GoodGym, at your Beckenham call!

On a lovely autumn evening, thirteen athletes took to the streets of Bromley, heading out to Beckenham to cover around 4km of running, a whole room of painting and a mean selection of strength exercises.

Tonight was a big one for new faces (and names for me to remember!), with a resounding 'welcome!' to Lucy, Cath, Rachael and Alice!

Before we could do anything else, we just had to congratulate Louise on her brilliant first half-marathon at the recent Great North Run. It sounds like she had a lovely time, a guaranteed PB (she smashed her goal time) and she seems just about ready to sign up to the next big event. We also talked a little bit about coach running and missions for our newcomers (and as a reminder for our now regulars), the 'other bits' of GoodGym, where we help older individuals in our community, making life a little easier and helping to reduce isolation.

This week we were heading in a different direction, to a brand new task. With Elly being back-marker - thank you Elly - we ran straight down the high street, chatting as we went and were very soon heading into the garden to the rear of the Beckenham Baptist Church. In the garden is a lovely outdoor room, one part of our focus for the evening. Here, we were met by Nigel, who talked us through how this will be used by the wider community and how our help will make a big difference in taking this project forward. With so many runners this evening, we split into two groups, the painters and the cleaners.

In the garden room our painters grabbed brushes, rollers and trays, with Ian very carefully distributing the paint. Inside the church itself, in a newly plastered communal space, our cleaners got busy with the soapy water, wiping down windows and frames, scraping stickers off the dado rail and preparing the space for our return visit next week, when we will begin painting this room as well. As our volunteers got on with their various jobs, I flitted between the two spaces, keeping an eye on the time, taking photos and making sure everyone was engaged and happy. In the ten minutes or so that I was inside, the painters had covered all of the walls and were moving on to the ceiling, incredible! With so much done, the windows were taped and prepared for some glossing action next week and every surface was looking shiny and new.

Heading back towards our start point, we took the opportunity to pop into a nearby green space (but only just inside, it looked pretty scary further in!) to do a bit of strength work. In pairs, we tackled a few rounds of shuttle runs and burpees, then planks and side-planks (sorry about that hard ground, hopefully it didn't spoil your enjoyment...). A quick wall-sit and a few stretches later and we were ready to say goodbye. Don't forget to join us at Crystal Palace parkrun on Saturday if you fancy it and sign up for next week, when we will return to Beckenham to do some more painting.