Wall of Honour

• Pat on the Back to Sam for being this weeks back marker.
• High Five to Vanessa for joining us on her first group run.
• Fist Pump to Dave for touristing from Tower Hamlets.
• And a big Hej to all our visiters from Denmark!

Let's have a Recap

Last night we had a group of visitors from Scandinavia that are involved in sports organisations, local authorities, research, and social enterprises, who were keen to see GoodGym's role in using sport as a tool to promote social inclusion and change in people’s lives.

With our 14 regular members plus 6 Danish runners, our group of 20 ran 5km in total on an increasingly chilly evening! Unfortunately the original task was cancelled at the last minute, so we decided to do another Scandinavian activity known as 'plogging' - a combination of jogging and picking up litter.

We began with a few warm up drills of fast feet and mobility stretches before heading up towards the top of Peckham Rye park. At our first stop in Piermont Green we split into teams armed with black bin bags, gloves and head torches. In around 15 minutes we were able to fill 8 bags of rubbish including some surprising items of clothing and a car seat mat! After combing the paths, grass, hedges and railings, we continued back into Peckham Rye itself going in differnt directions on our cleaning mission.

FACT OF THE DAY One Cigarette butt can contaminate 7 litres of water in one hour. Studies show that about half of all animals exposed to the contaminated water get sick from the chemicals of cigarette butts. - Thanks Nelly for this fact.

With more bags filled but fingers starting to chill, we finished our work after 30 minutes of doing good and places all the bags in the nearby bins. As a group we ran 2 continuous laps of the park, discussing upcoming races including the Big Half this Sunday! And we finished with a very evenly contested lamp post post relay, before heading back to Old Spike to stretch. One our Danish friends Mikkel concluded the evening by getting everyone to perform a Danish clap - a reaction test to clap our hands together until we all reacted in unison and sounded as one!

Next week we wil be running 5km in total to carry out our flyering task for Age Uk.

See you soon Team.

Wall of Honour

Pat on the back to Emma for being this weeks back marker and walk leader. High-five to Milena, George, Hannah, Rosie and Susie on their first group session in Southwark!

Let's have a recap

Last night 22 runners ran or walked 4km overall to the brand-new Crisis store in Peckham High Street for the national charity for homeless people. With the new store being right on our doorstep, we went through a quick warm up and a short loop up to the High Street. When we arrived we met Lauren the store manager who directed us to all corners of the store, with many staff making last minute display preparations we were able to add the icing on the cake and as Ed described it! We quickly got to work arranging rails in size order, collecting wipes and cloths to clean every surface of dust, Katie covered the entire floor with a cordless Hoover and Pauline followed up with a dustpan and brush. Richard and George added security lines to the jackets and Civ and Emma lead a group in the back room packing down six bags worth of cardboard! in 40minutes so much was covered, cleaned and re-organised ready for the official opening of the store at 11am.

Be sure to check out the items and artwork on display produced by women who have taken part in the 'Making For Change' programme. A collaborative training initiative for women at HM Prison Downview to learn new skills that could lead to future employment possibilities and break the cycle between prison and homelessness.

FACT OF THE DAY - Groundhog Day is celebrated this week in Canada & the US. It is a Pennsylvanian superstition that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will persist for 6 more weeks! If it does not see its shadow due to cloudiness, spring will arrive early. - Fingers crossed!

We finished the session with a 3km loop around Peckham Rye and a 500m lamp post time trial to test our paces and raise the heart rate!

Next Week we're running 8km overall to Stompie Gardens working with a local community group to help spread out some wood chip and clear up some weeds. It's getting darker so bring along a headtorch! Sign up here.

See you there Team!

Wall of Honor

Big Shout to Sally for back marking and keeping the group together High-Five to Kim, Baljit & Coral who completed their first GoodGym run with us!

Let's have a recap

Last night 22 runners ran 8km in total to the Crisis store in Elephant and Castle.

The good news was that storm Brendan had passed, but it was still a chilly evening so we swiftly made our way up to Wallworth Road via Burgess Park. Once we arrived we met Emelia & Daniella who welcomed us into the store and showed us our tasks for the evening. We had one team meticulously rearranging the clothes rails getting everything into size order. A second team set up a production line organising stacks of CDs and DVDs, checking the products were in the right boxes, then making and sticking on labels. And a third group had the task of separating and re-organising all the single lone shoes from a jumbled pile, into categories of male, female, smart, casual and healed!

