The core Lambeth team was back in action last night as we had a last minute call for help from the Friends of Loughborough Park and Farm.

AA Yianny met with returning Task Force legend Katie, Mark and Tilly at Papa's in advance of heading over to the arches at Loughborough Junction.

Everything was coming up roses, having Katie back after a while away, Tilly bringing some very positive news, Mark keeping up his streak, the sun and blue sky above our heads making this the official start of GoodGym Spring!

We set a very good pace and within 10 minutes were over at the arches 1.5kms away where Heather was ready to meet us. We were also joined by Jo coming straight from work - great effort Jo!

Our task was a simple one, to move all the planks from under the arches over to the pallets on the other side of the site and once we were joined by the rest of the FoLP team including Karen and Alice things could really get moving. Looking at the pile there was probably in excess of 250 boards but the team made light work of it, carrying singles, doubles, triples, quads and even eight a time on the trolley!

We then wrapped the session (literally) by placing the tarps over the pile to protect them from the elements and then it was time to head back to base.

We had time on the way back to discuss GoodGym Lambeth book club and a general love-in for the works of Murakami and of course the GG London social this Thursday - check out the link below and hope to see lots of you there :0) https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-london-monthly-social

Thanks everyone and see you next week!

With Christmas parties in full swing we had a smaller group this evening but as ever they were nothing less than fabulous. We started with the lovely news that Sarah and James K-B had finally had a healthy little boy - hooray!

We had two tasks to get done - the first was led by Victoria and Lucy to the nearby Moorlands Estate. Here's their report:

Five runners made their way to Moorlands, via a slight detour. Karen and her sister were very pleased to see us and shared many a tip about Merseyside/ Liverpool, (as that’s where they hail from). We sorted ourselves into teams of wheelbarrowing and spreading woodchip along the paths between the community allotments they have created. We made a big dent in the pile of woodchip they had had delivered and Karen was delighted with the result. Big shout out to new runners Simon and Beth who got stuck in straight away. Simon was keen to pose with a spade for the group photo, so is a perfect fit for GoodGym!

The rest of us headed back to firm fave Clapham Common to round off our very productive year there by spreading soil onto the humps created by all of the turf that we removed when we were digging the wildflower strips. After covering these with soil, they are being planted up for further flowers and to add another dimension to this space.

We could never have got so much done this year without you! Said David

We know! We have worked really hard at the common this year and one group even removed another load of turf to get even more wildflowers planted. Amazing!

The run back and stretches were followed by disappointment that there was no cake after our epic run of Bake Off goods finally came to an end last week. See you for the last run of the year next week Lambeth!

This evening we welcomed lots of lovely new people and celebrated Tess's 50th run. What a good start!

We had two cracking tasks this evening - the shorter run was led by Beth. Here's what she had to say about it:

Following some confusion about where the woodchip had been delivered, we headed to Loughborough Junction farm to meet Karen and to help spread woodchip around the paths at the farm. We utilised anything we could find to move the woodchip, a couple of wheelbarrows, buckets and even a plastic bag. After about half an hour of shoveling, wheeling and spreading the pile was gone and any last bits swept up. With time to spare John lead us in a quick fitness session which required us to do impressions of rockstars, frogs and skiers.

The rest of us headed 4km up to Streatham to help the fantastic family support charity, St. Michael's Fellowship. They had loads more clothing donations for babies and toddlers that needed sorting into packs before being distributed to local families who need them. Everyone set about their spring, summer, autumn and winter collections with aplomb and loved being in such a positive space.

Do these shorts go with this top? Asked Andy. NO! Said everyone.

On return to base we enjoyed some stretches and bake off delights from Katie (that's me!) and the elusive Jay who got up at 5am to bake his. Now that's commitment!

We started the evening by celebrating Samantha's 50th run. Hooray - give her a cheer!

This week we had two runs, the first was led by Victoria. Here's her report:

Vix took ten new and some not so new but still new-ish faces the 1k run to Wyck gardens and neighbouring Loughborough Farm. They are a community space which grow edibles for locals to enjoy.

Having been told to do a warm up around the block, we made the rare turn left out of Papa's, only to jog it out and back on ourselves just as the other group were setting off. Helpful cheers of encouragement from coach George "haha, did you get lost!?" only served to spur our orchard-bound crew on.

We had team walk, team water and team wood chip.

Team walk was led by Lucy to accommodate a pesky injury.

Team water filled every possible vessel at the farm with, ahem water, and initiated Martin into his first group run by giving him the coveted task of wheelbarrowing; navigating some antisocial Brixton motorists along the way. This was to water many fruit trees and newly planted sage and sorrel.

Sorrel goes astoundingly well in an omelette! Sylvie proclaimed.

Team wood chip lay a circle of wood chip around the newly bedded plants to deter trampling. Will did a sound job of woodchip dishing out, and regaled us with stories of his fourth (and I'll bet wettest) marathon which he ran with Goodgym last weekend in Yorkshire. Give him a cheer!

Walter, who is in charge of the orchard, was pleased and invited us back as soon as next week.

The rest of us went down to Brixton Youth Club. At this time of year, the leaves fall hard on the outdoor area and they can't keep up with clearing them. George led a longer run and Katie took a group straight there. On arrival we fished out all of the rakes and brooms and set about clearing them all up. After 30 minutes of hard work, we had managed to scoop up and bag leaves all the way around the yard.

On the way home we did some lamppost intervals along Brixton road. It was fun and we were all puffed out when we got back to base. It was lucky we burnt off calories as it was a Bake off BONANZA this week! We had two types of biscuit, some brownies, ginger cake and a delicious white chocolate and rasperry cheesecake. Everyone really tucked in and everything was delicious.

Star bakers all round!

Lambeth News

• Saturday is the first Cross Country fixture of the year! Mud, fun running and beer (afterwards). What's not to like! If you're part of the GoodGym RaceTeam we need you at Claybury. Sign up here.

• The October long run will be 19.3km along the Capital ring - East Finchley to Hackney Wick. Get some kms in with goodgym cheer and food after! Sign up here.

• Hello and welcome to Lisa and Jessica who joined us for the first time last night!

• Next week Katie is back and there'll be two tasks again - one to spread woodchip at Brixton Orchard and one to finish off digging at Clapham Common. Sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Two tasks go to war

Last night we split into two, one group headed the 1km to Wyck Gardens, one headed the longer 4km to Crisis in Elephant and Castle.

Here's what happened at Wyck Gardens, in the words of Beth Hoskins:

We planted about 10 plants which was a multi-step process: Dig a hole, put some compost in the hole, put the plant in, more compost, water, put cardboard on top (to stop the weeds), cover with woodchip, water some more. Done.

A tidy job!

Group number two had various jobs to do at Crisis - sorting DVDs, organising bookshelves, tagging and hanging donations, steaming new donations, hoovering, mopping, dusting and cleaning. Blimey! We swarmed in full of enthusiasm and Jordon got us to work. We very nearly finished tagging a huge pile of donations, got over halfway through the DVD box (there are some corkers in there, I highly recommend a visit!) and had the floors squeaky clean (although some of us accidentally walked over the freshly mopped floors on our way out...woops!). One group was sent back at 20.00 at a more leisurely pace and five(ish) minutes later the rest of the group set off at a speedy pace. We finished the run with a game of chase the hare. George was our hare and didn't get caught! Next time I won't give you so much of a head start...!

After a stretch we all indulged in this week's baked goods - biscuits and welsh snails (don't ask).

Thank you for having me Lambeth it was a blast!

Lucy J