Usually the first Saturday of the moth is reserved for pacing at Shorne Woods Parkrun, however as they were celebrating thier 500th run on the first Saturday of the month pacing was pushed back a week. I volunteered to pace 26 mins with a little help from mini me as our way of ensuring that we volunteer at least once each month at our local parkrun. Pleased to report back that all persons using us as a pacer achieved their target as we crossed the line in 00:25:46. Will we be fortunate to get the 24/25 mins bib next month as we work our way to sub 00:23:00?

Last night we welcomed Oliver to his first group run, he found out about us via instagram. We had a task all booked and set to go ahead at the Refugee centre, hover due to some issues with the locks being changed we were unable to gain access and complete the planned task. Visit Oliver's page and give him some cheer.

All was not lost as Simon our host was on had to put the group through their paces with a fitness session, he had us doing lunges, wall sits, press ups against the railing and squats.

Simon appologised for not being able to get us into the building, but he seemed to have a good time putting us through our paces.

On our next visit, I'm planning on getting Simon to do our fitness session.

Signup to next week's run here.

On Tuesday myself and Liz ran 6.6 km to St Augustine's to help out in the community garden. When we arrived Ingrid had already started in the task, however Sue briefed us on what she'd like us to do. This was the smallest group we've visited with and when we were told there was a Ton bag of wood chips to move to the back of the church, I thought to myself we were in for a long one. That wasn't the case as we soon had a system in place and within a wink of an eye we had emptied enough of the wood chips for two of us to be able to lift it to the back and spread the remainder under Sue's watchful eyes, ensuring we put it in the right place. After completing the task we said our farewells and myself and Liz ran back to East Croydon.

On Tuesday 4 of us walked 1.4km to Addiscombe Road, to where we were met by Andrea, the project coordinator for Joan Pick memorial bed.

The bed is located near the corner of Bisenden Road and Addiscombe Road, they will be unveiling a plaque and planting some plants on Wednesday 6th March 2024 in memory of Joan Pick.

Joan Pick was known by many as a local celebrity - a scientist and writer determined to reduce her carbon footprint. It their our goal to come together as a community as part of Joan’s legacy and make a difference.

However before all the celebrations the bed needed to be prepared and thats where we came in. We were able to weed a section of the bed and planted some plants, we turned quite a few heads working in the dark. Quite a few members of the community on their way home from work stopped to talk with us to find out what we were doing and a few others while walking by thanked us for the work we were doing. It was quite nice not to be mistaken for offenders on community service, although we were doing community service but without committing a crime.

The following day we received the message below from Andrea;

Thank you so much for bringing your team to work on our Joan Pick memorial bed at the Boulevard at the top of Bisenden Road in the dark last night with your team, who were wonderful - such hard work, and effective too. We're delighted with the progress.

Are you around on Wednesday 6th March 2024 fancy being apart of the unveiling of the plaque and celebrations?

It was the eve of Valentines day, it looks like everyone from GoodGym Croydon was busy prepping for Valentines days as I find myself all by myself for the group run. The task I had lined up had fallen trough and I had planned a little competition to see how many of our past task the group would be able to cover in 50 mins. However as I was by myself I didn't have anyone to compete with so I set off on my lonesome plotting a route in my head that would take me to as many task as possible within 50 mins.

First up was a run to Tunstall Nursery, where I also did the Tunstall loop, which on our next group run there I will be making sure it is back on the list of things to do, next was a stop on Cedar Road, were we once leafleted on behalf of tress for streets, then onto Bisenden Road where we spend many nights with the folks of ECCO, cutting back shrubs nd tidying up the raised beds seeing if we can outdo the number of bags from our last visit, a stop at Parkhill Junior School where we did an amazing job in the forest school area, onto Park Hill Recreation ground where e have had some fond memories with friend of park hill in the walled garden. A trip to Park Hill used to include some hill repeats on water tower hill, so I obliged and did some. Another stop at Chatsworth Road, where I visited the tree planted by Nicola, then along I went to the area behind Chatsworth Residential Home where we cleared and cut the overgrowth, then trod off with another stop at the Croydon Police Station where we handed in some documents we had found on our way to a task, finishing up at the site of our previous start location only to the the building had been demolished and the place we once used to congregate before and after our runs is no longer there.

Next week we will be doing some gardening along Addiscombe Road on the Joan Pick Memorial Bed will you be joining us? Sign up here.

The team met on a mild January evening somewhere in Croydon and welcomed Nat to the Croydon group.

Kate and Jack set off for a brisk walk. Meanwhile, somewhere in Croydon, the others started with a warm-up and Nik led the way to show us some artwork.

When we arrived at the task, Kate, Jack and Ian promptly began labeling the new donations. Meanwhile, somewhere in Croydon Nat, Nik and Liz set to work tidying the racks of clothing.

Finally, the team wheeled the racks into the cupboard and set-off for a well deserved beverage!

Well done team!!