Pun credited to: Sam

Despite the mild October night, there was a chill in the air that tempted the first arriving GoodGymers to seek shelter at the Old Spike Roastery. Abi arrive just at the same time as I did to open up the lightly caramelized and almost nutty smelling coffee shop. It was the first time she had been out on a proper run since February, but vowed to make it every Wednesday for now onwards (I'll hold her to that 😜). Emma and Adam popped in one after another. It is always great to see them after spending quality time at the Foodbank mission last Friday. As we all started to catch up with one another, I noticed two new faces outside Old Spike looking in and at my horrific face (as I had my face painted...💀), it was Carrie and Mark! It's always great to see newbies come along to a Group Run as I feel it captures what GoodGym is all about - get fit, do good and have fun! Again, a warm welcome! As we were talking to our new GoodGymers, Nelly, who said she would be committed to her regular Wednesday routine snuck in. Yet, we were still waiting for Paulin, who was vital for tonight as she had the all important Peckham Pantry flyers! She came just in time as I was explaining all about my crazy Halloween day!

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Quick dash up the Rye to Burgess

After the customary GoodGym speech, a quick warm-up to get our bodies and minds ready for the run and finding what horror films we love to watch on Halloween; we ran 2 kilometres up the Rye, through Surrey Canal Way arriving at one of many entrances to Burgess Park. We stopped at St. George's Way to split the teams in two. Team 1 led by Paulin and featuring Emma, Carrie and Mark covered Sumner Road and all the adjacent streets whilst Team 2 led by Sam and featuring Abi, Adam and Nelly took on the massive estate on St. George's Way and a few more smaller estates on Chandler Way.

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Flyers, Flyers, Flyers

Would we have enough flyers?

That was the question on Paulin's mind as we left Old Spike Roastery, but after ten minutes of flyering, we noticed that not only did we have more than enough, but we probably wouldn't even scratch the surface with the amount of flyers we had. We blitzed as many housing blocks as we could in 30 minutes and I could safely say we delivered to over 200 flats in eight. Yet, there many be more flyering to be done for Peckham Pantry in the future!

We merged back as a group at Commercial Way before we ran back to Old Spike Roastery as slowly one by one, runners peeled off towards their homeward direction. The last ones standing were Paulin, Abi, Adam and Sam. After a quick stretch and a chat about the upcoming week / next week, we ventured towards our homes too.

Next week's run is to Galleywall Nature Reserve near South Bermondsey station - 4.5k run there and back (9k in total). Helping out Jane and Luigia (task owners) with preparing the reserve for winter. Click here to sign up!

Thank You Peckham Pantry

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 the organisations we help out and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peckham Pantry for all the work they are doing to help support their local community.

Yesterday we had a successful session leafleting for Peckham Pantry, covering the neighbouring streets to its shop on Peckham Park Road.

We welcomed Lucy to her first Goodgym mission with more than one other person, and third mission overall 👏

Things to celebrate:

🏢 We managed to get into every building that we tried

💪 We covered roughly 6,000 steps

🪜and 15 flights of stairs!

Well done to everyone for coming, especially Sam and Emily who were still hobbling from their Ultramarathons last weekend!

Yesterday evening, five Goodgymmers met up outside Peckham Pantry to deliver leaflets for them in the surrounding streets.

We worked together effectively to cover the complicated maze of estates and blocks of flats. It was a lovely feeling to be outside and working in a team! 🙏

Special shout out to Sarah who was leading in bravery by ringing doorbells to ask to be let into buildings that we otherwise wouldn't be able to access. We were able to leaflet hundreds more families as a result - thank you Sarah! 🌟