Nathan Wood

Tuesday evening in full summer and as you would expect we were facing rain storms.... but as ever Lambeth GoodGym managed to glide between the raindrops and it had cleared nicely by 6pm.

The number of runners had ticked up nicely and we had 12 ready and raring to go to help out our friend Juan at Jubilee Primary School.

I was delighted to see Manuel make his Tuesday debut with us having met him at the GG Shindig - great to have you with us!

The AA was at a loss for a category so opened it up to the floor this evening and Charlotte had a doozy for us - favourite ice cream!! We had everything from classic vanilla, a New Zealand classic with honeycomb, rum and raisin (not for kids) and of course who remembers Gino Ginelli??! Check out the WA group for a few tasty recommendations as well.

The debate continues to rage at GoodGym about warm up / cool down / stretching around Group Runs with our Run Leaders and AAs split in their opinions - answers on a postcard please or in the WhatsApp group on your thoughts, we continue to do ours as a way of helping those who sit all day for a living loosen up!

With Yianny still managing knee issues Joao once again agreed to use his newly acquired Run Leader skills to take the group up to JPS and they could all reconvene there.

Juan was waiting for us and explained the tasks: 1) Carry all the chopped branches and greenery to the bins at the back 2) Empty the soil from the broken planters and leave in the 2 tonne sacks 3) Bonus task, clearing some alien lifeform florafrom the side garden (more below)

We considered taking to the bikes and transporting the green waste but sadly like Daleks were foiled by having to navigate stairs!

The group all helped with task 1 then with limited space we divided into two groups for soil digging and garden clearing. The soil group felt the effects of global heating with the dry soil so compacted that it was a real effort to chip away and shovel it into the bags although we had brains and brawn with some heavy forking (steady...) going on and some fine skilled mini shovelling (Kaz you genius!)

Garden clearing group discovered a breed of plant with a beautiful but malevolent spiky bloom which attached itself to any form of clothing, skin or hair and was almost impossible to remove, rolling itself with every attempt to brush it away and leaving tiny hair like bristles behind with little hooks to nicely embed in your skin..... The only solution once these were removed was found to be a warm wash!! (Thank you to Emily for demonstrating these effects by throwing one at me).

As ever we had fun, we got through a huge amount of work (with plenty left so we might be back next week) and Juan was delighted with us.

A quick 1.5kms back to base for stretching - yes we stretch - and we were done. I'm off to the supermarket to look for bougie Booja Punky Munky or some such delight, thanks for the tip Maya!

Running late from a team building day with work, Sam arrived just 2-3 minutes late after a mob of GoodGymers were ascending on Old Spike Roastery.

Sam knew half of the team were going to meet at Thorlands whilst the other half were up for a 3k run via Grove Hill.

Sam brushed through the announcements before getting on with the warm-up. Yet, Jc opted out as he literally ran and came to Old Spike Roastery as we were closing up. After everyone warmed up, our ice-breaker question for tonight was: Which villain (real or fictional / dead or alive) would you go out on a dinner date with?

Everyone was playing the cautious card by saying Disney villains such as Cruella and Ursula, but we did have Darth Vader and Lex Luther. Only Sam chose a real dead villain - Hitler.

Stay Trenched

The 3k run took us just over 15 minutes and when we arrived, we were greeted by the sights of Mikhail, who hadn't been on a group run for at least two years as well as our regulars: Paulin, Lindy, Ed and Rebecca who opted to run, walk or cycle to the task.

After collecting the tools, we continued with where we left off on Saturday. There was more digging trenches to plant tree saplings that needed to be grounded before all the saplings dried up. The digging of the trench was left to the boys - Joao, Jc, Mikhail and Ed. However, there were other tasks at hand.

Lindy and Gemma cleared the terrace area of Buddleia. Whilst Daryl, Emma and Nathan had the task of shifting the compost heap from the Forest Garden to the Kitchen Garden as on Saturday we will be mulching that area. Paulin and Rebecca got the watering cans as the soil needed to be watered before we could plant the saplings.

Luckily, everyone had something to do and there was hardly any waiting around. The minutes flashed by with some banging tunes from Sam.

All in all, it was a successful evening and after we put back the tools and took our group photo, we headed off back home/to Old Spike Roastery.

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Being tipsy after a few drinks at the team building afternoon added an extra level of concentration and added professionalism. I appreciate that this was our largest group run of the year! Simon appreciated what we could do in 30 minutes and really showing the power of GoodGym when we are in numbers (and when there's enough tools and tasks to do). Thank you again!

Thank You Simon

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon for the monthly group run session. It was great that we could finish off tasks mid-week rather than wait a whole week!