A small but seriously mighty crew rolled up this evening — Michael, Ben, Tilly, Marie-Noelle and yours truly, AA Yianny 💪🏼🍾 — ready to whip the allotments into shape for Valcie's community summer BBQ.

And whip we did! There was weeding (lettuce just say the weeds didn't stand a chance 🥬), edging so sharp you could've used it to cut the salad, clearing, watering, and a deep clean that left the plots looking positively bbq-ready. We even turned into a furniture removal squad, hauling tables and chairs about like it was an Olympic sport (table-tennis, anyone? 🪑😅).

Five volunteers, one allotment transformation, zero complaints about the watering can splashback 😱🤩. Valcie's BBQ guests won't even know the weeds were ever there — though we definitely will, in our biceps tomorrow morning.

Thyme well spent, team. See you all at the next one! 🌱❤️

What a Tuesday evening to be alive — and running! We had a gloriously large group join us tonight, with perfect weather rolling out the red carpet for our feet. Lacing up alongside regulars Fi, Jo, Michael, Ben, Tilly and Katie, we were thrilled to welcome back Rich and — making his Lambeth group run debut — the legendary George! 🍾💪🏼 First run done, George. There’s no going back now.

With an extra spring in our step (and an extra 3.6km each way to justify the post-run snacks 😅), we set off on a slightly longer route than usual — and the group ate it up like it was nothing.

Our destination? The Weir Link, who were absolutely delighted to have us back. And honestly, the feeling was mutual — because when we arrived, the tools and equipment were already waiting for us in the bin shed, like a beautifully organised welcome gift. No faff, no fuss — just straight to the good stuff. 🙌

Front and back, we got stuck in clearing out weeds and leaves to give the centre grounds a proper spruce-up. The weeds didn’t stand a chance against this lot. What they thought was job security turned out to be a very short-term contract. 😂🌱

Big love to everyone who came out and gave their evening — and their knees — to make Lambeth a little greener. The Weir Link were over the moon to have us, and it shows just how much this community cares. ❤️

See you on the next one! 🏃

What do you get when you mix seven GoodGym legends, a historic windmill, and a mountain of woodchip? Pure, unadulterated mill-ificence, that’s what. 🤩

This week, Tilly, Adam, Michael, Marie-Noelle, Nicole, Katie, and the brilliant Emma descended on the Waterworks allotments to lend a hand to Annick and Jean from the iconic Brixton Windmill. ❤️ And lend a hand we did — both of them, repeatedly, with shovels.

Emma was joining us for her second ever session and her first group run — and she didn’t just show up, she showed out, bringing the extra scoop on our Million Acts of Hope crossover. Turns out we weren’t just doing good deeds — we were contributing to something genuinely huge. 💪🏼🍾 No pressure, but we may have helped save the world. Provisionally.

The task list was, shall we say, eclectic. We shovelled and shifted woodchip to lay a brand new path (the glow-up was real 😱), got stuck into some serious weeding and pruning, carefully sorted edible leaves from the compost (a surprisingly meditative experience), and rounded things off with a litter pick to leave the whole place gleaming. ✨🌿

In short: we came, we chipped, we conquered. Annick and Jean — it was an absolute pleasure. The allotment looks windmill-iant. 🌬️

See you next week, you beautiful lot! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

GoodGym Lambeth Run Report: Flyering in the Drizzle 🌧️

Mission: Spread the GoodGym love (and flyers) across Lambeth Weather: Grizzly drizzly (aka British summer preview) Mood: Absolutely soaking in good vibes ✨

Fresh off crushing our January Challenge targets 💪🏼🍾, we decided to ride that wave of positive energy straight into… well, an actual wave of rain. Because nothing says “let’s go outside” quite like horizontal drizzle, right? 😅

But did the weather dampen our spirits? Mist- ifyingly not! (Sorry, had to get that one out of my system 🎺)

Our superhero squad of Marie (Poppins - practically perfect in every way ☂️), Noelle, and Katie braved the elements to leaf-let the good people of Lambeth know about their local community fitness miracle workers.

We may have been getting soggy, but our enthusiasm was waterproof! 💧 Sure, the rain didn’t exactly flyer us up with motivation at first, but there’s something special about delivering these little paper ambassadors to our neighbours. Every letterbox is a potential new runner, every flyer a future friend getting fit while doing good ❤️

Mission status: Smashed it (just like our hair, which was thoroughly -smashed by the rain) Pun count: Too many to count

Community spirit: 11/10 would drizzle again 🌈

Keep being legendary, team! 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

GoodGym Lambeth Run Report: Chip Happens! 🏃‍♀️🌳 What a woody wonderful evening at Agnes Riley Gardens! Our magnificent crew showed up ready to get down and dirty (literally) with the Friends of the Park, and boy did we mulch things happen! 💪🏼

The Dream Team Our usual legends Jo, Fi, Tilly, and Ben were firing on all cylinders, and we were absolutely thrilled to welcome back the long-lost Marie-Noelle! We’d really pined for her return! 🌲

