Has Good Gym gone lazy? Fear not, dear reader, the title of this report simply reflects another evening of hard work by Greenwich’s runners.

3 GoodGymers convened at one of our favourite places, the archives of the National Maritime Museum in Kidbrooke after a short run in changeable weather, we were met by the wonderful Khursheed and directed to our task for the evening, namely weeding and turning the soil over in two raised beds to make them ready for planting. Marta got straight to work on the weeds whilst Kerry and Julian got down to work turning the rock-hard soil to prepare if for growing, taking care not to cut any worms in two. After 45 minutes, the task having been completed it was revealed what was going into the beds and the archives are certainly being ambitious, with one bed containing exotic melons and the other ingredients for herbal teas: healthy peppermint and calming camomile that will put you to sleep even quicker than reading this run report.

Some Wednesday nights are just made for GoodGym. This one was cool, but not too cold and dry but...not too dry?

We started straight out from Charlton House to get to the Prince Philip Maritime Museum a little early to try and get all the jobs done with our small and merry bunch. Ladders ahoy as we again took down some ceiling panels to be guilded. Some of us are more expert at this than others after all the practice they've had taking the panels down and up and back down again (Julian). Thanks to some speedy work we were then able to get out to the lovely garden to stir the compost and what a glamorous job for Marta and Sarah and a good upper body work out. They unearthed some unwelcome plastic from the pile telling the story of one naughty composter breaking the rules of effective composting.

After they'd cast some spells and thrown some frogs into the mixture we called it a night and made our way back to Charlton. I have an excellent bruise to show for the run home, having run into a lopped off tree. In typical GoodGym style, Julian and Sarah moved said tree out of the way to avoid any other unsuspecting runners impaling themselves on it. A reminder you never know what's going to happen in Kidbrooke.

Well done team and until next time!

On a mild night late in the year of AD2023, three and ten Splendid Athletic Club-goers... (hmm, maybe getting Chat GTP to write this isn't the best idea..? 😉)

Ok, so on Wednesday 22nd November 23, 13 Good-Gymmers met at Charlton House (slightly spooky at this time of year - maybe a good location for future horror films?)

A warm up involving tag, sheep-shoeing and the merits of stand-up comedians meant we were ready for anything as we headed towards Kidbrooke and the excellent Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre, home to hidden treasures in the form of historical works of art going through the process of conservation and restoration.

It's also home to a Community Garden, in which our task tonight was based. First up was restoring a recently damaged Bug Hotel (well we all deserve a holiday...!). Four post beds made, minibars restocked and spa ready for treatments, it was time to really rock the boat. Well, actually, just move the boat. Then it was all hands on deck to dig out a more stable base for this feature, re-position the boat and build up a stony sea.

Crew pose struck for a photo op, we headed off, full steam ahead back to Charlton.

Thanks all and see you for next week's adventures!

And so like ghosts of Christmas past, I am once again haunted by using all of my “gold” puns last time I wrote a report from here.

So where do we gold (hey!) from here?

I’ll probably just flesh this one out with lame random jokes. Or puns to do with hauntings.

Anyhow, I write this whilst currently under arrest. The police officer said get in the van. In there I saw a freezer full of choc iced and a machine called Mr Whippy. “Not that van,” he said.

Beginning at Charlton House, five went leafletting for Goodgym Greenwich itself. With some very nice card fliers that did have a slightly eerie image that made it looked like Goodgymers were coming for you, holding pitchforks.

Seriously, it was a great flier. Who wouldn’t want to join Goodgym Greenwich?

We arrived at the Collection where we were met by Khursheed and put up the newly gilded ceiling panels in the room of curiosities. Julian and I were worried we were hogging the stepladders, but others were quite content to remain grounded. Perhaps they saw something we didn’t. Some scary foresight that we would meet a sticky end. As it happened, we just got covered in gild-dust (is that a gold pun? I’m claiming it anyway).

We graduated outside to do some weeding, and some watering too. Shortly before it poured it down that night. It’s the effort that counts though, right?

Don’t forget the open day at the Prince Philip (the collection, not the pub) on July 15th - sign up here! https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/community-day-at-the-prince-philip-maritime-collections-centre

This wintry Wednesday night, a merry band of Goodgymers made possibly their last trip to the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre. Meeting at Charlton House, we shared our estimations of how far we’d get in a zombie apocalypse (and judging by responses, readers of this probably shouldn’t count on us). Jen had us warmed up in no time with games involving fun facts, compliments and shoo-ing of imaginary sheep.

We followed Fearless Leader Julian, one of the few in South-East London undaunted by the fact every street between Charlton and Kidbrooke looks the same, to the Collections Centre. Upon arrival we found out we’d be replacing ceiling panels in a room where kids can get hands-on with history (I’m copyrighting that phrase for a future educational company, just to say). And these weren’t just any panels, they were gold-gilded panels! Now that’s been established, I can now pepper the rest of the story with gold-puns. What a golden opportunity. an open goal dying to be scored.

The always friendly, funny and inspirational Matt showed us to the room, and the golden hour began with an explanation of how to take down and replace the ceiling panels which I’m fairly sure three of us understood and the rest, me included, nodded at attentively. Gold stars to those with the clipboards, and we soon all caught up.

The team taking down panels had to label them (A1, A2, A3 etc.) so they went back in the right place. My apologies to this team, who whilst busy working out the labels, had me cracking jokes about their size which only confused matters further.

The room was a treasure trove of curiosities from a golden age of seafaring. Including a Horseshoe Crab which, folks, is arguably the most successful animal ever to walk the earth, as it still looks like it did back in the age of the dinosaurs. Why evolve if you’re already perfect? The gold standard of all the species, if you will.

Once finished for the evening, we said our goodbyes to Matt, who is making the incredibly selfish and unhelpful move to Amsterdam to join his partner. A golden opportunity if ever he saw one. Not only does he have a heart of gold, but he’s truly worth his weight in gold too. He’ll be very much missed. A big thank you if you’re reading this, Matt.

See you all next week!

Wowee, Wednesday night saw it all! One of our largest turn outs this year, and two new faces joining our ranks - well done Franki and Yuliia on your first group run. We had a lovely task ahead of us in our favourite location, but before we headed to the task we quickly went around and discovered how we would fight our enemies. A lot of the team chose ways that would bore their enemies and an overall preference for using their special talents. Great to see a lack of violence other than my mind when thinking up the ice breaker.

Following a juicy little warm up we headed off through Charlton. We wound our way through the residential streets onto the bike path that takes us straight to the side entrance. The back half of the group did get disconnected but, I, your brave leader journeyed back to reconcile the two groups and lead us into the warmth of the Maritime Museum's Collection Center.

Matt greeted us and showed us the purpose of our task, which was to take down ceiling tiles, which then the golden age group would "gild". The tiles came from a special room in a separate building, where the records and archives are stored. The tiles are part of a room for discovery for younger visitors. The task was large and we started a chain, but not before intellectually planning how we would identify the panels and their homes in the roof. The time passed very quickly and all of a sudden it was time to head back to Charlton House.

The group managed to stick together this time and we got back with time for a good stretch and a chat. See you all next time folks, keep plugging away at the good deeds as we are in close contention with our group for the January Challenge!