It's the first Wednesday of the month (of April), which meant these 10 Goodgymmers would end up having a social after the group run. Yet, first we had to do a bit of good and get fit before we could sink a couple of pints.

Sam running from home met up Laura and Maria who were waiting outside Old Spike Peckham to be let in. As they got talking about politics with Isaac, who arrived shortly after, Rosalind, Emma, Nelly and Elena came through the doors to join in on the conversation.

As it struck 18:45, Sam started his intro speech, his ice-breaker question was to do with two social dates: National Walking Day and National Burrito Day, so his question and snap-poll was: "Where is your favourite spot/area for walks?" and "You only have one option to go with your burrito: guaca or salsa, which would you choose?"

The snap-poll brought out guaca on top whereas many people like to walk in the same spots namely Thames Path, South Downs and parks in London like Brockwell, Hampstead Heath, Richmond, Regent's and Beckenham Place Park.

---

Our residency this Spring and Summer

After a quick warm up, Sam led the group out of Peckham whilst Laura backmarked. Within 20 minutes, we ran up Chadwick Road (some finding it tougher this time) and came down the other side to end up in Camberwell to meet Catalina (task owner), Andrada and Jessie at the Wildlife Triangle. Catalina had three main jobs for us:

• Emma and Isaac took on the responsibility of moving woodchip with the single wheelbarrow across the Elmington site.
• Maria took Andrada, Jessie and Rosalind to weed around a playground.
• Finally, Sam, Elena, Laura and Nelly stayed behind at the Wildlife Triangle to clear up the space here using shears and handtools to tackle weeds and trim back brambles.

The time zoomed by as 40 minutes evaporated. We put the tools back in the wheelbarrow and the weeds/trimmings in the compost bin before a quick group photo. We said our goodbyes to Catalina, but we know we will be back next month as we promise to help out each month for the Spring/Summer period.

We ran back to Peckham at a more rapid pace as we wanted to get to our social as soon as we can. Those who did not leave their belongings at Old Spike started the social at Social whilst the rest quickly got their belongings and headed over for a pint or two.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Catalina appreciates that we will take some ownership of the gardens in the estate and we will potter around each month until September. Basically, we will do the jobs the residents can't do. Thank you to Maria for taking the photos and Laura for backmarking.

It was amazing to see not only Andrada coming back for her second good deed, but to have 21 sign ups! In the end, 20 came, but still this was incredible for GoodGym and reminiscent of the days before the pandemic hit!

We all gathered in the warmth of Old Spike as Sam delivered his GG intro speech and acknowledging that Maria hit and has exceeded her yearly target of 25 good deeds within 3 weeks of joining! There will be a gift at Xmas social.

They proceed to do their warm-up on the Green as this week, Sam had to be filmed by Paulin, so that he could complete his Run Leader training. A two minute clip showing a decent warm-up.

After the warm-up on the Green, Sam's ice-breaker for tonight was a two-parter: Tomorrow, is International Teacher Day, so who is your favourite teacher and what did they teach you? or the second question was: On Friday is World Smile Day, so what made you smile today?

With 15 people present on the Green, it's hard to remember and put all their answers on here, but we acknowledged, smiled and thanked Clare and Mikhail as they are teachers / teaching assistants.

---

Fire fighting

We split our ways on the Green, with those going to Elmington Gardens followed Sam leading the 3k run whilst Mikhail was backmarking. Lindy and Maria took Andrada, Clare, David, John and Nelly on a shorter 1.5k run to Salvation Army in Nunhead.

An incline run from Peckham up Grove Vale to the other side of Camberwell took the team just over 15 minutes as they arrived at Elmington Community Garden to meet Zulieka and her girls as well as Tam and Jessie, who cycled and ran over to the task, respectively. The task was to weed the herbs bed, but we also had a team consisting of Clare, Isaac and Paulin moving mulch from the Wildlife Triangle to the site where the rest were weeding. Mikhail was our photographer for the night as he captured the moments.

Meanwhile at the Salvation Army Nunhead, after running 1.5k with Lindy leading the way and Maria backmarking to ensure no one is left behind, they met Anna, Emma and Steve outside the shop entrance. Polis and Tiziana kindly let them in and they were shown into the new storage room. The task at hand was to move boxes from upstairs in the old storage downstairs. To achieve maximum efficiency, the team created a people chain and they each had their own little section. They moved mostly household items, shoes and children's toys. After this, they had the time to roam the library/book store section to get a book or two as a token of helping out.

The teams in their respective locations called it at 20:00 to head back to Old Spike as it was the first Wednesday of the month, so the team had a social to attend.

Those who stayed for the social went to Market Place in Peckham to check out the establishment. However, only one food stall was still open at 20:30. We all had a drink from the bar and a few of us nibbled on Mexican food!

