Doughnut stop me now, I'm having such a GoodGym time!

Covering 5km of running, 28 superheroes took to the streets of Lewisham to help out at Crofton Books.

Did you see GoodGym on the BBC news last week? Have a look at the clip here, all about reducing isolation by bringing people together once a week, for a chat. A few of our runners have been visiting their 'coach' this week and others have been on 'missions' to help someone in their home. Nykolette and Monica even did a mission parkrun mash-up, they're unstoppable!

In other news, Bradley got another PB. Yes, another. We will be naming this weekly feature, Bradley Corner, where we can come and admire his rapidly growing collection of medals. This time he surprised even himself, by going sub-40 for 10k, wowsers! Over in beautiful Pembrokeshire, Eleanor ran a hilly trail race, running herself right onto the podium as third female! Well done both of you!

There's only one Conroy Barnett

Back in January 2015, at our first ever GoodGym Lewisham group run, I remember a smiley person in a woolly bobble hat bouncing into the foyer. When we took our group photo he lay down at the front, making himself at home and there he has stayed (not on the floor, he's got up and run a fair bit since). Tonight, our very own Conroy did his 100th good deed! Since he joined us on that first run, he has done missions, coach running, helped to support his fellow runners (even cycling alongside them on long training runs whilst injured himself), he has paced at parkrun, encouraged his friends to do hill sessions and has become a run leader, to help me out. Well done Conroy, what a loyal and supportive member of the group you are!

Joining us for their very first GoodGym group run tonight were Paul, Valentina and Ines and visiting from Wandsworth (dragged along by our Stephen) was Morag. A big sprinkling of Lewisham Love to you all!

And there was a task too!

Yes, amongst all this we had a task to do! Tonight's recipient of our goodness was Crofton Books, the wonderful second hand and vintage bookshop at Crofton Park Library. Here, we met Jason, who quickly reeled off a list of tasks, with smaller groups of people breaking off to get on with them. The building was a-glow with red t-shirts tackling a variety of jobs:

• Collecting up, bagging and binning the rubbish at the side of the building

• Sorting/organising/alphabetising/colourising(?) books in the various sections, including politics, health, gardening, art and architecture and philosophy

• Carrying some heavy bags outside

• Writing down ideas about how the different sections could be organised

• Painting upstairs (and getting to wear awesome forensic kit - see photos)

As always, time here just slips away and I found myself jogging between the different areas, announcing how much (or little) time we had left. All stray books were quickly found a place, paint brushes and trays were put away and forensic gear peeled off, before Jason thanked us all and we were on our way.

Run for the hills!

It's been a while since we were over here and in the daylight too, so what better way to celebrate than with a few hill repeats?! Yessss! We all know (but sometimes forget) that hill training is really good for you (it's like the running equivalent of eating your greens), encouraging good form, building strength, improving overall fitness; it's magic! We often concentrate on the uphill, but tonight we looked at our downhill technique, concentrating on 'letting go', allowing gravity to do its thing and going 'weeeeeeee!' as we went.

Hilly Fields Sunset

All this effort - well done everyone - was rewarded with the most stunning sunset, which we admired as we got our breath back. Back at our start point, we talked about the GoodGym Monthly Social, which is happening this Thursday in the gorgeous Bromley. Have a look at the details here and join us at the Bridge House (and no, you don't have to run! You can even wear your 'nice' clothes). Next week we will be off to Wildcat Wilderness, to see the brand new polytunnel and get stuck in to some lovely outdoor tasks. Thank you to Nykolette, who brought along some lovely sweet treats to celebrate Conroy's milestone, yum!

See you soon!