We made our way to South East London Mind last night to help the centre get its therapy garden shipshape for service users to enjoy.

We were quickly set to work:

• James, Mark and Nick built four planters in record time
• Catherine, Fi and I de-weeded some raised beds and got a horticultural education in the process
• Tim got his hands on the litter pickers and made sure that no crisp packet was spared
• David and James cleared the car park of leaves and other hazards

After about 40 minutes of GoodGyming we ran back to base via Kent House for some wall sits and finished with a sprint finish up the hill to the Bridge House. David proved victorious on this occasion but I have a feeling James will be wanting a re-run soon!

It was lovely to see so many GoodGymers join us for another trip to the Crystal Palace Water Tower 🗼 this week 😁

At the Bridge House we introduced ourselves and answered this week's question - "Where would you like to run a marathon?". A wonderfully diverse range of suggestions came up, from the self-indulgent ("Edinburgh, because it's a flat course and I'm lazy" - your report author) to the far away (Tokyo), the safe bets (London and Boston) to the classical (Vienna and Athens).

We then headed out to Crystal Palace Park for some warming up, before splitting off into long distance and shorter distance run groups 🏃. Cat, Clare and James headed round the perimeter of the park with their group, while Hannah and I took advantage of the light to cut through the middle with all its steepness leading our group to get to the Water Tower.

There we met John, impressed with our number, and got to work inside. Having removed much soil and foliage over the last couple of years, we're now into the detailed work of removing stones and small rocks 🪨, as well as carefully uncovering the remaining pipework that sits around the edge of the tower, alongside the last bit of soil removal.

Hannah found the old furnace 🔥 and confirmed she'd fit inside (thankfully it's been turned off for a very long time), while James did a sterling job of cutting out the shifting of soil into our makeshift soil sorter (a supermarket trolley) using a shovel by simply lifting the wheelbarrow the soil was in over the trolley. Fast work, if not light!

At 8pm we still had good light, but it was time to say goodbye to John and head back down the west side of the park and back to Bridge House for our cool down stretches.

Great contributions from all - see you next time! 👋

For this week's issue of GoodGym... Brambles.

We assembled at the Bridge House, welcomed Henrietta to the crew and named ourselves and our favourite tube or train lines.

Then we set off to Albion Millenium Green, where we met Jorella from the friends group who had a prickly task for us.

Ramble in the bramble.

Lots of the lovely bluebells were getting shrouded by overgrown bramble bushes, so our job was to cut them back in a few different areas. Armed with secateurs, shears, saws and even a scythe(!) we got to work trimming and swiping until the areas looked much tidier.

Nice job & jog everyone 👌

It was International Women's Day on Friday, so we kicked off by highlighting our favourite females. From Rosa Parks to queen Jacinda to amazing family members, we demonstrated that the best, most caring, and morally correct people are always women.

Next we ran up the hill to CP Triangle and our regular task at the St Christopher's Hospice charity shop. Teresa is always super grateful for our help and ability to give the place a quick spritz and blitz.

Adam was sorting odd shoes and found some serious labels with a price to match.

Cat was steaming through a rack of creased clothes.

Louise, Molly and Stephen and Kelly were making sure all the garments were ordered nicely and facing the right way.

James was hoovering the whole shop and Kelsey was dusting the shoe racks.

Hannah was on pricing duty, Clare was cleaning the counter and I was mostly trying to figure out the name of the teapot from Beauty and the Beast (see pic). Spoiler: it's Mrs Potts 🙄

After a solid half hour we bid our farewells and made our way back to base with an obligatory wallsit en route.

Nice one team 🏃💥

Thanks James for the pun-spiration!

Last night 11 wonderful people met for a jog and a good deed in the dark in the park.

We met at the Bridge House, shared our top tips for warming up on a cold day and hit the pavement - a lovely downhill jog to Cator Park.

Armed with shovels, a brush and just one wheelbarrow, we set about widening a path which was being encroached on by grass and soil. There was a lot of scraping, some slicing and some shoveling to fill up the wheelbarrow before it got dumped by the hedges.

In the end we managed to free up a good metre in places and a serious chunk of the path completed ✅

Top job/jog everyone! 🏃‍♂️💪✨

Tonight we were helping out local heroes St Christopher’s Hospice, spreading the word about their Fun Walk fundraiser.

We split into two groups:

⚠️ The Poster Boys headed up to Crystal Palace Triangle (and may well have seen Gary Oldman in action?!)

✈️ Whilst the High Flyerers ran to South Norwood.

Many posters and flyers were distributed to local businesses. Hopefully the Fun Walk is successful and St Christopher's rake in loads of cash for their amazing end of life care!

Top stuff as always, team! ❤️‍🔥