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Firstly, a massive thank you to my taskforce team for helping out with a variety of tasks from co-leading the second task to backmarking and from taking photos to being walk leaders too. Thank you to the rest of you for coming along for what is our biggest group run to date since I took over as AA in September 2021 - thank you!

---

Thank You to Polis, Tiziana and Zuleika

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Polis and Tiziana for bringing their task a week earlier, so we could accommodate for the large group. We will be back at the Salvation Army in Nunhead on the 22nd of November and again, on the 13th of December. As for Zuleika, thank you for having us and showing what we needed to do as we moved almost all the mulch over and weeded the communal garden. We are always up for doing sessions on the weekends to help out with any weeding but for Wednesday evenings, we're full until the new year, so we'll be back in 2024!

After discussions with the BetterPoints team, they decided to give away 100 BetterPoints for each GoodGym session a user attends (redeemable to twice a week). This is why Sam had a print out of a QR code prepared for those who want to claim their points! Just another way of rewarding yourself by getting fit and doing good!

As we all gathered in Old Spike on the last Wednesday of August, we welcomed in Abigail, Alex, Claire, Clare, Daryl, Elena, Emma, Gemma, Lindy, Nathan, Nelly and Steve as Sam talked all things GoodGym before announcing that it was Steve's 500th good deed! He draped him in the GG cape before giving him a golden party hat and balloon with a faded 500 on it. Congrats Steve!

After our warm-up on the Green outside, Sam's ice-breaker question for tonight was either: What is your favourite fun fair game (due to the Peckham Rye Fete this weekend)? or What TV game show would go on?

We had all suggestions from hook-a-duck to coconut shy and toss-a-ring (on a bottle) to the claw in the Arcades.... For TV game shows, we had those who wanted to win money in The Chase to those who wanted to challenge themselves in Survivor, Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. We also had some weird Japanese hostess game and someone brave enough to try Big Brother...

---

The Heartbreak Insect Hotel

Our run took us over the hill and down again as we ran at a comfortable pace to tackle 3k in 22 minutes. As we arrived on-site, we saw Folarin and Mikhail waiting for us, but we also met Sophie, who came for her first good deed after being invited by Clare to come along (with a bribe to get ramen later...). At the back of the group run, we had Magda who jogged along with us as we arrived in Camberwell. Here we were, all 17 of us, eager to get going. We were met by Catalina, who had brought over the tools for us to use. The main task was to clear back a weeded stepping stone pathway in the Wildlife Triangle, but she needed a few volunteers to help her bring over insects for the bug hotel, but also transport woodchip to the allotment.

Our man of the night, Steve and Claire put their hands up to become the transporters of the catepillars whilst newbie, Sophie and her friend, Clare put their hands up to transport barrows of woodchip mulch to the allotment. The rest used the limited tools and gardening gloves to clear back the path in the Wildlife Triangle.

With 90s tunes blaring, the site got a transformational change within the 35 - 40 minutes that we were there. A few insects got to live in the bug hotel whilst the extra catepillars got the other end of the estate... Sophie and Clare managed to move mountains of mulch (at least, 5 barrows full) and we all got to celebrate Steve's 500th good deed at the end with mashed up vegan cupcakes that had unsparkled sparklers.

As 20:00 approached, we said our goodbyes and ran the most direct route back to Old Spike before a few of us decided to continue Steve's celebrations with a slice of pizza and a few beers at Voodoo Ray's!

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Firstly, a massive thank you to Lindy for backmarking the runs there and back and being the constant support to Abigail. Thank you to the rest of you for getting on with the task and the run wasn't so bad either. Lastly, another congratulations to Steve for hitting 500 good deeds and to Sophie for claiming her first!

---

Thank You to Catalina

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Catalina for bringing out the tools and telling us what tasks needed to be done. It was quite a stark contrast within our 35-40 minutes session and we're always pleased to help out at Elmington Community Garden. We will be back to help support you come October before it gets cold and dark!

Sam rushed to Old Spike as he was informed that there would be a newbie that wanted to do her document check at 18:15 (15 minutes before the start of the group run). He met Jessica, who recently signed up, but was not yet prepared do a group run. However, she stuck around to meet the runners as they came in and hear Sam's GG speech.

After the quick warm-up, Sam told everyone in advance of the ice-breaker question. Since it's Pride Month, he asked: Who comes first in your mind when I say Pride icon?

We had the late Paul O'Grady (Lily Savage), Jane Fonda, Freddie Mercury and many more (forgot to be honest...).

---

The "moving" water tank

We arrived ahead of schedule, so we waited around for Catalina to greet us and then Paul came along with wheelbarrows and tools. There were a few tasks for us to do. Firstly, the team had to go with Catalina to get the "moving" water tank, so that we could fill up our watering cans to water the plants that desperately needed a drink! Sam stayed behind to be a point of reference as he was still waiting on a few GoodGymers to show up at the task. He noticed James and Paulin from afar as they walked from their flat to Elmington Estate. They immediately got stuck in with shovelling and moving mulch as Paul wanted to get going with that task as the place where the mulch would be set was far away.

