GoodGym Lambeth | Run Report 🌿🏃💚 Leaf It To Us!

Well, well, well — our magnificent mob of do-gooding runners were out in full force this week, descending on the streets of Lambeth like a very fit, very enthusiastic swarm of locusts. (Sorry Dan, we know, we know — new start point, new us. Change is growth! 🌱)

The vibes? Immaculate. The chat? Absolutely flowing. The pace? Fast enough to feel smug, slow enough to finish a sentence. 💬✨

The Task 🍂 This week we headed over to The Lunch Club Streatham at their Woodlawns site, where nature had — shall we say — gone a bit feral. Leaves, twigs, fallen branches: the full autumnal chaos package. Our mission was to wrestle the outdoor space into shape ahead of an exciting planting project and lunch service when the warmer weather finally stops being so shy. ☀️🤞

And wrestle we did. No leaf was left unturned (literally), no branch left unstowed. By the end, we had: 🗑️ 10+ bulging bin bags filled and destined for composting 🚮 Litter picked to within an inch of its life 🪵 Branches stashed ready for a future task — because the fun never stops! The outdoor space is looking twig-mendously better. We’re not saying we’re heroes, but… the evidence speaks for itself. 🦸

The Shoutouts 🎉 🎂 Ben — massive birthday shoutout incoming! The big day is TOMORROW, which means tonight’s run was basically his pre-birthday workout. Iconic behaviour. Many happy returns, Ben!

🚴 Adam — joined us for his very first GoodGym run! Usually found terrorising the streets on two wheels, tonight he used his actual legs like the rest of us. Welcome to the fold, Adam — we’ve got a feeling the bike might get a bit jealous. 😄

💯 Michael — brace yourselves… Michael has just hit 100 months of GoodGym. ONE HUNDRED. That’s over 8 years of showing up, doing good, and being generally wonderful. We are not worthy. 🙌😱🤩

See you all next week — same do-gooders, different start point (sorry again Dan 👀).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

This was a fantastic mission, joining forces with a number of Brixton organisations for a community litter pick. Multiple different groups met at different areas of Brixton for a simultaneous clean-up. This was part of a youth-led initiative, set up by young people at the Marcus Liptrot Community Centre, and attended by local residents, borough councillors, police officers - and Goodgymers!

Six Goodgymers, representing Lambeth, Ealing, Croydon and Brent, met in Windrush Square, collected our litter pickers and high-vis, and headed off to St Matthew’s church gardens. After an hour of solid litter-picking we had filled several bags of rubbish. Shout out to Steph who ran 27km to be there, and to Harvey who hit his incredible 1000th mission earlier that same morning! What an achievement!

After our hour was up we headed back to base, and it was amazing to see just how much could be achieved in a short space of time. Well done everyone!

Katie and Steph Ducat met at the entrance of the park and went to the container where Karolis from Friends of Loughborough Park was busy with a patch. He dropped everything to get the gear out : plastic bags, litter pickers and magical loops. Either you know or you dont know the secret way of looping the bags as some of them are tricky. More volunteers appeared including Brenda from Goodgym. We all set off into the park to hunt down the litter left in this beautiful park. Usual suspects were paper, crisp wrappers, bottles, food waste and Steph Ducat found something that will keep someone safe in a way(see pic with blue item from Durex)!!A decision was taken here at one stage. After an hour the litter hunters returned to base and collected roughly 6 bags. Well done team!!No cake or coffee and the 3 Goodgymers walked to their next community mission in Brixton.

On a mild Lambeth evening, our GoodGym superstars turned up in gooseberry great numbers for a task that was truly berry satisfying. 💪🏼🍾🌿

Our mission: dig out several gooseberry bushes and relocate them (via barrows!) to the orchard garden behind the church. And honestly? It was completed in no time — proving once again that many hands make light work… and strong legs make lightly complaining work. 😅🚜

Now, we can’t confirm there was extra speed in the air… but we may have been powered by the knowledge that an end-of-month social was waiting for us. Motivation? ✅ Relocation? ✅ Social-ocation? Also ✅ 🤗

Huge thanks to Adam and Nicole, our absolute legends of the evening, who hosted us and did not disappoint: food, drink, and board games aplenty! ❤️🍕🍻🎲 (Let it be known: we came to transplant bushes, but we stayed to transplant ourselves into competitive board-game personalities.)

A wonderful time was had by all — and yes, we definitely got to know each other a LOT better too 😏😂. By the end of the night, we’d also uncovered the true solution to modern life’s troubles: a cucumber suit, tequila, salami t-shirts, and a very active ‘social life’. 🥒👔🍹🥓😄

So, to summarise: we moved bushes, moved barrows, and moved straight into chaos (the fun kind). Until next time, Lambeth — stay berry brilliant! 🍇✨💚