Anastasia Hancock

There may not have been very many of us for our task at The Venue in Battersea last night but that did not stop us completing a huge task between three busy GoodGymers!

After a short run discussing amazing running challenges, Becky and I arrived to find Hadas waiting for us with a whole lorry of stuff that first needed to be unloaded and then reloaded. We were really happy to see Octavia arrive to help get stuck in too, and we didn't waste any time starting to tackle the enormous piles.

The Venue is a vital resource run by brilliant Hadas - it offers healthy eating classes for local people, a community fridge and is also a base for the amazing Waste Not Want Not charity which stops perfectly good food being thrown away.

Out came piles and piles of wood which will be made into shelves, and the lorry was soon ready for the next phase. We formed one of our signature human chains, and began ferrying all manner of things out to be packed up. It was accompanied by a lot of laughs as we chucked stuff onto the pavement, although some of it smelled a little ripe!

After 45 minutes of hard work the job was done, proving that small can be highly effective! Well done dream team.

Next week we're off to Paradise Cooperative garden, an amazing space that has been transformed from waste land opposite Wandsworth prison into a stunning community garden area. Sign up here for another Monday evening of doing good and having fun!

Age UK Camden have contacted GoodGym for help in delivering groceries for Mrs D.

It was the perfect evening for doing good down by the river last night, with lovely warm conditions and a task that made a big difference to a spot loved by the local community.

After a warm up and a very in depth discussion about parkrun, we headed off on the mile run down to Kew Bridge, only to have to find a detour through the massive road works at the roundabout. We soon arrived to find Paul waiting for us with litter pickers, electric sanders and trugs.

While Harvey and Jon got to work sanding down the doorways, Pippa, Chris and Luis made a start on the litter down by the draw bridge. They soon drew the attention of passersby, who came over to thank them and let them know what a great job they were doing!

After quite a bit of plastic collected, it was Chris who spotted the dreaded balsam which was starting to take over and got straight in with a bit of bashing. It is this sort of expert knowledge picked up on previous GG tasks that may have stopped the stuff taking over the whole drawbridge just in time! Amazing work. Meanwhile Lucy and Harvey spotted some very curious creatures while they were weeding, which a bit of googling has revealed could well be a Red Admiral caterpillar - so keep an eye out for those guys fluttering past next time you're down by the river!

Next week we're going to be helping Cultivate London move a massive garden installation. Sign up here for more GG fun, and until then, run happy!

Mind asked GoodGym to help Ms M with cutting the grass. The grass is getting too long for Ms M to use her garden. She has purchased an electric strimmer for a kind volunteer to cut the grass.

GoodGym has listed this mission for one or two runners. Two GoodGymers can go together, but the mission will still go ahead with one if only one person signs up by the deadline. If you are concerned about going solo, please do not feel under pressure to attend. Instead, please send us an email to missioncontrol@goodgym.org. If you let us know, we will not confirm it unless we have a second runner.

Another lovely summer's evening, another chance to do good in the community and get fitter in the process!

After a weekend of parkruns, GoodGym rounders, missions and more, we met at our usual spot to do a warm and, as an extra challenge, guess how many different parkrun locations there are in the UK. With estimates ranging from 100 up to 800, it was a surprise to find out there are actually more than 1100. If you want to find out more and try one out if you haven't already, then you can find out more right here. Wear your GG tshirt and there will always be a friendly face to support you on a Saturday morning!

It was great to welcome Ali to her first Wandsworth session, and to see some returning faces and ones from other areas too! Cheers all round.

After a short run down to Doddington roof garden where we met up with more GGers, we were excited/dismayed (delete as appropriate) to find that our task for the evening was shifting the last of the bags of compost up the stairs to the garden. We didn't waste any time, and in a surprisingly short window managed to get the last 80 or so bags up to the garden, and even tackle a few more jobs while we were there.

We rewarded the hard work with even more hard work, in the shape of a conditioning session on the grass watched over by the gorgeous Leo, who, as Annabel pointed out, even showed us the right technique for downward facing dog.

Great work everyone! This week we have a task tomorrow helping out an environmental waste charity, and a mission on Saturday helping to put out tables ahead of a community day. Have a happy week of running, missioning and doing good, all!