We went Baxter Black

An awesome 13 ran 4km to Baxter's Field to continue painting the railings and clear some space around the saplings to allow them to thrive.

A big warm GoodGym welcome to Olga, Rebecca and Beth who joined us their first run, and a big welcome back to Bea who returned after a break.

It was a gorgeous sunny evening to head to the park for an introduction and a quick game of head, shoulders, knees and cone, before heading off up the hill to tonight's mission. Baxter's Field is a hidden gem, tucked behind houses and used by local schools and dog walkers alike. A group of Brownies were enjoying the playground, which excitingly is about to be upgraded thanks to a £30,000 grant that the Friends of Baxter's Field have recently been awarded by Lewisham Council.

Ruth welcomed us and told us a little about the space and the task at hand. As there were so many of us, we split into 2 groups, the largest of which donned protective gloves and set to work painting the railings black, continuing from where we had left off on an earlier visit. Bradley, Emma, Hannah and Reeceheaded over to clear the ground around some saplings which were being swamped by grass.

Vic joined us on her bike, having encountered a fellow cyclist en-route who had been to the original GoodGym pitch meeting many years ago. He had thought at the time that it sounded great but didn't think that it would work, he was happy to hear just how wrong he'd been!

Georgina attempted to climb over the rather high railings before we found out that there was a gate a little further up the park, phew. She and Tim headed round the back to paint the bits that nobody else could see. It was a lovely evening to paint and chat, and time flew by. We cleared up a little early as we were treated to drinks and treats, thanks Ruth and team!

Vic headed off and we set off back down to the park, with a little stop on the way to patch up Olga who had tripped on a rather wonky kerb. I will pick better places to cross the road in future, I'm sorry Olga :-(

Once back in the lovely Crystal Palace Park, we were a little pushed for time so I decided to to reduce the planned circuits from 5 stations to 4, with mountain climbers unanimously voted out. That left a rather arm-intensive session, with one minute each of press-ups, tricep dips, planks and star jumps. Everyone jumped, dipped, pushed and planked hard, with lots of groaning to prove it. We ran out of time for the planned squat-athon to everyone's favourite Moby song, but nobody looked too upset!

Next week's task is a run to Cator Park, around a 5k return run, to help with some pruning and clearing. Sign up here

Penge's Alexandra Rec is holding a Physicality in the Park session on Sunday 28th July, where we will be helping to clear the rose bed whilst spreading the word about GoodGym.

Last but most definitely not least, a huge GET WELL SOON to our wonderful regular leader Adele, who has finally had surgery on her troublesome knee. You can't keep a good woman down and I'm sure she'll be the physio's star pupil to make sure she's back on her feet as soon as possible. Rest-up and enjoy being waited on Adele! x