Emma McNally

Light rain was falling as Sam was cycling to Old Spike Roastery from London Bridge. He thought no one would show up, yet a bit of light rain wouldn't keep a hardy GoodGymer away. After checking Tom's document for his DBS check, Adam, Emma and then Katy filtered in, just as the rain had stopped. Tonight's task was to run to the local Tesco's in the area to put up Food2You posters on their community notice boards. The Group Run tonight was more for the fitness as Sam had planned a 7.5k looping route to hit 5 different Tesco's in the Peckham, Queen Road Peckham and Camberwell areas. Yet, in order to prepare for a long run, we had to ensure we were warmed up. After the warm-up, Sam asked the same ice breaker question he asked at last night's GoodGym Lambeth group run: Today is the 1st of December, if you were to have any type of advent calendar, what would yours consist of?

I gave the same answer as last night - hot chilli sauces, but also added IPA beers, Adam went for an inspirational thought or quote of the day, Katy wanted an advent calendar that had a QR code to scan and would reveal a new personalised e-book to read and Emma liked the idea of herbal tea bags each day, but also didn't mind having a bath bomb every day...that's a lot of baths in December....

The Constant Group Run run

Sam had the whole journey mapped out prior and used his photographic memory to lead the way to all the Tescos. The first one was easy as it was literally just 200 metres away and Adam took the first poster to put it up on the community notice board, however, he needed some assistance as the board was lockable and needed to be unlocked. 1st Tesco done within the first five minutes. We ran along Copeland Road and through Cossall Park to reach the Tesco by Queen Road Peckham station. This area was Emma's hunting ground and so she did the honour of putting up the poster in here. There was no trouble as the community notice board had space and wasn't covered by any glass.

We dashed at a fast pace along Peckham High Street to finally reach Southampton Way. This was probably the longest distance between two Tescos. Katy took on the task of putting up the poster here, but with some difficulties as the store manager questioned our authority to do so. After spending some time searching through his emails, Sam found and showed him that it had been requested by Food2You. The store manager did one extra for us as there was no space on their community notice board. However, there was space on the plastic cover where it once displayed - "Want to put up a notice, contact the store manager"....maybe he did not want to get hassled....

3 stores down and 2 to go. It was at this point Sam had to look at his phone to remind himself of the zig-zag route he needed to take to get everyone to Camberwell Green. He found his way to the Tesco on Camberwell New Road. It was back to a full circle as it was Adam's turn to put up the 4th poster. No issues here apart from a tough cork community notice board that wouldn't take our pins! We could see the finish line and it was on the way back to the start point (Old Spike Roastery). As we passed the 5k mark, none of us were tired or had broken a sweat. With these group runs, the kilometres are unnoticeable. Straight down Peckham Road, we went and turned off at The Rye to arrive at our final destination - Tesco on The Rye. Emma took on the responsibility to put up the final poster. Just like the second and fourth Tesco, the community notice board was there and available for anyone to put up anything. We hope these posters will land on a few people's eyes and make them realised that there's this service around to help them or their loved ones.

Emma parted ways after the last Tesco on The Rye, but Adam, Katy and Sam continued another 500 metres or so to get back to the Old Spike for some stretches before treating ourselves to two can drinks at the first can bar - Bo Kiri. Supporting the locals.

Thank You Anna and Food2You

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 Anna who gave us Food2You posters for us to put up, but this is something small compared to the service you provide day in and day out. Always happy to help!

A fresh, crisp and sunny Sunday morning brought three GoodGymers out to help Ian and Anne from the Green Team at Old Alleynian Rugby Club.

The task of the day was to get as many fallen leaves out of the ditch as the ditch is meant for draining the rugby pitches, so that they don't become waterlogged. A clogged ditch will present draining problems for the winter games thus it is the Green Team's job to maintain it.

