On a crisp January evening, a record-breaking 37 outstanding athletes ran 5km and helped at Crofton Books.

Happy birthday to us! THREE YEARS of doing good in Lewisham! Just to help us get our heads around this fact, here are some statistics that illustrate the extent of our efforts since we started back in January 2016.

• Total good deeds - 5,691
• Total missions - 229
• Total coach visits - 941
• Total group runs - 193
• Total KMs - 72,043
• Total cheers given - 100,024
• Total cheers received -77,348

Just look at those figures, all done by 993 different runners! In coming weeks we will have completed 6,000 good deeds between us! It's especially heartening to note that we will soon have paid 1000 visits to an older person for a chat, reducing isolation with every visit. Well done to every single person who has been along over the past three years and who has gone on to volunteer outside of our activities, who has stepped up to a race start line (and finish!) and who has made a friend through what we do - this is a pretty special community that we've built here, in our little corner of South East London.

January Challenge

We are currently first in our division for good deeds (144) and utterly smashing it on KMs (1955)! Well done everyone, especially those who went the extra mile this weekend, by attending starter sessions, missions and community missions! If you haven't connected Strava or Run Keeper to your profile, now's the time! A special mention has to go to Emma, who 'did the treble' over the weekend, by completing a mission on Friday, another on Saturday morning, then a community mission shortly after!

A big welcome and all our Lewisham Love go this week to Suzi. We hope you enjoyed the evening, you certainly chose a special week to join us!

In this colder weather, it's even more important to warm up, but more important than anything ever is to have some fun. Handshakes, stuck-in-the-mud and a few hi-fives and we were ready to run. Thank you to Marta for being a tip-top back-marker tonight, keeping us together on the run.

3’s a crowd, 37 is a record!

As we arrived at Crofton Books, I realised that we might just beat our attendance record and, with a couple of people trailing in after us...we did! 37 runners, all ready to get stuck in! Jason had a lot for us to do this week. He had been over to Brixton to collect some HUGE bookshelves for the shop and these needed bringing in from the van (they really were very tall). The shelves they were to replace needed clearing (human chain!) and there was a lot of jiggling to be done to accommodate the new storage.

One for the record books

Meanwhile, in the children's section, Silvana had some more shelf action. These shelves had been dismantled and are quite complex in design so, in addition to wiping down and dusting, they needed reassembling with an allen key. This was a task that required thought and consideration, so there was much chin rubbing and head tilting! It was amazing to see the progress that was made, with a wall now being ready to take more books, giving a wide open space for children to enjoy the many activities on offer.

Outside we had a team of litter-pickers. There has been some great planting along the wall of the building, but sadly some people throw their litter over the fence. This was no problem for our crack team of pickers, flying around and getting it done.

With time flying, we had to clear the floor of books, so the library will be usable, so back to the human chain (though it's difficult not to get distracted as interesting books pass through your hands!). Jason had set the turntable going and the music set the pace, with 'Two minutes!' then 'One!' being called. We really could have stayed all night, but sadly had to leave so, gathering for a group photo, we said our goodbyes and ran the downhill route back to Glass Mill.

Many hands make light work... of 25 pizzas

As if all that running and lifting. shifting and building wasn't enough, we just about had time for a plank relay (cue a bit of moaning and groaning!). Those of us who were able, then headed over to Mamma Dough in Ladywell for some post-run pizza. We also enjoyed some birthday cake and the light and fluffy pannettone that Silvana had kindly given to us - thank you! At the social, I presented a few medals, marking some notable contributions. Well done to Bradley, who has been very nearly every week since he joined us a year ago (he also goes to GoodGym Bromley on a Tuesday, so is about to get his wings!), thank you to Oli, for making my life that little bit easier with his beautiful puns (see his work throughout this report) and a very special award for Jacqueline, our longest standing coach runner, who has visited her coach now for three years, sharing a cup of tea and making someone feel special. To finish, here are some words from our punmeister...

'Thank you for...

• Painting walls and passing balls
• From Glass Mills
• To Moby drills
• For group runs and humorous puns
• For feel-good missions
• And even hill repetitions!
• With high-knees
• Past abandoned WCs
• For making friends
• To sprinting ends
• Through injury woes
• Wielding garden hoes
• Bringing sore feet
• For home-baked treats
• For planting flowers
• In passing showers
• For evening trots
• Despite dreaded squats!
• Up to Hilly Fields
• Down for social meals
• Helpful training tips
• Whilst filling skips
• For friendly faces
• At local races
• Wearing head torches
• Flyering through porches
• Helping at Wildcats
• Wearing Christmas hats
• Surviving aching thighs
• To share free mince pies
• From tree collection
• Earning award selection
• For feeling fine
• Come rain or shine!'

Embracing the bracing air, 28 of Lewisham's finest took to the streets to gather a record number of discarded Christmas trees.

Oli has done it again with his marvellous punning. Also included in this report are puns from Tom and Emma, good work.

