We kicked things off last night with a warm-up and our Quiz Qu of the Week: Which country is wider than the Moon? Russia certainly threw us off the scent, but three of you cracked it! 🌍 Well done! Apologies that I forget to mention at the time, but a huge shout-out goes to Pritesh for running the Royal Parks Half Marathon yesterday – fantastic effort! 🏃‍♂️👏

We also welcomed Molly who joined us for their very first GoodGym session. 👋 Great to have you with us!

Then it was time to head out into the darkness and make our way to Paradise Community Garden, a special green space that provides a haven for wildlife and a green oasis for the local community. Community gardens like this are vital for supporting biodiversity, creating habitats for wildlife and giving people a place to connect with nature.

Unfortunately our original task to shovel manure had to be postponed as access issues meant it hadn't been delivered. Luckily, there were still two tasks to keep us busy – chopping up firewood and painting the shed. But first, we had to navigate our way through the frogs! 🐸 We've never seen so many - they were everywhere, creating, as Joput it,'a carpet of frogs', so careful footwork was essential. We did our best to avoid stepping on our tiny amphibian friends and keep this happy, healthy ecosystem thriving.

Once we'd safely negotiated the frog-filled terrain, we found our way to the firepit and split into two teams.

🎨 Team Shed Painting took on the challenge of finding the right colour for the job. Getting the shade just right was all part of the challenge, as was the dark surroundings. Nevertheless, they persevered and a beautiful newly painted shed was soon underway.

🪵 Team Firewood tackled the sawing, which came with its own challenge: mastering the two-handed saw. With a bit of practice, the team perfected their techniques with various implements around the site, keeping a safe distance from one another. All fingers and toes remained intact – result! Great work, everyone. 💪

As the rain started to set in and we'd already had a good workout, we decided to give the fitness session a miss this time and head back for some well-earned stretches. We took care to avoid the wildlife on the way, although the snails unfortunately didn't all make it through unscathed. 🐌 Let's just say it wasn't a completely casualty-free journey!

A huge well done to everyone for being adaptable, getting stuck into the tasks and helping look after this lovely community space.

Next week: We're heading back to St Mary's to give the outside of Battersea's oldest church a good blitz. 🧹 We hope to see you all there!

Until then, happy running, and thanks for being brilliant, GoodGym Wandsworth! ❤️

🌱🎃

We were back at Doddington for our monthly session last night— the evenings are getting darker, but thankfully it’s still warm enough to make the most of being outside.

We kicked things off with the important question of the evening: what colour is hippo sweat? Because why wouldn’t we? 🦛

Then it was time to run down to the garden, where we got stuck straight into a whole host of jobs. We laid down cardboard to create new growing space, dug out and replanted teasels, shifted soil around the garden and generally had all hands on deck helping with the maintenance of this special place where local people without access to gardens can grow food.

It’s such a beautiful time of year at Doddington, with amazing squashes and pumpkins growing all around the site. The children will be carving them for the local library, before the contents are cooked up and shared with the community — meaning everyone gets to be part of the life cycle of the garden. 🎃🌱

With the garden jobs done, we headed down to the square for our circuits-based fitness session. And if that wasn’t enough, we finished with a one-minute squat challenge. Our legs were definitely feeling it by the end!

Great work, everybody! 💪

Then it was off to the quiz to defend our GoodGym reputation. 🧠🏆

Next week, we’re heading to Paradise to shovel manure in this beautiful space. Come and get stuck in!

Sign up here for all the details.

What a day for a GoodGym trail run! Yesterday we headed out onto Wimbledon Common, and despite it being October and technically Autumn, the weather hadn’t got the memo. It was a hot 20C and many of us found we regretted our decision to wear layers!

We welcomed Guldjan to her first GoodGym session - lovely to meet you! - and settled into a great pace. The trails were beautiful and leafy, with plenty of hills to keep things interesting. Along the way we explored some of the Common’s more exciting landmarks, including the Big Alp, Little Alp and the infamous Toast Rack. There was even the added excitement of navigating around the golf course and successfully avoiding being taken out by any stray golf balls! ⛳️

After a good run, we finished up at a pub that felt like we’d been transported to the countryside — the perfect place to cool down, relax and give ourselves a pat on the back.

