I rather be dead in a ditch

After a week away in the Croatian sun (with a massive thank you to Paulin for covering last week's group run), it was back to GoodGym and getting fit again!

Our hub, Old Spike Roastery, was providing sauna like conditions as everyone started to stream in at 18:30. There was some last minute panics as the task had to be changed a few hours before due to a double booking. Yet, Ian and the Old Alleynian Rugby Club needed our assistance and he was happy to host us with only a 12 hour notice period.

After some quick announcements (including Emma's birthday over the weekend), we got on with the warm-up and for tonight's ice-breaker question, Sam still thinking about his holidays asked: If you found yourself at Heathrow airport right now looking at the board, where would you go for a long weekend?

We had a host of Scandinavian cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm and Gothenburg, but we also had Berlin, Baku and Marrakech

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Ditch him/her

The 3k run took us along Crystal Palace Road to Sam's flat, so he could collect gardening gloves. This meant we arrived at Old Alleynian Rugby Club for 19:15 instead of 19:10, but still we had plenty of time to do the task at hand.

We met Alex and Nathan, who ran and cycled, respectively, to the task. Ian got straight to it and told us we had to clear the ditches surrounding the back of the rugby club as dry leaves had fallen in. This would help as in the autumn these leaves if left become wet and the drainage system of the rugby pitches aren't as useful.

Everyone took either a rake or a "leaf collector" (that's what I'm calling it) as we worked in pairs and threes to rake and then collect the leaves into a tonne bag to piled up by the Shed. Everyone apart from Benjamin. He was given the task to sieve through a barrel of sand to get any stones or rocks out before laying this sand on the rugby pitch - where there were obvious patches/holes.

The 40 minute session was fuelled with tunes and Claire's and Lindy's life stories (read: dramas). So, of course, we give each other sound advice.

Noticing the time approaching 20:00, Sam and Ian called everyone in for a quick game of touch rugby as we split the teams by Red GG shirts (Alex, Emma, Benjamin, Daryl and Sam) versus non-Red GG shirts (Ian, Lindy, Nelly, Nathan and Claire. Powered by the awesome-ness of a team look, the Red GG shirts won 4-1.

We were treated to a French sweet treat before running over 3k back to Old Spike Roastery via Dawson's Hill (to get the views). Lindy and Nathan went their separate ways from the group run, but since it was the first Wednesday of the month, Nathan met us at Social for our monthly social!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It wasn't the run that I advertised, but as you can understand it was a last-minute cancellation, so thank you for going along with the plan. I appreciate that it is a longer run and I become heavy on time management as I need to get you back to Old Spike Roastery by 20:30. Still, it was a very enjoyable night with the rugby and drinks at Social for our monthly social.

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Thank You Ian

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian for arranging this session at the last moment. Appreciate you helping me out this time as I love everything to be pre-organised, but sometimes you have to adapt and be flexible. Thank you again!