What do Catwoman, several south London Zombies, a giant spider, Pikachu, a banana in his pyjamas, some vampires and bats, plus a whole host of the undead have in common?

They all met in Wandsworth last night for a mammoth run where GoodGym became BadGym for one night only….

Scream if you want to go faster

It was a huge turnout with no less than 36 runners ready to take to the streets, and we had a number of excellent new faces. Hello to Amanuel, Anna, Leanne, Maddy, Rebekah, Eva, and Molina and a huge welcome. It was also lovely to see our ace Greenwich visitors Steve, Alex and Christian. Come again soon, and we will definitely be visiting your home ground!

Before we hit the road looking like the cast of Thriller, we had a special Halloween themed CoRUNdrum to think about while we ran. Jack O’lanterns traditionally used to be carved out of which fruit or vegetable before we started using pumpkins?

Be-corpse we’re (Wands) Worth it

With Catwoman and Spiderwoman backmarking, we limped, groaned, shuffled and dragged our undead selves down to our Halloween themed task at St Paul’s Churchyard and its neighbouring community garden. With a few stops along the way to do some horrible high knees and jumping Jack o’lanterns we were there in no time, ready to move a pile of wood from the garden into the churchyard ready for the annual bonfire at the weekend. There was also plenty to do in the decomposing compost bins, plus dead leaves to rake and logs to stake, I mean, stack. With the task done it was a sprint to the common to play some fiendish running games. We turned a few heads as we went, and even earned a salute from a mini-Trump with accurately sized hands.

Team spirits

First off was Zombie Tag, with Maddy, Emma then Ben and Trish all sprinting hard to tag as many victims as they could. Then it was Team John (who is the mysterious John?) versus Team Rocket in a terrifyingly competitive game of capture the flag. Pikachu made a valiantly fluorescent bid for the prize, with The Banana following in his yellowy footsteps, but it was a photo finish by Jack from Team John and Amanuel from Team Rocket.

We finished with an epic relay. It was Team Rocket V Team Lame Rocket V Team John V Team John Paul (names need a bit of work, guys) and it was a fight to the death. OK, not to the death, but to the finish line. Well done to Team John who cleared up with a resounding win, but congratulations to you all for some spooktacular sprinting.

It was dead fun

Back to our starting point we ran with a frantic game of Beat the Reaper (thank you Lambeth for this great idea!). Grim Reapers Jack and David gave the group a 2:45 head start, before trying to chase us down in a race back to the Battersea Arts Centre. Nothing like a bit of fear to get those legs pumping. Well done to those speedy reapers for managing to hunt down about half the group.

Then it was a well-earned social with prizes back at the bar to raise our spirits. We took a vote on our GoodGym tree, with plum, cherry and pineapple all making the shortlist and Pineapple emerging as the final choice. Photos of the tree itself and its accompanying signboard coming soon. It was Ben that cleverly solved the CoRunDrum by knowing that turnips used to be carved before we all started using pumpkins for our jack o’lanterns. Good knowledge!

We all munched on Catwoman’s delicious homemade snacks (thanks Sally!) while we took our second vote of the night to decide best costume. Congratulations to Spiderwoman (the lovely and usually two-legged Hannah) and to the freakin’ scary blonde clown-faced zombie Amanuel – who deserves a mention for basically sweeping the board for wins last night. He also went on later to show us how it’s done on the racing track with a resounding victory. Was it the wig that did it, or sheer talent? We’ll find out next week! Meanwhile Kylee and Ana proved that fast on the athletics track does not necessarily translate to fast on the racing track….

A big hat tip goes to Matthew who rose to the challenge, and proved his commitment to GoodGym by having never missed a group run since the Wandsworth group was established. Brilliant, keep it up Matthew!

Thanks for a frightfully fun night team Wandsworth – same again next week (minus the fake blood). You can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/long-ish-run-to-granard-primary-school

17 super GoodGymers enjoyed a beautiful South London September evening to run their way to Glory in the first Clapham Fitness 4 All session.

Starting the session with a dynamic warm up and working to hone our running form really focusing on the ever important body position to help us all get into our running Flow.

After a series of drills incorporating skipping, lunging and accelerating we split up into teams of 3 to tackle some relay running with powerful High Fives and rolling through the speed gears as we run 4 blocks of 5 minutes running. We changed the distance and pace of each block and great to see everyone really putting in serious effort to dominate the running especially the shorter faster reps!

Hope to see you all again next week to build on this weeks session with some more Running Fitness fun. If you have not already done so sign up here.

Lean smooth

Joel

While some people say that if Monday had a face they would punch it, here at GoodGym we LOVE Mondays. Because when Monday evening rolls around, we get to meet up at the amazing Battersea Arts Centre, see some ace people, run like we stole something, and make our borough a better place to live. What’s not to love?

