what it is about our new start point at the Bridge House in Penge, but it seems to attract lots of visitors from other GoodGym areas. Tonight we opened our arms to Beth and Emma who had travelled over from Southwark and Lewisham to sample the delights of SE20. We also enjoy welcoming new-comers and this week we showed Nick and Shaun how we do things on a GoodGym group run. As people trickled in we talked a bit about coach running and missions, both of which involve visiting an older person in their home, which requires a DBS check. It's worth just getting this done in case you see a really great mission one weekend and want to get involved.

Weed better get a move on!

This week we returned to Crystal Palace Park, a relationship which is clearly going to grow and grow over time (just like those weeds!), with such a vast space for only seven staff members to take care of. When we come along with our many hands, we can blitz an area that might take the busy workers much longer to get on top of. This evening we gathered an array of tools and made our way back over to the section of path we worked on the other week. As we went one way, Elly and Louise went the other, litter-pickers and bags in hand - they were on a mission!

Since our last visit, the rain has fallen and the weeds have reemerged, so hoes were employed to root these out and shears and loppers were put to good use on the shrubs and trees alongside the path. Our volunteers got to work and the chattering began. One of the great things about a group run is the amount of time you get to chat to fellow runners, the perfect way to get to know new people locally. I could see that good work was underway here, so jogged over to see how our litter-grabbers were getting on, Wombling away around the playground. Now this is one of those tasks that you could quite easily become obsessed with, seeing even the tiniest bits of rubbish (cigarette ends) as a challenge for your picking skills.

Gradually we converged at the path and everyone took a step back to survey the completed task.

Once our tools had been passed back to Penny and our gloves paired in the bag, we were free to make use of this beautiful park. A quick game of shin-tag (which seemed very competitive) and on to British Bulldog. It was impressive to see how fast people can move and how bendy they are when trying to escape the tap of the 'Bulldog'. Gradually all runners were tagged, leaving only Matthew who, with eleven other people gathering around him, had no choice but to submit. Well done Matthew!

Tonight's fitness session was focussing on form and technique on hills. A few drills embedded the feel of a correct form, before we ran over to our hill for the evening. Now this hill is very familiar to me, having ridden up it nine times and run up it twice during the Crystal Palace Triathlon, but normally the gate is open and I hadn't really factored this in. It turned out the hill presents enough of a challenge in it's slightly shortened form (but don't even think about running hard down it, no really, don't do it!). It was impressive watching our runners take on the hill, as I stood at the bottom, their arms driving hard and knees lifting high, having taken on everything from the earlier drills.

Such hard work definitely deserves a treat...some core work! Yes! We did find the most delightful setting for this, amongst the arc of elegant trees at the entrance to the maze. We worked our core with a front plank, side planks and then reminded our glutes what it's all about with some bridges. Sweeping back down through the park, we finished with some stretching and a reminder that this Thursday is the monthly GoodGym social, a great opportunity to meet runners from other areas.

Next week we will visit a new task at St John the Evangelist; fancy joining us?