On Tuesday we welcomed Zoe to her first group run, she had signed up to Good Gym some time ago, however there was no groups local to her. Having recently moved she again checked to see if there was a group local to her new home and and found us, although we are more than six miles away from her home, she decided to join us to experience that Goodgym Magic.

Eight of us set off on our jog from solutions to Howard Primary where we were met by Magda and Hannah, rounding up the group to the tidy sum of 10.

Our task was to weed an area at the back of the school that had been taken over by thistles, daisies, weeds and some black berry bushes. It was painful (not because of the thorns on the plant) to have to cut back the black berries as they were laden with fruits which for an adult is dangerous at times but for the young children who wanted to use the area even more dangerous.

The group spread across the area to be cleared and set about our task. As we were neari g the end of completing the task, myself, Ian, Karim, Nicola and Kate agreed we would attempt the schools, daily mile challenge to see how many laps the children had to complete in order to achieve a mile. It took some of us 32.5, 32.5 laps to complete the mile. Would it take the same amount for the children given they are smaller?

Next week we are going to assist unique roots at the allotments sign up here

We're back!

After 17 months without group runs, only thing that could have derailed today's long awaited return was a last minute announcement from the government that we had to go back into lockdown. So when the skies opened up and that big torrential down pour started the magnificent 7 that turned up to today's task was not fazed, we were chomping at the bits to get started. After all we survived the various waves and strains of the RONA we just wanted to get back to helping the staff at Howard Primary School by transforming their unloved patch by the pond into something that is manageable and ready for the transformation in mind for when school is reopened in September.

Today we were joined by a former GoodGym Croydon member, past student of Howard Primary Dom who came along for a trip down memory lane telling us about the boy the had pushed in the pond back in his time at Howard. Only joking!! I can see a few raised eyebrows as if Dom would do that to someone. No he recalled the day someone he wasn't too found of fell into the pond unaided.

We battled, stinging nettles, ivy, thorny weeds, low hanging branches, while trying our best to ensure the local habitants the, Slugs, Snails, Caterpillar, Lady bugs, centipedes, toads, crickets, moths, flies, spiders wood lice where unharmed or rehoused.

Next week we'll be heading over to Valley Park to assist Pam in the community garden interested in tagging along? Sign up here, come and hear all about Ros' (Rose) experience at Endure24.

In keeping with the extreme wet and windy conditions of late, five Good Gymers stormed into Croydon for a Saturday morning community mission to help out Howard Primary School. The group was led by Magda and included Lucy, all the way from Hammersmith and Fulham GGym, Mark, Hannah and Ian. A teacher from the school met us at the gates and she explained that their pond and surrounding area is in need of constant maintenance. We were provided with various tools and pondering where to begin, saw that there were plenty of weeds to dig up. There was no time to pondtificate as we helped to collect the numerous weeds, add them to a compost heap and finish with a general clear up. The teacher was very grateful and we were all pleased to help make the pond area tidier for use by the children as spring approaches!

Despite the showers throughout the day and this evenings down pour 13 GoodGymers came out and ran 3.5km to tonight's task.

We welcomed Ruth to he second outing with us, due to traveling with work she has been unable to join us but we were happy she was able to make it tonight.

Tonight's task was a special one as it's very close to the hearts of Dovile and Magda, we were visiting their children's school. Magda and Dovile had already done the school run twice today already but they were excited to be doing it again for a third time they have been singing our praises to the school ever since they joined us 11 weeks ago, about the wonders we create in the community no matter what the weather.

It wasn't rocket science who was going to be tonight's lead runners after all they knew the route like the back of their hands. Although after a few turns we did began to wonder whether or not we would get there at certain points as we thought they were taking us on their training run route as opposed to the school.

When we arrived at the school, we were met by Jayshree, who thanked us for coming along and signed us all in before leading us up the path to the area we would be working in. At first glance the area looked like a mammoth task but I was confident that we would get it cleared before our time was up.

After receiving their instructions the class set about weeding, cutting and digging up the weeds, within 10 minutes we could see the difference. Thanks to the rain that had fallen earlier the weeds were easy to pull up although there was a raised bed filled with stinging nettles Andy should them they were no match to him and his fork, not wanting to waste the soil after rooting them up he ensured he shaked it off. While he was doing that I did try and plant the seed by commenting on him shaking it off to see if someone would break out into a Taylor Swift rendition but no one bite so I'll let the Rock do it instead. (warning video may contain some form of swearing gesture)

There were a few discoveries from toys, to a massive mushroom and pumpkins. Magda even found a bunch of daises which she gifted to Jenny which made Jenny smile.

There were no trips or spills, however Paul did manage to break the cover of the compost bin, he was fortunate to escape detention.

I can say the team did Magda and Dovile proud by clearing the entire area and as a reward they were given chocolates. Having been fed chocs it was only fair they did a few wall sits which they welcomed with smiles on their faces.

School is always a fun place but most importantly its an institute of learning and although we have all long passed primary school age, before class was dismissed feeling very proud of what we had done Jayshree thought us a phrase she teaches her class

One, two, three well done me!

Well done to the die hard few who made it to the pub to celebrate our achievements this month. Congratulations Jenny and Magda on completing the Beddington 10K, you both forgot to take your medals along to show us.

Tonight they were a class act!

Will you be doing any festive run leading up to Christmas? Tell us about it you never know someone may want to join in too.

Don't forget!

6 December 2019 South Norwood Parkrun it's not a take over lets run together!

10 December 2019 Our Special group run

15 December Volunteering at Lloyd junior Parkrun

This evening we ran around 4km to Howard Primary School in south Croydon

16 of us headed out from Solutions towards Howard Primary School in south Croydon stopping first outside the Fairfield Halls for our warm-up - probably providing some entertainment for the bus stop queue too. We headed to the school in two groups one led by Amatare and Ellie and th other led by me and back marked by Sally - thanks guys. We also all admired Amber's new beanie hat with built in headlight (Clas Olsen - I think)

Once we arrived at the school we were met by two other GoodGym runners and task masters for the night, Dom and Jane, who explained the task, doled out the tools kept a close eyes on the work. Armed with a variety of colours of paint we painted around 5 outside walls - amazing how a little bit of paint can make a difference to an area.

After the painting was finished we had fun in the playground with six different "stations" including suicide sprints, hopscotch, tricep dips and a few other exercises - a bit of competition between the runners but nobody came to blows!

An amazing seven new runners tonight so a very bog GoodGym Croydon welcome to Claire, Jade Andy, Alex, Chloe, Amanda and Jeanne-Marie. I'm afraid I couldn't read Alex's email address so hope he comes back and we can get him properly registered.

During the cool-down we discussed Missions, Coach runs and also having a bit of a posse at Lloyd Park's 7th anniversary parkrun on Saturday 4th of November. To celebrate there will be fancy dress, running the route in reverse and cake. I'll post a link in the next few days and hopefully lots of us can run, volunteer or cheer.

Next week we are heading to Thornton Heath Rec's Community Garden - a slightly longer run and on a spooky Hallowe'en evening! Don't forget your pennies if you want to come along to the end of the month social at BoxPark too. Hope to see you all next week.