We'll be Senior again soon!

A wave of red runners could be seen flowing through Lewisham last night, as 21 of our finest took to the streets, covering just over 7km, sanding and oiling outdoor furniture, digging over a vegetable patch and fending off foxes at Seniors.

We're not sure what it was about last night, but we were delighted to welcome back a number runners we haven't seen for a few weeks, how lovely to see Niall, Nadine, Eleanor, Emma, Francois and Jacqueline! Joining us for their very first GoodGym group run this week were Chris and Steven - Steven is the trainer for the soon-to-launch GoodGym Norwich, how exciting to be heading East! If you click on everyone's names, you can give them a little cheer of support, go on.

It was a big weekend for races, with a few of our runners completing the Peckham 10k (well done Sean, Scott and Silvia), our Tough Mudder tackler was Ian and a big cheer for Amber, who did a three hour spinathon for charity (and was the only racer to bring her tired body to run this week)!

Yes, it's May and yes, we're still wearing gloves. To look at Cornmill Gardens, you would think we lived somewhere tropical, with the yellowing grass fading before our eyes, but it's chilly and we need to warm up. This week's warming up was of the stuck-in-the-mud variety, with runners un-tagging people who were stuck, with a little tap on the shoulder. Our focus for tonight (and every night, every run in fact) was our arms. These are our power houses and need to be strong. We did a little game in pairs, driving our elbows back to try and hit our partner's hands, none of this swinging our arms across our bodies, wasting precious energy.

Shout out to Steve, who back-marked tonight. Star!

The noise levels were high, as we ran through Ladywell - to cheers from by-standers, through Ladywell Fields, up towards Blythe Hill (more cheers) and down to Seniors. Eventually finding our way through the building, we were released out into the incredible garden, where a few different tasks awaited us. Three teams took on three very different jobs.

• Team Table, sanding, scraping, brushing, wiping and oiling the outside furniture

• Team Dig, clearing, weeding, turning over, digging and carefully lifting weeds and plants to create a new vegetable plot

• Team Fox, creating a fox-proof barricade behind the polytunnel, preventing a repeat of last year, where the foxes got in and dug everything up

Cathy, still sadly without a voice, told us about the powers of Lemon Balm, which had been carefully lifted to safety. It seems you can make a refreshing and restorative tea from the leaves, which she has found to be helpful in treating shingles (and also hives). I wonder what other medicinal treasures can be found in this beautiful garden. Niall was taken by the deep pink stalks of some chard that had been lifted out, so picked out some tender leaves, which made it to his dinner plate after the run.

As always there didn't seem to be enough time, if only we were closer to Seniors and could spend longer here. We will return in a few weeks to finish off the jobs started this time. For now, we said our goodbyes and headed up a very steep hill. You could definitely see those arms in action, driving hard to reach the top...and the view. Some people take view-admiring very seriously and decided to utilise a nearby bench, but soon remembered that this is about getting fit (by doing good) and engaged in a little sitting squat to take in the London panorama.

All the cheers!

We did seem to attract a lot of positive attention on this run, with the Sainbury's delivery chap now stopping traffic to wave us across, with a friendly toot to send us on our way.

Sweeping back through Ladywell, we pushed hard towards home and our well-earned stretch. Talk was focused now on next week's task, one of our all-time favourites over at Wildcat Wilderness. If you haven't been on one of our WCW runs before, then you are in for a treat! Everyone agreed it's not to be missed - sign up here. We also talked about our Lewisham team for the GoodGym Olympic Games on June 10th - make sure you sign up before the deadline on May 14th! We're having a little gathering next Sunday (21), so let us know if you want to join us in talking tactics, eating cake and constructing our superb flag.

Good luck to our runners (and all GoodGym Race Team members) heading off to Riga at the weekend, to tackle various distances, to socialise and to eat lots of tasty food. Steve and Sean will be carrying the Lewisham crown, go represent, lads!