A brilliant run, great company and plenty of ideas for where to explore next. Richmond was mentioned so keep an eye out for the next GoodGym trail adventure! 👀

Thanks everyone for making it such a fun one and to Catherine for plotting us a beautiful route. 🌿💪

A very warm welcome to our new runners Gabriel and Gareth last night — great to have you along for your first GG Wandsworth session!

We started with our usual warm-up, plus the random question of the evening:What is the only dog that doesn’t have a pink tongue? The answer of course was the Chow Chow, whose tongue is famously blue-black. Now fully warmed up — and considerably more knowledgeable about canine anatomy — we set off towards Battersea Park for a rather special visit.

First stop on the magical mystery tour was the Thrive Garden, where we picked up our tools before heading deeper into the park to visit the Battersea Park's resident monk. The famous Peace Pagoda was built in 1985 by the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order as a focus for peace and is one of around 80 such pagodas around the world. Reverend Gyoro Nagase helped construct the Battersea Pagoda and maintains it to this day.

Our mission for the evening was to give his garden a good tidy up. Armed with rakes, bags and plenty of muscle, the team got stuck in. Leaves were raked up and packed away — despite the bag having a significant hole in it which provided an unexpected extra challenge as we attempted to transport the leaves without simply redistributing them across the park!

There was weeding and clearing to be done, along with planting a new salvia bush. Before long the area was looking considerably tidier. The monk came out to thank us and was clearly very happy with the transformation — always a lovely way to finish a task.

But we weren't done for the evening. We squeezed in a two-minute fitness challenge, seeing how many reps of jump squats, shoulder taps and plank jacks. The numbers and form were very impressive! Well done everybody.

Tools returned, it was time to head back to base for some stretches and, of course, that hill. And apparently we didn't suffer enough, because there was even a request for more hill sprints! Ask and you will receive - more sprints are coming soon to a hill near you.

Next week…

We're heading to Doddington community garden followed by our monthly pub quiz social! Everyone is welcome — whether you're joining us for the run, the task, the quiz or all three!

See you there! 🏃‍♂️🌿🍻

Last night we kicked things off with a proper warm-up to get the legs moving, paired with our weekly question: What town has the longest name in the UK? The answer, of course, is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch—a staggering 58 letters long, and a test for anyone attempting to pronounce it mid-lunge!

Warmed up and ready for action, we set off on our run to Larkhall Park. Returning to this green space regularly is so helpful for the local community; keeping a public park safe, clean, and well-maintained means families, runners, and neighbours always have a welcoming place to reset, play, and connect with nature.

We met up with the rest of the team and split into two groups to tackle the tasks at hand. One group got stuck into weeding the overgrown cracks along the pathways, while the other took on a thorough litter pick across the grounds.

It’s always amazing to see how much of a difference a focused group can make in such a short window of time. By the time we finished, the park was noticeably tidier and more cared for—removing litter means fewer environmental pollutants making their way into local soil and wildlife habitats, making the space safer for everyone.

To wrap up all that hard work, we celebrated with a fiery five-minute core blast. It was definitely tough but effective!

A massive well done to everybody who came along and brought all the energy.

Next week on Monday, we're off to a very special place in Battersea Park—you can sign up and find all the details right here:. See you there!

Five volunteers got down and dirty, filling the flower beds with fresh soil before taking on the much more complicated business of building compost boxes. The boards refused to play ball, so we had to get creative and screw around with the design until everything finally lined up. There was measuring, re-measuring, some questionable angles and enough hardware to make a DIY shop nervous. But after a few screw-tacular engineering decisions, we finally had boxes that were firmly screwed together rather than completely screwed up. All in all, it was a soil-id morning’s work—and we left feeling thoroughly compost-ed.