I'll stretch while U-bend

Feeling the bite of a chill wind, 22 intrepid runners covered 5km and helped out at Crofton Books.

This week's awesome title pun comes to you courtesy of Oli, who also supplied some puns throughout this text.

There have been so many missions going on recently! Well done to everyone who has got involved, helping people in their homes and making a big difference. Well done also to those who got out running and volunteering, with a special mention going to Vic, who completed her 25th volunteering day at parkrun, so will be the happy recipient of a lovely aubergine t-shirt before long. Over in Venice, we had three runners taking on possibly the wettest race ever seen - so wet that they wished they'd taken their goggles. With Venice experiencing the worst flooding since 2008, Jacqueline and Nykolette took on the 10k and Kim tackled her first ever marathon. By all accounts it was as tough as it gets, with driving wind and rain, bridges (of course!) and wading through knee-deep water. We're all very impressed and proud of what you all achieved, such great examples of what can be done if you put your mind to it!

Joining us for his first visit to Lewisham this week, was Arran, who has now visited four GoodGym areas - Lewisham Love to you Arran, we hope you enjoyed our South East ways!

Hubble bubble toil(et) and trouble

Well, the temperature has certainly taken a dive, so we had to get moving fast. A Hallowe'en themed warm-up saw us walking around like zombies and jumping like slimy toads, before heading out to Crofton Park, with Nykolette keeping us together as back-marker. At Crofton Books, we were met by Jason, who always has a wide variety of tasks for us, but we were all taken aback when we walked into the library, to find Kim standing there! She had come straight from the airport, wanting to share her marathon story and show us her lovely medal (Nykolette was excited to share her medal too, though you could definitely see where the budget had been spent...!). Once we'd got over the shock (delight), Jason told us about the jobs to be ticked off:

• Clearing rubbish from the side return

• Moving a toilet from outside to upstairs

• Transferring some cookery books from inside to a new set of shelves in the entrance

• Sorting through the shelves in the bookshop, making sure everything was in the right place

• Pricing up some newly-donated books

With everyone heading in different directions, the space was buzzing with activity and the noise-levels rose as chatter and laughter rang out all around. Outside, the workers moved fast to keep warm, lifting shifting and, for Oli and Tom, coming up with top toilet-humour puns ('I've had my first bowl movement at GoodGym' said Tom...). As always when we visit here, people paused every so often to enjoy a magical find (Maria and I were particularly taken by a 1930s book on smock making) and promise to come back another day to spend some money. Before we knew it we were ready to wrap it up and head back outside. Jason thanked everyone, telling us what a difference our visits make. Guarding ourselves against the cold, we ran back out briskly, towards Adelaide Avenue and Hilly Fields. As it's very nearly Hallowe'en, we played a game of trick or treat, the treat being to run up and down the hill and the trick being jumping squats or swing squats. All good, wholesome, winter fun.

Red noses, flushed cheeks

Running up and over and not even pausing to enjoy the view of the lit-up city, we found ourselves back at our start point with enough time for a plank finisher, before we tucked into some eyeballs. Yum! Next week we have a different task entirely, delivering flyers for the Kings Christmas Trees, sign up here and come along next week.