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.

Our task last night was a local nursery for under-fives, a fantastic facility that provides outdoor spaces to enhance the children's learning experience. There was plenty to do, and not much time to do it - so after a few stretches and a quiz question featuring the iconic golden arches (which Lorna nailed on her very first group run!) we set off for Balham.

A massive special welcome to Andreas and trivia master Lorna, who joined us for their first GoodGym experience last night, and a welcome back to Harriet. It was absolutely great to have you all with us, and we hope to see you for many more.

We divided and conquered to tackle all the jobs. One team repainted the benches in bright, vibrant colours to cheer up the welcome area, while another transformed the outdoor chalkboard to give the kids a fresh surface for their creations. We also cleared out the mud kitchen, sorted out the flower beds, cut back overgrown trees and bushes to reclaim the pathways, and took down the last of the summer bunting. The latter wasn't quite as straightforward as it first looked, taking the collective detangling skills of Robyn, Pritesh, Lorna and Beth to release the material. If you were watching at just the right moment you may have caught Beth speeding down the slide in a moment of post-bunting glory. And it was great to see Jason debut his brand new 100 tshirt!

Natasha, the head of the nursery, was thrilled with the transformation. She let us know that our evening of hard work saved the nursery loads of time and money, allowing them to focus resources directly on the children.

With the autumn nights drawing in we made a quick dash to Clapham Common for the fitness element of the night. We tackled a fitness blast specifically focusing on three different muscle groups. Everybody showed great form as we worked through arms, core and glutes before heading back to base for some thorough stretches.

Up next:this Wednesday we have a lovely evening mission over in Roehampton, helping to build raised beds for a fantastic local food-sharing initiative. For next Monday, I am just waiting to confirm the final details for our task—keep an eye on the website sign-up page. Great work everybody, see you at the next one!

5 bags were filled by the end of the task weeding and clearing the patio for Ms V

Yesterday evening, a squad of GoodGymers met up at Roehampton Methodist Church to support Shared Roots. This incredible organization is dedicated to empowering local communities by turning underutilized urban spaces into productive, sustainable, and educational food-growing hubs.

With the ground still parched from a hot summer, the task meant a great workout. Moving heavy stones and shifting mud tested our stamina, but working together we shifted stubborn debris, hauled away stones, shovelled and levelled the earth. Shout-out to Jason and his trusty pickaxe!

The cleared space will support Shared Roots in their mission to boost local food security and give residents access to fresh, healthy produce by preparing the plot needed to construct raised beds.

Beyond the digging, it was a joyful session filled with lots of big life news shared across the group. We look forward to celebrating all these milestones together as a team over the coming weeks!

We will be heading back to continue supporting this fantastic project on our follow-up mission next Wednesday evening. Sign up on the website to help us build the raised beds and see this community garden really take shape