8 runners met on a chilly, foggy evening to deliver some COVID leaflets to some of the streets of Welling. After no time at all, our dedicated road was finished and all leaflets delivered. We then took the opportunity to take a short detour past our favourite Christmas house!

It was good to see some familiar faces this morning following lockdown, with Matt, Emanuel and Gemma making a welcome return to the Goodgym mission team. They joined 10 other Goodgymers in the latest effort to clean up Bexley’s green spaces. After two weeks at Hall Place we returned to Danson Park. It may have been we were a bit earlier but Danson seemed a lot tidier than when we were last there but we still managed to collect a fair amount of bottle tops, gas bottles and cigarette butts. A number of park users thanked us for efforts including a woo woo from Jan Lake. For parkrun participants she’s the enthusiastic volunteer at the turn before the shale path.

Bexley News...

• Massive Well Done to Chris who completed his 50th Good Deed tonight! Great work! We look forward to seeing you in your black tshirt in the new year!
• We have a Community Mission on Wednesday to help collect donations alongside Santa's Sleigh. You can find out more and sign up here
• Have you heard about RED January?!? An initiative which encourages you to take part in physical activity each day in January. You can sign up and find out more here
• Did you know that there is an extra chance to parkrun on Christmas Day? Some of us will be kick starting our Christmas Day celebrations at Bexley parkrun.
• On New Years Day there is the opportunity to complete the NYDD (New Years Day Double). Bexley parkrun will be starting at the later time of 10:30am, so it is the perfect chance to run at a neighbouring parkrun before. What a brilliant way to rack up the numbers if you are looking forward to a milestone t-shirt or get on board with the first day of RED January.
• Are you using Strava to track your running? Make sure you connect to your GoodGym profile ahead of all that running we'll be doing in January.

Tonight 8 Bexley GoodGym members dodged the rain to run out to the Salvation Army on our very last group run of the year.

We planned a route heading out past the Christmas house to make the most of the festive season only to arrive at our task to find no-one there.

No room at the inn.

Thinking quick on our feet, we always have the back up plan of litter picking. Luckily the litter pickers are stored in the back of my car, so we ran back straight down Welling High Street to complete a quick litter pick around the Crook Log area.

We then headed inside to the warm where we had mince pies and a game of pass the parcel with a difference. Wearing oven gloves, the player starts unwrapping a layer whilst the next player tries to roll a double on the dice. It's not until a double is rolled that the game moves onto the next player. Chris was the lucky winner! Congrats.

Make sure to keep an eye out for Community Missions and runs going on during the break! You may even earn a new badge on your profile.

Until next year.

Happy Running!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

Tonights good deed saw us heading up to Welling to help out our friends at the Greenwich and Bexley Hospice shop. We set off at seven sharp (as always) with two groups, the runner and the power walkers. Tonight i was looking after the walkers and Susan lead the way for the runners.

One arrival at the shop we were greeted by Lorraine who always has a big smile and a glass of water waiting for us. Tonight we were taking on the children's toy department. The whole room was in need of a Goodgym special and thats exactly what we did. With cleaning cloths and polish in hand we took everything off the shelves and gave it all a spring clean before redoing the whole display again. With the weather we've been having calling it a spring clean was by no means a lie. The weather has been awesome over the last few days. Once the displays were back up and looking dapper we grabbed a broom and got on with the finishing touches. If i say so myself the whole area did looked mighty fine.

IF I SAY SO MYSELF THE WHOLE AREA DID LOOK MIGHTY FINE

With no more to do it was time to say our good byes and thank yous before saddling up and heading bad down the hight street for home. Big shout out the the Mencap crew who had me looking after the walking group this evening, You were awesome. Especially Chris and Emanuel who i pushed into a walk run technique so we could reach our destination quicker. Well done. Last but not least, a massive knuckle touch to all those who come and Goodgym week in and week out. Monday evenings wouldn't be the same without you. Until next Monday, have an awesome week.............