Eleven Fall Into Adventure

Eleven Lewisham GoodGymmmers skipped eagerly through Ladywell, to dig, weed, prune and shift wood at the Ladywell Fields Adventure Playground, covering a total of 3.5km and tackling a circuit of bodyweight exercises along the way.

At 3pm the rain fell hard. Some might have looked out of the window and thought, 'No thank you very much, I'm going straight home to my sofa', but not these gritty souls. And, as it happened, 6:45 brought us a golden glow and the promise of a beautiful sunset. Fitting reward for resisting the call of the cushions.

We gathered in the foyer of Glass Mill, welcoming first-timers Rosie and Maurits and saying a warm 'hello you!' to some returning friends. After outlining tonight's task and talking coach running, missions and DBS, we headed outside for a little bit of high-five and fakey fun. We lunged, we Strava'ed and we were on our way.

This is Ladywell

One of the great things about GoodGym group runs is finding new running routes and generally getting to know the area. We're really lucky in Lewisham, spoilt in fact, with lots of green spaces and paths to keep us busy, with the lovely Ladywell Fields being one such gem.

We were met at the Ladywell Fields Adventure Playground by Linda, who had kindly stayed around to let us in. We were shown our tools and tested our wheelbarrow manoeuvring skills along the ramp. First things first, though, you can't come somewhere like this and not have a go! Up, up, up! Runners soon disappeared into the towers of wood, the odd flash of red giving them away as they tackled a rope bridge (some possibly happier about this than others!), ran up and down ramps and threw themselves into the air, rope knot gripped tightly between their knees.

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Now for the serious - but still fun - stuff. There are two really big raised beds, until tonight covered with a layer of green weediness. At one bed, Rosie, Caireen, Imogen and Louise set-to, attacking the weeds with the various tools at our disposal. Emma and Amy found a good raking technique at one end of their raised bed and a determined shovel-in-thistle action at the other. Those were some seriously spiky buggers!

Further along, Bec and Maurits got their shears and loppers gnashing away at a super-overgrown raspberry bed, doing a lovely job of thinning it out and making space for this summer's fruit to breathe. Meanwhile, our London Marathon two, Martin and Conroy, talked all things 26.2 whilst doing some heavy lifting, shifting a pile of wood out of the way and onto a more orderly stack elsewhere. And all with their bare hands!

The sky grew darker and there was a buzz of mosquitoes starting to appear; it was time to go. We packed up our tools, emptied the weeds away and said our goodbyes. A job well done.

Up and over the spiral/curly/windy bridge (everyone has a different name for it) and towards another playground, near the cafe. Here we stepped up, we stepped down, we squat-jumped, we single-legged, we pressed up, we dipped down...and repeated it all over again. Leaving our grunting selves behind, we sprinted hard up the hill and towards 'home'. Here it was time for a good, deep stretch. Lower backs ached from bending over, triceps needed some TLC and our glutes (yes Maurits, glutes) were eased out of the tightness they'd got themselves into in those squats.

We wished Imogen good luck in Budapest - go Imogen - where she will join a big old group of GoodGymmers at the weekend, for the half-marathon, 10k and 7k races. Give Imogen some love here, go on.