Last night was no exception when a group of lovely Wandsworth regulars and a few excellent new faces met up ready to do some good at Balham Community Centre, a charity that works to support families in Wandsworth. Hello to first-timers Georgie, Kate and Elizabeth, we're really happy you’ve joined us!

After our briefing we had race reports – great job Cath and Sally who both smashed races in the past week – announced an exciting new pairing with a local physio (watch this space, more coming soon), and then it was over to Matthew for this week’s CoRUNdrum. Which underground station has the river Westbourne flowing through it? With that headscratcher from Matthew we set off towards Balham. Will made himself very popular by suggesting a quick fartlek session as we ran through the common. It may have been painful, but this form of speed work (from the Swedish for ‘speed play’) is great for training. It speeds up anaerobic fitness, burns more calories, increases your heartrate and mixes up your training. So well done Will, thanks for pushing us!

Before long we had run the two-and-a-bit miles to the community centre and while one group set about pruning the trees that surround the kids’ playground, the other half began weeding with a vengeance. 24 pairs of gloves, four loppers and three secateurs later, the trees were denuded and the playground was deweeded. The difference was obvious, well done team.

Off we ran, amid a chorus of cat calls from the open-fronted Italian restaurant opposite the centre. We almost invited them to join us for a speed-off but the temptation of pasta was too great, and we charged up Balham High Road, stopping again at the common for a session on technique and a turbo-charged plank challenge. With Will leading one group, and Vicki taking the other, we split up and raced each other home to the BAC. We got back in record time – it turns out that cakes are a good incentive for getting that PB. Who knew?

A few quick stretches and the answer to Matthew’s great CoRUNdrum revealed – Sloane Square has a river running through the overhead pipes – we ate cake, talked about who would be at the GoodGym-wide drinks in Brixton on Thursday, and wiped away our sweat. Great job everybody, can’t wait to see you all next Monday. You can sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/group_runs/do-good-for-your-borough

Before then, we have a mission this Saturday morning (10th) for which we need some more helpers. We’ll meet at 9am at Smuggler’s Way to help the Wandle Wheelers set up for their ride until 10am, then run a quick 5k by the river together. Sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/missions/help-wandle-wheelers-set-up-for-their-big-ride

HAPPY MONDAYS All round when a dozen Goodgymers ran 5k, to Kilburn Grange Park for a dose of gardening and an even bigger dose of upper body strength work.

(and yes this is a musical, Happy Mondays band themed run report, in case you get confused LOL)

Despite feeling a little under the weather myself, there were no PILL SPILLS AND BELLY ACHES that could keep me away from my beautiful GG Brent. To kick off the night, I was delighted to see, as well as the familiars, lots of new faces at base camp too! Tanya, Jarshee, Dharmistha and Shanta four lovely ladies ready to push down pavements and give back some goodness to their local community.

Back with our new friends - Kilburn Grange Park, to finish the gardening we started last week, after a warm and fun fuelled housekeeping we set off into the night. With Dan at the helm and me leading from the back, we set off on the first leg of the journey down to the high road, minding not to STEP ON the many cracked pavements and tree roots springing up attempting to hinder our fast pace.

In no time at all we had arrived and BOBS YOUR UNCLE were greeted by the gorgeous AJ with all the tools needed to get cracking straight away YAY

With the last of the SUNSHINE and plenty of LOVE we got to work digging, pulling weeds and raking up the dead leaves to reveal beautiful new soil ready for new planting.

About half way through, there was a HALLELUJA Moment, when AJ brought out 2 trays of deliciously prepared watermelon for the team!!! Amazing!! Stepping away from our Manchester themed music night for one moment of madness it was WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAM When I accompanied the moment with a dose of Club Tropicana on the spotify mix.... (Clairey-Bells request!!)

So joyful our volunteering must have seemed from the outside, that we were suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of local kids questioning and quizzing what we were up to and then.... oh wait - No they were just here for the melon!!!! Of course.

With tummys full and the final countdown upon us we rushed to fill the last of the refuse sacks before said our goodbyes and hot footing it over to the playground for some more fitness fun!! No monkeying around as I guided the team into a series of hanging body holds and pull-ups on the bars and a team challenge of perfect technique press-ups on the grass.

Can we accept the Elle Energy challenge for this week I proclaimed.... 7 press ups every single day until next Monday??? YES WE CAN!!

After the upper-body annihilation, the lower body was back in business, as our legs did the work carrying us back the last 1.5miles back to base camp - The Queensbury. Hills were the last challenge of the night and with hips high and knees driving upwards, the team demo'd perfect skills to battle the last tree roots home and make it back in time for stretches bang on 8.30pm!! WOOP WOOP.

A night of fun fuelled, fruity goodness and fitness fury in the second week of the summer, that's another week rocked in Brent.

Until next time 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE