Twenty Four wonderful runners joined me in Lambeth to run 7km, help Hillside Gardens and take part in the Great Get Together!

On what had looked like it was going to be a total wash-out the skies cleared (of rain at least) and we were set for a lovely evening. We all gathered outside Papa's for our intro, welcoming our new runners before, Tom, the task owner, who joined us for the run outlined the work we were Going to be doing. We then split into two groups, the relaxed and the not so relaxed and before we knew it we were pounding the Lambeth streets on our way up ALL the hills to Hillside Gardens!

With the 'not so relaxed' group leading the way and taking a slightly different route my relaxed group headed up brixton hill before winding through the streets to Tulse Hill and on to the gardens - it was hard work in muggy conditions but everyone kept at it and we arrived only 5 minutes after the other group. Once at the park Tom split us out into groups with various tasks:

• Cutting back brambles
• Weeding and clearing planters
• Digging up self seeded sycamores
• Pulling up weeds and unwanted plants

We worked hard for twenty minutes and then headed back to Papa's in our two groups again - so much nicer going downhill and with less muggy conditions. Once we were back at Papa's Alice kindly led everyone in a stretch, I explained that tonight had been part of the Great Get Together events and reminded everyone to sign up to the GoodGym Olympics and then we all said our goodbyes with a large number of us heading for drinks at the Duke of Ed.

It's been an absolute blast leading you the last two weeks GGL, what a wonderful bunch you are! Mark is back next week to steady the ship - hope to see you all soon and do visit GG Brent if you can!

Cheers,
Pritesh

Big up Emily and JB for joining us on their first GoodGym run - Give them a cheer! 👏

Last night we had a bunch of jobs to do:

👉 Papa’s Park kindly put us up every week so it’s only right that now and then we do some jobs for them. Weeding in some of the ground beds and sanding a big concrete bench in preparation for painting was on the agenda.

👉We also had a load of Food2U posters to spread across Brixton and the local area. Food2U is an Age UK initiative where older people who are less mobile can get their weekly shop bought, delivered and put away for them by a friendly driver who sticks around for a chat. We did this in January and it was really helpful.

Time for a team challenge!

So with 6 different areas to take the posters too, 6 groups were formed. These 6 groups made 6 massive piles of weeds and much sanding was done. Then the 6 groups headed off in their 6 different directions to spread 60(!) posters from Clapham High Street to Herne Hill and everywhere in between.

We were reminded that fly-posting can earn you an £80 fine… Thanks Paul for the heads up! So our teams used their local knowledge to poster in leisure centres, libraries and shops across the area.

See pics for evidence of the mysterious Carnegie library (nice building, but closed), the purple clouds of the Stockwell skyline (actually, it’s a painting) and David Bowie's head.

Ace work everybody! 👌

Sign up for next week’s run here with runs to either the Portico Gallery to move some gazebo weights or a shorter trip to Agnes Riley Gardens.

It was a delightful evening for a delightful run, with 35 runners in pursuit of the Portico Gallery, a community arts space in West Norwood.

We had a quick intro, welcoming 7 new people to the gang. Nice one Alice, Rachael, Anthony, Hannah, Sarah, Emily and Martha!!! Give those guys a cheer.

SOFIA, SO GOOD.

Then Lavinia told us about the fantastic time that was had this past weekend in Bulgaria. There were some incredible finish times from GG Lambeth runners and a lot of fun was had!

Tom Benson gave us the lowdown on the GoodGym Olympics and the plan for a GG Anthem. 🥁

And we congratulated Will on his sterling effort of reaching 50 GOOD DEEDS. Awesome stuff.

We then hit the road, a tidy 4.5k uphill to The Portico. Tom Hunter lead the “keen” bunch and the rest of us took a more relaxed approach!

We arrived to meet John who gave us a couple of tasks:

👉 Cleaning the walls of the arts space with a “sugar soap” mixture.

👉 folding plastic bags to save space

Everyone got stuck in with some people commenting on how scrubbing the walls was very therapeutic!

Soap pleased to clean you.

Before we knew it, time was up and we had to begin the descent home.

SOAP SOLID CREW.

Well done everyone. Next week we’re at Myatt’s Field for another therapeutic task - removing bindweed!