Armed with rakes, tonne bags, a wheelbarrow and your standard leaf blower, we were well equipped to tackle the task ahead on. Adam was keen to get on the leaf blower and after a few tips from Ian, he was blown away with the device and was like a kid with his new toy 😂 He found out quite early on that using the leaf blower means getting in the ditch and getting your shoes....and clothes wet...

Anne, Emma and Sam took turns in raking up the leaves from the ditch as well as bagging them in the tonne bag before dragging kilos and kilos of leaves to the drop-off / composting spot. There were several trips down during the hour and a half, but Ian's kindness shown through again as he rewarded us with a Snickers bar after the session was over. Ian was grateful for our help and surprised how much we had done, but we also have to thank two extra pairs of hands, which came from two parents who saw us working away and offered to help. When the sun is shining, kindness shines through!

After a bitterly cold start to the day (and week), it was an inviting feeling to be welcomed into the cosy and delightful Old Spike Roastery! To my surprise, Adam, was the first to arrive as I saw him sign up to another task tonight, which I found out from him got cancelled. Hannah, Emma , Rebecca and Katy arrived one after another in a short space of time. I looked at my watch and it had just turned 18:30! Thus, everyone arrived early. Thinking we could go for a longer run, but I looked at the sign-ups and saw that we still had Emma on the list as I knew we were going to meet Liam at the task. Yet, when it struck 18:45, there was no sign of Emma and after letting everyone know of what's coming up, we headed outside to the alleyway for a quick warm-up. Yet, I knew the run would warm us up more, so after our ice breaker question - What are you thankful for today or this week? - we headed out for our short group run into Peckham Rye park!

Thankful for you coming out tonight to help out, thankful for my lovely flatmates, thankful for going out on this run tonight and meeting new people...

Short Group Run run

The contrast from last week couldn't have been any more different! From running a constant 8k run (as we were flyering) to running half of Peckham Rye Park before heading down to Nunhead Green. The 1.9k (let's round it up to 2k) route took us 12 minutes (including waiting for two traffic lights). It just about kept our bodies warm from the warmth of Old Spike to the warmth of Salvation Army Nunhead.

Setting up a bookstore

Where's Polis?!?

Liam was waiting for us outside Salvation Army Nunhead as we jogged in. There was no sign of Polis, so after a quick text and a call, he came down to greet us. We were back for more! A couple of week's ago, we assisted Polis shift and lift bags (and I mean BAGS) of books from the storage space underneath the stairwell to the first floor and started sorting these books out into categories. Yet, this time around when we came up to the first floor, there were signs that the space had turned into a mini bookstore. Polis had made a start with it, but needed our help to tidy up and organise the space.

CDs, DVDs, hardback, softback, gardening, children and more

There were so many books, CDs and DVDs that were donated and Polis mentioned that they get a daily donation of books. We had a set task and 45 minutes to spruce up the place, so we split into three/four teams. Hannah and Emma were on softbacks in all sorts of categories from romance to cookbooks. Rebecca and Katy were tidying up the children's and hardback section whilst Adam (close by) was sorting out a very niche set of books. Liam and I were in charge of sorting the DVDs and CDs left in plastic bags and boxes and putting them on the trays. We were all entertained to whatever song was coming from the radio and of course, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" came on for the first (and probably not the last) time this year!

Video cassettes, tapes and Guinness Book of Records 2013

Maybe a bit of a pessimistic comment, but items that will be collecting dust for many years to come.

Before we knew it, the task was approaching 20:00. The time seemed to vanish as we finished off our sections. All the unsorted books were placed under the table and covered up for us to tackle another time. We had just enough time for the all important group photo before wishing Polis well.

I knew the group run back would be shorter (600m) to get back to Old Spike, but still thought we should finish off with some stretches on the green despite not running a massive amount tonight.

Thank You Polis

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 Polis for agreeing to stay later than usual and host us. We'll be back for our final Group Run of the year to help out with more book sorting and other smaller tasks!