This evening we ran around 3km to the Salvation Army

10 runners headed out tonight to the Salvation Army – well there should have been 11 but Mark made the schoolboy error of only bringing one running shoe and half his kit! We did try to persuade him that he could still come along like that but strangely enough he felt it wouldn’t be appropriate.

The main task was to thin out the bushes and shrubs so the spotlights could do their job and illuminate the gardens and car park. It was starting to get dark when we got there so great care was needed not to chop each other’s fingers off when we pruned the bushes and shrubs. There was also some leaf clearing to be done and some window cleaning too. By the end of the session we’d filled 10 large bags with twigs, branches, leaves and weeds – a job well done.

One new runner came along tonight so welcome to Jane, Dom’s mum – keeping it in the family – hope you enjoyed your run tonight. Joana was back just two days after completing Tough Mudder – very impressive!

After the task we headed to the underpass for a fitness session working on agility, strength, balance and fitness. It involved a ladder, a circle of runners and lots of shouted instructions as well as some moans and groans when we pulsed our squats and lunges. On the way back to Solutions we had some “banter” with some local schoolboys who encouraged us to run faster so we challenged them to run with us up Crown Hill – we won! They were generous enough to admit we were pretty good runners.

During the cool-down we chatted about next week’s session at Park Hill Rec and also the final Starter session for this month – this Saturday 30th of September at 11.30am starting in Queens Gardens helping the annual Celebratory Walk. This is a great opportunity to introduce friends, family and colleagues to GoodGym and also for regular runners too.

Almost forgot - we headed off to BoxPark for our monthly social - good food, a few drinks and great company. What a great evening.

This evening we ran around 3-4km to do three tasks in two locations: gardening, cleaning windows and litter-picking

Tonight we had 18 runners turning up so we decided to split into two groups to get more good deeds done in the community. Dom headed of with 6 of the runners to Wandle Park for a spot of litter picking with equipment from the Cleaner Streets team – only 3 bags were collected so looks like the good people of Croydon are picking up after themselves. The rest of the group headed for the Salvation Army to do some weeding and also window cleaning. Some of the windows were pretty high so the tops didn’t quite get polished but all in all a good jobs was done. The difference in the garden from the first couple of times we helped there last year is amazing and it’s fantastic to see the difference we have helped make in the area at the back where visitors can come and relax.

Both groups met up again in Wandle Park where we repeated last week’s timed lap – I’ll be sending out the times later and if this was your first time you’ll have something to aim for last time and if you were here last week you can see if you improved your time. After the run we had a circuit in a circle – one runner hop, skipped and jumped over the litter picks and then ran wound the circle while the others did a different exercise – some more popular than others!

With rain threatening we had a choice of the park or a circuit in the underpass – luckily for us the rain held off and we made it to the beautiful Wandle Park where we did timed runs around the perimeter (0.52 miles according to Google maps). The idea was obviously to record as fast a time as possible but also to pace yourself so you were able to finish at the same speed you started at. I think it would be fair to say some are better at pacing than others!

We had 2 new runners tonight so welcome to Amatare and Emmet and Gosiaa GoodGymer from north of the Thames who was working locally this week! Hope you all enjoyed yourselves and see you again

As mentioned at the end of the evening the Dino Dash is on Wednesday 21st of June and costs £5 per entrant so if you're interested let me know and I can enter a team of 3.

Next Tuesday’s run will be back to Addiscombe Road to help ECCO in their mission to defeat the ivy and the weeds

Tonight we ran around 3k to revisit the Salvation Army gardens that we first cleared last summer.

After our hard work last time, the back garden was looking great, so this time we split into three groups and each tackled one of the raised flower beds in the carpark at the front of the building. We weeded, trimmed, tidied and raked, gradually filling an ever growing pile of garden waste bags.

A bonus of going back to the Salvation Army was that we got to use our favourite tool again (yes, we have a favourite tool – doesn’t everyone?!): a handy wire brush you use to remove weeds from between paving – very satisfying!

As we worked, local residents began arriving for the evening’s service and they made for a great cheer squad. They were delighted to see us there and all made a point of thanking us for our efforts.

Because it was shorter run tonight, after completing our task we had just enough time for a quick drink of juice (thanks, Chris!) before we headed off to practice our acceleration and sprints.

We went in pairs and ran at top speed between two markers; and since it wasn’t a race, it definitely didn’t get competitive (honest!).

It was nice to see a couple of new faces tonight: Sally who was trying her first ever Goodgym experience and Lorraine who made it along to her first evening group run after joining us on a starter session last month. We hope to see them both back again soon.

Next week we'll be headed back towards South Norwood, helping them promote the monthly community market. See you then! X