January Challenge

Yes, at the start of our run we were in second place on good deeds for our division in the January Challenge (with GoodGym nationwide having the biggest week ever last week!) and, by the end of our run, we are IN THE LEAD! Our winning ways are down to some very committed volunteering and running in the past week, with many of our group over at a community mission on Saturday at Beecroft Garden Primary School, runners tackling parkrun and the cross country and others running off to help in people's homes and to visit their coaches - we are unstoppable!

We had a couple of new faces with us this week - welcome - with all our Lewisham Love going to Holly and Marie.

After a bit of fun warming up and getting to know our teams, we split up into four groups and headed off in different directions - a very big thank you to Caireen, Kim and Emma for leading the other three teams. When I say we ran in different directions, that's not strictly true, because a whole crowd of us headed the same way at first, with my team politely looking the other way if we saw trees outside of our allotted zone, we're good like that.

It'll be all pine on the night

I can only really tell you about the experience of my team, Team 3, who showed their might and dedication to the cause straight away, by engaging in some pretty serious teamwork to retrieve all the trees that had been thrown on top of bus stops by young tikes. Good thinking from Marie, who created a human step for Will to balance on - part of the team from the start! We jogged these first five trees along Adelaide Avenue, then continued over to weave up and down the roads off Brockley Road. There were rich pickings along here, with some trees of colossal proportions, which created the need for us to form a chain, weaving through pedestrians who were clearly perplexed by this sight!

Watch out, needles about!

It was at this point that we saw some treachery going on, as Marta and Andy appeared in our zone and took an actual tree from the actual hands of a member of the public, can you believe it?!

Cutting it pine

Throwing our final finds onto the pile at the foot of Hilly Fields, we waited (in a squat, of course) for the rest of the teams to return. Bouncing trees appeared and smiling faces, who had clearly had a lot of fun. We heard stories of Itmari running with a tree on each shoulder and Conroy apparently managing three, we had a chuckle at the tiny tree that Caireen had found and wondered if it counted (yes, of course) and we all waited with baited breath for the final count and I asked 'How many trees did yule log?' (thanks Emma!).

• Team 1, led by Caireen...12

• Team 2, led by Emma...10

• Team 3, led by me, 15

• Team 4, led by Kim...drum roll please...16!!!

Amazing work everyone! That's 53 in total, so a whopping 31 more than last year! I would love to see the look on people's faces when they open their curtains tomorrow morning...

Less trunk in my junk

Everyone was so pleased when we realised that we had enough time left for a fitness session, 'Woo-hoo!' they shouted! It was pretty obvious that hill repeats awaited, so off we skipped. There was some really strong effort on that tough hill, with the last one taking us up and over towards home. Next week is our THIRD BIRTHDAY! I really can't believe it, all that goodness! We will run to Crofton Books for our annual birthday run and will head over to Mama Dough in Ladywell for a post run pizza (please sign up if you are definitely coming, so we know how many to book for). In the meantime, you can get in an extra good deed on Saturday, with a fun 'plogging' starter session in Hilly Fields, sign up here.

See you soon for some more of the same x

14 awesome runners ran 3km to plant bulbs at Maze Hill station!

We are usually blessed with perfect weather on Wednesday evenings in Greenwich but last night was a bit on the soggy side! Good job you lot aren't fair weather runners eh!

We had two new runners join us on our wet and wild adventure! Welcome Emma and Stewart!! Hope you both enjoyed the run despite the conditions!

After a little mishap with our room and non existent security guard, everyone got a bunch of squats in to finish off the monthly challenge, we were a bit short of time so we skipped the warm up and jogged straight to the task. You were all warm from the squats anyway!

A few minutes later we arrived at Maze Hill and were greeted by the whole crew whom you may have recognised from previous tasks! The gardens at Maze Hill are all managed and looked after by volunteers. When Helena first started looking after it she had a group of 30 volunteers and now it is just a small handful so all the work that was done last night was hugely appreciated!

There were lots of jobs to do and everyone got stuck in! We had one group clearing an area for hundreds of bulbs to be planted. Andy was on litter picking duty and boy did he have his work cut out! There was SOOOOO much stuff. SO many cans, it was truly awful! But after a few minutes it was all under control and two bin bags were full! We also had another group at the other end of the station clearing an area for some shrubs and herbs from Helena's garden to be planted. There was a lovely smelling rosemary bush and also a curry plant and my hands as I'm writing this STILL smell of curry! And yes I have washed them before you ask!

After half an hour the place was looking fab! Thankfully the rain held off for the duration of the task meaning we got loads done! AMAZING!

We cleared up and said our goodbyes to head off for some hill repeats up Maze Hill to finish off the session. Hills are things that we as runners often avoid because they are painful and unpleasant BUT they benefit your running so much! Running hills strengthens the legs, improves running form and efficiency as well as your general aerobic fitness so don't shy away from them! And we are so lucky having Greenwich Park near us which is full of 'em! So get your hill repeats in people!

After a few times up and down, we headed back to the uni for a stretch and called it a night!

Great work everyone! You got so much done and Helena and the team were so impressed with all your hard work! See you next week!