Forever in your Deptford

This week's Super Sixteen stepped briskly into the darkness, heading Deptford way and covering 5km, sorting a mountain of shoes, books and bric-a-brac into an orderly display on squeaky clean shelves, alongside a glimmering and spotless floor.

After the giddy blur of last week's BBC Breakfast visit, we were blown away to have (even) more exciting visitors all the way from Bristol! Deb and Paul had chosen our lovely little corner of South East London to sample the delights of GoodGym Big Smoke and we hope they felt welcome amongst our group of regulars, returners and newcomers. Hello again to George, who had joined us for the first time last week and a warm SE13 welcome to Steph, Stephen and Caroline, who were making their debut at a group run tonight.

Our little warm-up zone is now in darkness by the time we head outside, so a nice, cosy circle was formed to check out each other's names and do a quick head-count...it's always good to pay attention at this point, just in case we have one of those name games, but tonight we were let off the hook and only had to remember the name of the person next to us. Phew. We turned to this person and shook hands, but we didn't stop there, we then had to try and tap the side of their thigh with the back of our still clasped hand (and vice versa). Each tap earned a point (and each stiff-armed resistance of a tap earned a well-worked bicep!). Another quick game to warm us up further, saw two lines forming and a sleek over and under passing of the ball with the 'twos' winning, or so it seemed. Thank you first-timer Stephen for pointing out they had one fewer runner, the pesky glory hunters! Tsk.

So that'll be a draw then.

In anticipation of our Hallowe'en run next week, we set our various flashing lights in motion and set the pace towards our task for the evening. Our back-markers for the run were Dave and Conroy (with help also from Stephen) and we regrouped every so often, to make sure we didn't lose anyone on our winding route. It's always entertaining weaving in and out of the detritus of the recently packed up market and the groups of people that hang out on the high street at night, there's certainly a buzz to Deptford, with our snaking line of red adding to the curiosity along the way.

At Deptford Mission, we were greeted by Erica, who gave us an introduction to what goes on there and showed everyone in to the shop space, where she had laid out cleaning equipment and little notices to make sure everyone knew what to do during the half hour we would be there - thank you Erica, this was all very helpful! Our energetic group quickly set to, with some rushing over to the bookshelf, keen to work their brain cells with an alphabetising task. Others grabbed brooms then mops, working hard to get the lovely wooden flooring looking clean as a whistle. On the floor was a pile of mis-matched shoes, pounced on by Roni and Caroline, who clearly enjoyed perusing the glitzy footwear on offer. The rest of the team took on the shelves, pulling out the more random items, such as glasses and jelly bowls, pillowcases and cuddly toys, giving the shelves a really good scrub before replacing everything very carefully. Some last minute window sill wiping, a thorough sign wash and the replacing of the racks of clothing and we were done.

Erica thanked everyone and we left the warmth of the building to take to the streets once more. Just a short run to an open space that - just about - has enough light for us to carry out our fitness session (complete with a heckler from one of the neighbouring flats!). Time for some paired up body weight exercises: squats with hand taps, planks, reverse side twists and press-ups, all working together to pace each other and - hopefully - offer encouragement too. Looking around, I saw really strong work going on, good solid planks, some impressive push-ups and some good, deep squats. There's something about doing these exercises in pairs and not wanting to take the easy option! Great work.

Keeping ourselves warm, we continued on to Glass Mill and our post-run stretch. We talked about next week's task (sign up here, glow-in-the-dark skin and bloodied fangs optional) and wished Roni speedy legs and a strong heart for her Dublin Marathon on Sunday (just a few weeks after she took on the Bournemouth Marathon!). Go Roni, we will be cheering you all the way!