Going GRACEful-Lee into the night

On a soggy night, 21 waterproof bodies took to the roads to cover over 5km, to tame dust, scrub tiles, sweep steps, find treasure and squat-jump, lunge and burpee until their muscles could take no more. Impressive stuff team GoodGym Lewisham!

Tonight I discovered the hand dryers at our start point are rubbish for drying running tights...and that was before we had even set off. It was one of those nights where you look out at central Lewisham, all sodden and grey and wonder if anyone will turn up at all. But they did! All 21 of them! What kind of crazies are these? Running/good deed-doing crazies, that's what.

First up was Egg, the trainer for our new northern GoodGym, starting in York in the next few weeks. Tonight Egg had come all this way to join in and see how things are done down in the 'sham. We were soon joined by the others, who had hung around until the rain eased off, to leg it over to Glass Mill. Wise. How wonderful to see some new faces and to also welcome back some runners we haven't seen for a while. We all heard about what a brilliant time was had up at Hilly Fields parkrun at the weekend, where GoodGym runners took on pacing and volunteering, helping others to reach PBs and to enjoy a friendly 5k. There are some really great photos, taken by Tom, over here.

Mud check

Our warm up took a rain (mud?) check and moved to the path, which created some interesting obstacles to negotiate as we ran around, hi-fiving each other, with some balancing, knee lifts, fast runs, jumping jacks and fast high-knees thrown in to get us mobile ahead of our run. As we rotated, warming up our rib cages, we synced our watches and headed out to the crossing-challenge that is Lewisham Gateway. Hmmmm.

Tonight's run took in all the sights, the clock tower, the site of the Lewisham Sink Hole and the big Sainsbury's (of course, alternative, more scenic routes are definitely available, but this was about getting to our task as quickly and easily as possible). Thankfully Claire, from GRACE had given me detailed instructions on how to find the space, so we snaked through the shopping centre and found the entrance around the back. Wow, what a big space!

We hadn't really known what to expect, most of us imagining a shop with shelving, ready to be filled with goods. What we found was a large, open space with lots of room to grow and change and even an upstairs area to be used for workshops, classes and socialising, so much potential! As the shop is at this early stage, there was a lot of dust to be dealt with, so gloves were found, as were cloths, buckets of water and soapy spray. Claire had only picked up the keys to the shop earlier today and had been met with a few challenges before our arrival, so it was amazing to find everything there ready for us to get on with the task.

People quickly worked out where to get started, finding a corner to sweep, or stairs to wipe and, later on, a hoover to manoeuvre. Roni went for it with the treasure-seeking, finding a whole 6p in the first few minutes! Over the next half an hour, a steady stream of volunteers emptied dirty water away, refilled at the hose pipe outside, dusted up and wiped the whole floor area, wiped down walls, scraped away old tape and moved the space another step towards being usable.

Before we left, Claire handed out bottles of water, to dampen down the dust in our mouths and then told us a little about what will happen next. One of the rooms upstairs will be fitted with a kitchen, that has been kindly donated, the shop will gradually be fitted with shelving and so on, the spaces will be made welcoming to visitors and eventually some of the clothing will be brought out of the storage space to be sold to the public. There is still plenty to do and we will look forward to coming along again soon to help make it happen.

The run back towards base always seems so much quicker than the outward leg. Chat-levels are high and there is the fitness session to look forward to - you do look forward to it don't you?! This week was different, with Egg taking the lead and getting us to lunge our way across the squelchy ground. We progressed to some intense frog jumps (and yes, of course it was your very own GG Lewisham trainer who ended up doing more of a frog splat than a frog jump. OK, move along, nothing to see). As the group were confidently taken through this part of our session, I took the chance to meet our back-markers, who were still patiently pressing the 'wait' buttons at the crossings nearby (a VERY BIG thank you to Sean, Stephen and Ben for taking this role). With all the group now together, we enjoyed some warmth (and some chocolates from last week - thanks Anne-Marie!) and heard all about next week...

OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY!! How time flies when you're having fun running and doing good! It's going to be a big one. First up, our task will be over at the lovely Crofton Books, helping Jason with some painting. We will help Roni celebrate completing her 50th good deed, wish Roni and Dave well as they head off to live overseas and then we will top it all off with some food and drink (and doubtless more chatter) over at the Ladywell Tavern. Come and join us, we would love to have you along.