...and the last known survivor paints a bench in the night, and they're painting us all with the stripes of the tiger

18 runners ran 5.5km to paint benches for Tigers RFC

Southwark News

• Tonight is the GoodGym Social at Islington Townhouse 6.30pm til late. It's Pritesh's birthday so give him a wave, enjoy International Pun of the Month and bring your bling for #TreasureThursday - sign up here

• Get involved in the big races GoodGym will be doing in 2019. On 11th October we'll be meeting to decide what races we'll be focusing on next year. It's run by the RaceTeam but everyone is welcome. I'll certainly be throwing my hat in the ring! Sign up here.

• This weekend there's about 20 GoodGymers running the Oxford Half Marathon. If you're there, ping me an email and come for a drink after :)

• Andrew Gilyead did his first mission over the weekend! Give him a cheer by clicking here.

• Next week we're going to Galleywall Nature Reseve and I know I keep saying it and then we don't need them so much but definitely headtorches for this one! They really don't have any lights! I'll have three spares with me.

That's enough of the business

Aaaaah it's good to be home! We were back in Old Spike last night after two weeks being put up by lovely Phil at Batch next door (some serious cocktails guys, go visit and let him know you're from GoodGym, there's a little discount in it for you!). A whopping 18 of us gathered ready to run to Burgess Park to help out our friend Vernon. Vernon realised that parents weren't hanging around after they'd dropped off their kids for his community rugby club and he wanted to change that so... a simple but effective solution... he had some benches put together! It's made a massive difference and creates a community vibe around the club, parents stay to watch their kids and get involved. Wonderful! In January last year we went to give the benches a spruce up - in the theme of Tigers of course. We went back last night to get creative again and make our mark on the benches. We also helped tighten up any slightly wobbly ones (there were a few!).

Cynthia, club chair was there to inspire us with the club tshirt and to judge the most creative bench. Her decision? Everyone wins first prize!

We did get slightly covered in paint but as Helena pointed out, is a GoodGym shirt really a GoodGym shirt without some paint on it? I got the paint off my skin with a little ultrabland from Lush (this isn't an advert but it is my favourite cleanser plus it's totally natural). I hope you managed to get yours out too! I'm not sure it'll be coming out of those tshirts though...

On our route out Helena took us down the Surrey Canal Path and avoided the Rye which is still crazy with road works. On the way back we zipped straight down the Rye as it was quieter and knocked a bit of distance off the journey.

Great work team! Looking forward to seeing you next week.

Lucy J

16 runners ran 4km to leaflet, litter pick and tidy up Southwark

Southwark News

• Interested in what happened at the Shindig back in July? There's now a write up of how we're moving forward and details of how you can get involved. Have a look here.

• Next week we're painting benches at Tigers RFC. It's a 6km run overall - sign up here.

• Hello to Sian who joined us for the first time tonight!

• We're already talking about the GoodGym abroad trip next year - it's in Sofia, the website isn't up yet but you can find out more and sign up on the GoodGym website here.

Good bin? That's rubbish!

Sadly Stuart Road Allotment's wasps are still in residence - the weather hasn't changed as much as they'd hoped so they're still there! So what did we do instead? Scavenger hunt time!

The basics - a point system for:

*picking up rubbish

*doing a boomerang

*good dogs

*shops/pubs with a 'A'

BONUS POINTS

• Most creative team photo

• Best pun

*Leaflets GONE

We had 45 minutes in our teams to rack up as many points as possible and meet back on the Rye for - guess what? Squats! Everyone loves the Sally Squat Challenge (google it for more info). We were leafletting to advertise missions to local people and to raise awareness for a Community Consultation Coffee Morning that Age UK Southwark are holding on Tuesday 9th October at 10.00am. The consultation is designed to hear the community's voices on how the Yalding Healthy Living & Learning Centre should move forward. It's a great opportunity to get involved with what's happening for older people in the local community. Spread the word!

Scores on the doors: Baggers in wooden spoon position with 31 points, The Raccoons in third place with 37, Swingbin were the runners up with a whopping 77 points and in peak position with 89 points were the Fishy Four!

In total we bagged up 7 full bags of rubbish from all over the Peckham/Nunhead end of the borough. A serious bit of cleaning up. Nice one! We also shifted all of our leaflets - bonus points for everyone!

We had fun, we did some good and we ended up at Batch after, enjoying a few Hump Day beverages and much needed food.

A great night everyone, look forward to seeing you next week.

Lucy J