Running from home after Sam left the portable lights charging at home whilst he was at work. Yet, he made it in time and glance down the alleyway where we warm up before arriving at Old Spike to see to his surprise - Allie waiting around. It had been literally (almost) a year since her last good deed with GoodGym, so it was a joyful moment to have her back. However, that wasn't the last of the surprises as Jess arrived at Old Spike Roastery upon mentioning on the WhatsApp group that she would be back tonight for the first time in also about a year! The third and final surprise was Vic's last minute decision to come and celebrate her 300th good deed with GoodGym Southwark as she did with her 200th! Hooray! Such a wholesome start to the evening as Sam welcomed Emma, Lindy and Nelly before starting a longer than usual GG speech and his warm-up outside in the alleyway.

Tonight, Sam's ice-breaker question, which was to do with the fact that it's Cyber Security Awareness Month, was: If you can share, what has been your biggest scam that you have fallen for?

From dodgy Keeping Up With The Kardashian's pop-up links to woeful crypto investments and from being tricked into eating chocolate covered Brussel sprouts to being conned by an elderly lady...for a £1 coin. We've all had our lessons learnt, but please keep vigliant!

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Borrow My Doggy > Bumble

It was a direct swap from last week as Sam had a "lads run" to Camberwell last week, but this time it was Girl Power week (minus Sam) as Sam and five female GG runners ran 2.8k up and down the hill to get across to Thorlands, where they met the cyclists: Joao, Rebecca and Nathan. Sam knew Simon wasn't going to be there, so he ran off to the Clubhouse to collect the keys and the trolley off John, the chairman, as he was working late. Once we collected the tools that we needed we split into two teams.

Team one - mulching transportation team consisting of Nathan, Joao, Emma and Nelly took three wheelbarrows and three shovels to head to the locked garden where all the mulch that had been delivered weeks ago was. Over the 35 minutes that we had they must have transported about 12 wheelbarrows full (4 trips).

Team two - mulch setters team consisted of the rest: Allie, Jess, Lindy, Rebecca, Sam and Vic as they turned over the soil, took the weeds out and put it on the compost, raked the soil to ensure it was as flat as possible and then put down cardboard to ensure the light (during the day) would not reach the soil as they put a thick layer of mulch on top! They were boasted by Lindy's Spotify playlist and tales of Lindy's dating life and then everyone tuned in with theirs... the joys of finding love in London!

Sam called it at 20:00 as we still had to take a photo and put back the tools before rushing off back to Old Spike to finish on time at 20:30. Lindy went home from Thorlands, but Nathan joined us on the run back as he is trying to get in some long runs for his road to recovery.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was a real pleasure to celebrate Vic's 300th with all the regulars and two "oldbies" - Allie and Jess.

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Thank You Simon and John

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 Simon and John for keeping this session despite Simon not being there himself - John stayed behind and gave us the keys in order for us to get the tools needed to do the task.

Simon, Allie, Julia and I met at Kinship Cookery Club's base for a quick introduction by Anna-Lou & to pick up our food parcels. As it's a beautiful day, we agreed our only real challenges would be the nearby hills of Brockley & some pretty strong gusts of wind.

While we all went our separate ways to make our deliveries, all being well we'll have delivered to 8 families between us! The families receiving these parcels will have a Zoom cookery class with Anna-Lou later to make a chicken & broccoli stir fry in a garlic sauce

4 goodgymers, 3 cyclists and 1 runner met at food cooperative.

We restocked the shelves, did food preparation and packaging.

Team work guys! We have completed quite a few varied tasks. To name a few, vaccum packing frozen chickens, peeling a big crate of potatoes... Absolutely Appeeling!

How do GoodGymers like their Vesper Martinis? Like James Bond, shaken not stirred as we like to shake up a community and not cause a stir 🙄

On a warm October evening, five GoodGymers met up for a Group Run from Old Spike Roastery in Peckham to Marychurch Oasis near Rotherhithe Overground Station. Newcomer (and recruited from Sam's tag rugby team) Jess was the first one present outside the cafe eagerly waiting (with nerves) for her first Group Run! Slowly, one by one, GoodGymers started to arrive! Natalia came for her second Group Run and to my surprise, Allie showed up out of the blue as it has been several months since I was saw her! Good to see "old" faces and great to see she was up for a Group Run again. Last, but not least, Fumina turned up for her 3rd good deed just as I was about to start the GoodGym "speech" and then the warm-up! After a quick blast warm-up, we steadily ran the 5.5k (yes, I admit...it wasn't 5k as I advertised 😝), which took us along Rye Lane into Surrey Canal Walk, across Old Kent Road, down Abercorn Way, shortcut to Galleywall and Southwark Park Road before joining Jamaica Road as we did a last push to Marychurch Oasis (Time and Talent). This run with a few stops for traffic lights and "breather breaks" took us just under 40 minutes. 💪

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Time and Talent

Being slightly late, Emma (who cycled in) and Phoebe (task owner) were waiting for us! They were pleased to see that we had arrived and Phoebe wasted no time in explaining the task as we did have 35 minutes instead of the original 45. Phoebe wanted us to dig up soil in a part of the Oasis that needed to be leveled down for future use and shift this (with the wheelbarrows provided) to an empty skip outside Time and Talent. This time, the portable floodlights were fully charged and helped with lighting up the digging area. With three shovels and two wheelbarrows, everyone took their weapon of choice and got stuck in. Naturally, I was on photographer duty, but still helped out with lifting the wheelbarrows and pouring the soil into the skip.

The time zoomed by as barrow after barrow, we shifted the soil from the ever-decreasing mound to the most mineral rich skip in the neighbourhood. 😂 Time does past fast when you're getting a full body workout (especially upper body) with the digging and lifting as well as talking about first dates! 👀 which was great to hear after the year we had that we're all getting back to some normality. Some great quotes from night:

Had my first date at Parkrun with a sporty man over the weekend....out of breath after the 3rd lap, so he spoke about himself, but got my 2nd best ever Parkrun time 😂

Planned to have a nice first date with a picnic....ended up having our first date at Wimbledon 👀

Thank You Phoebe

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 owners and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Phoebe for agreeing to stay late into the night and host us. I am sure we will be back as there is always plenty to do!

Thank you for the group photos too! 😉

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Hope everyone enjoyed their time at Time and Talent last night! Thank you for digging, transporting and pouring soil into a skip. I am aware everyone had the chance to do a bit of everything! 💪 Hope to see you on another Group Run or Community Mission soon!

Five Good Gymmers met at Traid Peckham to help clear the store after their seasonal sale. We tidied the rails, collected all the odd shoes and packaged everything away in enormous boxes, ready to be sent to the warehouse. Welcome too to Elsie and congratulations on your first GG mission!