Despite the "hit and miss" weather we have been having lately, we had an eye-watering 13 GoodGymers show up for tonight's task. We normally average 6-7 every week, so to have double the amount was such a pleasure!

Sam had arrived nice and early to open up Old Spike Roastery as Claire, Daryl, Emma, Lindy, Nelly, Rebecca and newbie, Saskia showed up. It was delight to have Saskia come along for her first good deed as she found out all about GoodGym from Liv Wicks (another GoodGymer from the Central Team). Sam gave the full GoodGym speech introducing Saskia to the three ways she can get more involved. As Sam wrapped up the speech and news; Benjamin showed up just in time for the warm-up.

After the warm-up, our ice-breaker question tonight was to do with Sam's weekend plans. He is about to go to a wedding in Hampshire and he wanted to know: Where has your favourite wedding/civil partnership destination been OR your ideal one?

With nine different responses, I could remember a villa outside Rome (Sam), a place opposite the Millennium Dome (Saskia), a wedding in the south of France (Nelly) and a couple of times in Edinburgh (Lindy) and Emma and Daryl's were the same - a place called "Rutland Bridge"....although I may be making that last one up as I heard "Brooklyn Bridge".

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Pond. James Pond

With 25 minutes on the clock, we ran as a group down the Rye through Surrey Path Canal and along the cycle lanes towards South Bermondsey station to arrive just on time at 19:20. Thank you to Emma for backmarking all the way there and halfway back.

When we arrived, Alex and Emma were getting stuck into bagging up rubbish whilst Paulin had made her own way from work and she was weeding in the back with the other Galleywall Nature Reserve volunteers. Jane wasted no time as she knew we were only there for 30-40 minutes and started dishing out tasks in pairs. Daryl and Saskia were paired up to clean and clear around the back of the shed, Claire and Lindy were bogged down with clearing the bog pond, Benjamin and Emma cleared and cleaned a storage box and finally, Rebecca and Nelly weeded and raked the woodchip path. This was all in preparation for the acoustic night on Friday.

As each task was completed, new ones were given out by Jane like Alex and Emma getting the task of making tree signs and tying them up to the corresponding trees.

Vic eventually found her way to Galleywall after cycling a bit further towards work...force of habit when the route is very similar. Despite having around 20-25 minutes, she got a lot of weeding done.

A longer run often means a shorter time at the task as Sam halted everyone's task at 19:55. Yet, GoodGym is not GoodGym with a bit of fitness and what better way to end a GoodGym session before running back with the classic Sally Squats. It's squatting up and down to the lyrics of "Flower" by Moby. Everyone was keen until five minutes into the song when we started seeing some tired quads. Everyone pushed right to the end!

We finished off with a group photo before running back to Old Spike Roastery, this time taking our time!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came and ran tonight! It was a longer run than usual as we covered 7k in total! Thank you for smashing through the tasks at Galleywall and for sticking with the Sally Squats. Hope to see you next week for more gardening/planting and then the social!

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Thank You Jane

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 Jane and the regular volunteers of Galleywall Nature Reserve for welcoming us and providing GoodGym Southwark with a variety of tasks. I hope the event on Friday goes smoothly and looking forward to our next session in a month or two.