A heavenly 17 ran and waded in the River Quaggy, clearing litter from the river and its banks in partnership with Thames 21.

Thank you Ivo for the title pun, a contender for the IPOTM?

'Who is running the Big Half?' I asked and a fair few hands went up. Not long now, just three weeks until 200+ GoodGym runners join the many community groups and charity runners (and chase Mo, of course) around the inaugural event that passes right through our borough. Someone who is taking her first half-marathon very seriously is Amber, who had already clocked eleven miles when she arrived at Manor Park this morning, really well done Amber! Some of us had been up to parkrun as a warm up (well done Clare on some excellent motivating, as tail-walker and Rebecca for taking on the 5k challenge for the first time) and some joined us by bike, we like to squeeze in a bit of extra activity en route!

Joining us for the very first time were Julia and Joe, choosing a freezing Saturday morning to start their GoodGym journey - give them a cheer and show them some Lewisham Love. A big welcome also to Jess, Chris and Paul, who were on tour from GoodGym Camden and Wandsworth, great to see you!

A starter session is a little different to our weekly group run, where we run out to our task, work hard for 30-45 minutes then run back, with a fitness session en route. Today we were staying in Manor Park, a little sliver of green space between the houses of Hither Green. This lush park is edged by the River Quaggy, currently rushing by, following a recent downpour. We were met by Lawrence, from Thames 21, who would guide and lead us in our wading task. First of all, we had to warm up and think a little about our running technique, ahead of our various running challenges. We played a little game, getting to know each other's names, we lifted our knees, working hard to keep our bodies upright and focussed on running relaxed, tall and open. Putting this into practice we embarked on a quick fartlek ('speedplay') session, first of all as a large group, then in smaller groups, seeing how easily we can slip this into a run in the park.

Quaggy! Quaggy! Quaggy! Plog! Plog! Plog!

Thanks to Alex for this little treat, via Twitter!

Grabbing some litter-pickers, gloves and bags, we quickly scanned the park for any discarded litter, with some finding the challenge of picking up a lolly-pop stick or bottle top particularly engaging. Keeping warm, we jogged back to Lawrence and found our waders, giving ourselves the extra workout that comes from balancing on your running shoe, whilst trying to get your whole leg into a giant welly. We listened carefully, as Lawrence talked us through the safety aspects of river wading, then split into two groups to enter the river at different points. Using long sticks to help us balance and feel the river bed before stepping forward, we worked in pairs, chatting as we went.

We have worked previously with Lawrence, in the River Ravensbourne near our usual start point at Glass Mill Leisure Centre, so it was great to be able to explore a new part of London's 400 mile network of waterways. Thames 21 work throughout the year, engaging volunteers in the communities that the rivers pass through. You can find out more about upcoming events by looking at the calendar here, with the rivers Pool, Ravensbourne and Quaggy being our nearest, here in Lewisham.

We decided that half an hour was long enough to be in the water at this time of year, so out climbed our waders, laden with bags of rubbish (including a sandbag, a plank of wood and a rusted piece of twisted metal). Waders were sorted back into the correct crates and warm clothing put back on. We might normally run off or do some strength work at this point but, looking around, I saw that what was needed were hot showers and big mugs of tea! Good work everyone! Next up in Lewisham is our group run on Monday evening, have a look here and sign up, we would love to have you along.

As we ran and worked today, we were filmed and interviewed by Simon and Greg from the BBC. Our report should be broadcast next Saturday on BBC Breakfast, keep an eye on our Twitter accounts (@GoodGym and @GGLewisham) for updates.

Thank you Lawrence and well done everyone for working so enthusiastically on such a cold morning!

A fabulous fourteen covered around 3km of running and took on a great outdoor task at Crofton Park Station Gardens.

How do you spend your birthday morning? Some might have a lie-in, some might go out for a relaxing breakfast, not our Clare, no, she ran Hilly Fields parkrun and came along to our GoodGym Lewisham starter session! Happy birthday Clare, I hope it's been a good one.

Welcome!

It was lovely to welcome four absolute first-timers this morning, Lewisham Love goes to Kathryn, Ryan, Birchlyn and Samantha. We also welcomed a GoodGym tourist, Leanne, who normally runs up with our friends in Tower Hamlets.

I like starter sessions, they mean that we get to do things a little bit differently. We met outside Hilly Fields cafe, some already having run the 5k parkrun beforehand and we also had the chance to visit one of the lovely outdoor tasks that isn't possible in the dark of a Monday evening in January. So many new faces and new names to remember, so we played a quick game that involved paying attention. We also played a version of stuck-in-the-mud that involved squatting, squat-in-the-mud? I like it! During our intro, I mentioned coach running and missions, both of which involve visiting an older person, either for a weekly chat, or to help in their home, with a task that they can't manage themselves.

Can I dig it?

With Nykolette very kindly back-marking, we ran down the hill (weh-hey!) towards Crofton Park. We were met at the garden (you know the one, you can see it as you wait for your train) by Ben, who looks after the space and he quickly showed us our tools, gloves and other equipment and directed us to the various tasks to be tackled. We had a team on weeding and litter-picking, some great digging (or hoeing?) and some heavy-duty spade-wielding, to make way for some slabs and breeze blocks to make stepping stones towards the tool shed. Little pockets of chatter could be heard around the space, with bags quickly filling with leaves and weeds (I think I counted ten at the end) and, of course, we were soon admiring Jacqueline's inevitable treasure find, a tiny lightbulb!

As this was a Big Half starter session, there was, of course, a lot of talk about races and pushing yourself over longer distances. We have 200+ runners taking part in the Big Half, so it's going to be pretty amazing and, in the meantime, I'm in awe of all the long runs I'm seeing on Strava, with some of today's efforts including parkrun along the way! Once we had completed all our jobs at the garden, Ben thanked us and back we ran to Hilly Fields to work on our technique for this epic running challenge.

Hill start

For some reason people didn't seem to believe me when I said I had a little hill lined up for our fitness session. Granted, we did have to run up a big hill to get to it, but I wasn't lying was I? Something we often overlook is how we use our arms when running. It's all too easy when you're tired, or struggling towards the end of a run or race, to lean over, hunch your shoulders and cross your arms over your body. All that energy wasted, energy that could be used to propel you forward! We did a couple of little partner exercises to see how it should feel, then put this to the test by running up our little hill. Once we had the hang of this, we applied everything we had just learned to coming back down the hill. Same movements, still looking up, still driving our arms. Wow! The difference was incredible! Strong work from everyone.

One more uphill jog and we were ready to stretch. We talked a little about our next runs, with Monday evening being our regular session, we also have another starter session in a few weeks, this time complete with waders! Thank you all for making my Saturday morning so enjoyable :)

Miss Doris needed a sofa moving to make space for a brand new hospital bed, so three GoodGym runners arrived bright and early on a Friday morning to help out. Emptying the sofa and getting it out of the room it was in was fairly straightforward, but then we had a little problem on our hands getting it through the door of the room it was supposed to go in. Let's just say this was one of life's more interesting puzzles, but we pulled it off (with brilliant help from care workers who were present, by the way), leaving Doris all set to receive her new bed.