The Mission Armed with shovels, wheelbarrows, and questionable dance moves, we tackled two timber-rific tasks: ∙ Shifting mountains of wood chip onto the mud kitchen (because every tiny chef deserves a splinter-free workspace 👨‍🍳) ∙ Levelling ground for a new bench (future bottoms will thank us!) The Work There was shovelling. There was barrowing. There was laying. There was soil-turning. Basically, we were one wheelbarrow away from starting our own landscaping empire. You could say we really barked up the right tree with this one! 🎯

The Grand Finale What’s a GoodGym session without totally embarrassing ourselves? We wrapped up with a spontaneous Cha Cha Slide on our freshly laid wood chip dance floor. Slide to the left? ✅ Criss cross? ✅ Charlie Brown? Absolutely! 💃🕺

Same time next week, legends? 🍾✨​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Run-Down

Our fantastic team of volunteers laced up their trainers and ran to Brixton Windmill Gardens to help Jean prepare for their upcoming Green Flag assessment. We were absolutely raking in the good vibes with 4 brilliant new faces joining us – talk about turning over a new leaf!

What We Accomplished

The team got stuck in with some serious garden maintenance, focusing on making the gardens look their absolute best for this week’s important review:

• Leaf clearing: We raked up all the autumn leaves scattered across the grass areas
• Path maintenance: Cleared and tidied the pathways throughout the gardens
• General sprucing: Made sure every corner was looking pristine and presentable

The Impact

Thanks to our volunteers’ hard work, Brixton Windmill Gardens is now looking mint for their Green Flag assessment. Jean was over the moon with our efforts – you could say we really helped them branch out and show off what makes their space so special.

The gardens are now in tip-top shape for their review, and we’re rooting for them to achieve that coveted Green Flag status!

Volunteers: 11 amazing people (including 4 fantastic newcomers!)
Total good done: One garden ready to flourish under assessment scrutiny

Special thanks to Fi for leading the run while AA is away!

Mission Accomplished at Cressingham Gardens

Our dedicated team of GoodGym volunteers got their sweat on while making a real difference in the community! We tackled a major garden transformation project that left everyone feeling accomplished and energized.

Tasks Completed

• Full garden weeding - cleared the entire space of unwanted growth
• Central area restoration - removed weeds, concrete blocks, and old wooden edging to create a clean, usable space

Highlight of the Day

The most memorable moment came when we discovered an unexpected family of residents - five adorable little toads! 🐸 This delightful surprise brought smiles to everyone’s faces and reminded us that our gardening efforts are creating habitats for local wildlife too.

Community Impact

Christine from Cressingham Gardens was absolutely delighted with the transformation. Her joy and gratitude made all the hard work worthwhile and perfectly captured why we do what we do.

Special Recognition

Huge thanks to Katie who stepped up brilliantly to co-lead the session meeting Jordan at Papa’s when Joao got held up with work commitments. This kind of flexibility and teamwork spirit is what makes GoodGym Lambeth special.

Another successful mission combining fitness, community service, and unexpected wildlife encounters - exactly what GoodGym is all about!.

What a great session we had at Holy Trinity Church! Our fantastic group came together to tackle some much-needed gardening and green waste management with Nicole, and we really rose to the occasion.

The team worked tirelessly to clear overgrown areas, manage green waste, and help transform the church grounds. It’s safe to say we were all rooting for a successful outcome, and we certainly didn’t leaf any job unfinished!

Special Mentions

🌟 Jordan from Wandsworth Thanks for branching out and joining us from across the borough! Your enthusiasm really helped us turnip the energy levels.

🌟 Hanna - Congratulations on your very first GoodGym session! You threw yourself into the work with such dedication - we can tell you’re going to grow into a fantastic regular member of our community.

Birthday wishes go to our wonderful Tilly who also provided sweet treats for everyone - happy birthday!

A huge thank you to Nicole for coordinating the session and showing us exactly what needed doing, as well as Run Leader Joao for taking the run. With teamwork like this, we’re proving that many hands make light work - even when dealing with heavy garden waste!

Until next time, keep running and keep doing good!

The GoodGym Lambeth Team 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🌱

The crew were out in good numbers last night despite the drastic drop in temperature - Spring reverting to Winter - and we were ready to set off and help out Valcie from Papa's Park at the Landor Road allotments.

First up we were delighted to welcome Perdie to the Lambeth group for her first session - great to have you with us!

Tilly, Ben and Fi then joined us and we set off on a loop via Clapham North to Landor Road and despite being hesitant about the run portion, Perdie decided to join and in the end made it round no problem.

On arrival Matt was there to let us in and show us the tasks and our cyclists Marie-Noelle and Paul were there to meet us as well. The tasks were simple clear out the alkanet from as much of the plot as we could and once the tools were distributed we hit the ground hard.

By 8pm we had cleared a huge tract and Matt was surprised that we had filled the tonne bag full of weeds and grass and that was time for this session.

And so we set off back to base, a few cheeky Haribo were shared to keep our blood sugar levels even (...!) and we look forward to the next session and hopefully some better weather as well. Valcie was very pleased and sent her thanks to the group as well.

See you next time - Let's Go Lambeth!!