Nathan showed up as Catalina and the team brought over the "moving" water tank. Emma, Katy and Lindy took a watering can each to fill up and water the plants that were around the Wildlife Triangle. With limited tools, Daryl and Nathan went with Catalina to where the mulchers were as more hands would be needed there.

Eventually, Folarin showed up and swapped with Emma to get involved with the watering.

As soon as the water tank was empty, the team moved over to weed a pathway on the Wildlife Triangle that had become neglected. Daryl and Nathan helped Paul weed further along where they are growing a variety of herbs and flowers. After a quick 10 minute weeding session, it was time to pack up and head back to Peckham.

We ran the direct route in order to get back in time to start our monthly social. This time, we decided to enjoy the sunset despite there being a chill in the air.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! We got a lot done with three different tasks: watering, weeding and mulching within 45 minutes! Thanks to those who stayed for the social as we caught up, tried each other's crisps and saw the sunset from Peckham Rye park before it all got a bit too chilly.

---

Thank You Catalina and Paul

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Catalina who came to show us the various tasks that needed to be done and Paul for taking the second group to mulch and then weed around Elmington Community Gardens. We will be back in August to help out with more gardening and watering!

That's two weeks in a row, we had a newbie. This time, Sam greeted Oliver as he claimed his first good deed. He mentioned that he was new in town and wanted to get involved. Kudos on you, Oliver! We welcomed all the other runners as they came in; from Nelly to Gemma and then Daryl until finally, Louise came running from Brockley station. Sam knew he would meet Magda at the task, so he got stuck into delivering his intro GoodGym speech for Oliver before everyone went out to warm-up in the alleyway for the warm-up (although, Sam did promise it would be the first warm-up on the Green...).

Sam had not one, but three ice-breaker questions tonight, he asked: What challenges do you want to do? (after his 106k Ultra over the weekend), Who is your favourite Star Wars character? (as it was going to be Star Wars Day on Thursday) and/or Any well wishes to King Charles III? (since it's his coronation on Saturday)

Louise started us off with asking the King to give up some of his wealth (if not all). This was a sentiment that was echoed by Daryl who went further by saying abolish the monarchy. Nelly likes Princess Leia from Star Wars. Gemma would like to do a skydive as a challenge and Oliver would love to run a marathon someday. Sam finished off the round by answering all three questions: he would like to do another Ultra (100k), but a flat one, he likes Baby Yoda and he wishes the King not to have any controversies.

---

Daryl and Magda at the wheel

Our uphill 3k run from Old Spike to Elmington Estate took us 20 minutes as Daryl back marked to ensure no one got left behind. We arrived just as Magda was looking for us. After a few minutes and Instagram messages, Peter showed up with wheelbarrows and shovels. There were two big tasks for the team.

Peter showed Sam where the two tasks were as the team filled up the first two wheelbarrows.

Once Sam had a sense of the tasks, he split the group into two. Daryl, Louise and Magda were "team mulch" as they went back and forth to the woodchip pile to get mulch and distribute it over two beds that we helped plant last summer.

The second team were "team weeding" and this consist of Gemma, Nelly and Oliver as they went to a third bed on Southampton Row to pull part the weeds and leave the tulips and other precious flowers.

Sam ran in-between these groups to get photos and to check up on everyone, but once "team mulch" were done with their mulching on bed 1 and 2, they took two wheelbarrows worth for "team weeding".

That was all that could be done as we had reached 20:00! So, we just brought back the tools before running back to Old Spike.

Since it was the first Wednesday of the month, everyone apart from Magda and Oliver went to "The Montpellier" for a drink and food!

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was well coordinated as we split the group in half and I hope everyone had enough to do and more importantly, that is was enjoyable. We will be back as there's more beds dotted around the estate that need similar treatment, but this will be done next month. A warm welcome again to Oliver. You were very friendly and I hope we were accommodating. Hope to see you again soon!

---

Thank You Peter

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter who came out and welcomed us with wheelbarrows and shovels as we were meant to meet Zulieka, who had to take care of her twins. We'll be back in June to help out again!

Lindy, Mikhail, and Daryl met Catalina from the Elmington Estate. Tree saplings, plants, and herbs around the estate needed a watering. Despite the rain that we had during the week. There was woodchip to move across the estate too.

Catalina showed Lindy and Daryl where the water source was and what needed watering. While Mikhail started to fill the wheelbarrow with woodchip to shift. With the hosepipe ban, Lindy, Daryl, and Catalina set about filling watering cans. After about 40 minutes, Catalina was happy with the amount that we got done and we downed tools.