FACT OF THE DAY High heeled shoes were originally worn by men! As early as the 10th century, many horseback riding cultures wore heels on their boots and shoes to help stay in stirrups. When the Persian cavalry wore inch high heels, they became associated with the upper class, since they showed the wearer owned and maintained horses.

Everyone attacked each task enthusiastically with an eye for detail, as well as a bargain! And in only 30 minutes we got through so much stock, Emelia & Daniella were delighted and ready to have us back again!

Next week we will be running 7km to support the Salvation Army in Camberwell. It will also be GoodGym Southwarks 4th Birthday!! So we will celebrating with a drink or two next door!

See you there Team!

Wall of Honour

• Thanks to Dom, Emily & Anna for leading our 3 teams and keeping the groups together.
• Big Shout to Sophie for completing her first run with us!
• Pat on the back to Anna for storing all the donations overnight and transporting to the drop off centre today!!

Let’s have a Recap

Last night 23 runners ran 5km in total up and down the streets of Peckham collecting donations for Southwark Foodbank on behalf of the the Trussell Trust. The trust organise Foodbanks nationwide to provide emergency support to families in poverty.

We had a last minute task change on our last group run of 2019! We split into 3 teams each with a separate destination, armed with shopping lists and empty bags, to ask the people of Peckham to donate items such as mince pies & custard whilst doing their shopping. Dom took his team to Tescos, Londis & another Tesco's collecting donations and also kindly donating bags themselves! Emily's team visited Asda stationing themselves front and back of the store, coming back to Old Spike with 4 full bags, and Anna's team managed to bring back a whole trolley-full all the way from Morrisons!!

With more bags than expected and a need to store them overnight, in true GoodGym spirit Anna offered to store them at her flat, so we gathered all the shopping and transported it to her flat 5 minutes away. Leaving time for a quick lampost sprint drill through Peckham Rye while Dom & Abi returned the trolley back to morrisions.

FACT OF THE DAY A custom from the middle ages says that if you eat a mince pie on every day from Christmas to Twelfth Night (evening of the 5th January) you will have happiness for the next 12 months!

What a feel good evening of GoodGym! Finished off by drinks food and merry Xmas wishes at Peckham Levels.

See you Next Year for our next group run on the 8th January collecting Xmas trees!

Have a wonderful time, run, eat and be merry!

Wall of Honour

• Big Shout to Sam for back marking and keeping the group together, making sure Allie didn't get lost!
• Pat on the back to Anna for completing 4 Good Deeds since Saturday already!

Let’s have a Recap

Last night 17 runners braved the rain and ran 10km in total to Tabard Garden Allotments. After discussing choices of leg wear and admiring Dom's new tights we set off for a quick warm up and headcount, with Abbie making her way by bike. Our route took us up the Surrey Canal Path and along the streets of the Q1 cycle route, what started off as light rain soon turned into wet clothes! After we had sped past the entrance, we managed we locate Peter a member of the Tabard Growers who directed us to tonights task - digging!

FACT OF THE DAY The Tabard was a historic inn established in Southwark in 1307. It stood on the ancient throroughfare that led from London Bridge to Canterbury, and is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales.

We split into 2 teams taking gloves, spades, and pick axes to remove weeds from the herb spiral and digging up soil emptying old builder sacks. The soil was soon scooped up into wheelbarrows and moved to another corner to create a new planting bed. After working solidly for 20 minutes the weeds were cleared and the diggers were delighted to get to the bottom of the soil bag, which had been sitting there for 10 years. Peter thanked us for our efforts which would have taken him 2 weeks!

Heading back we took our time, throwing in some extra squats, whilst making sure that no one got left behind - just a pair of black gloves, now in my lost & found box Anybody?

Next week we are helping out with TRAID in Peckham to get through their end of season sale stock. It will be a 5km run overall with some added fitness exercises thrown in to keep us warm!

See you next week Team! Stay Dry!