Autumn is definitely settling in but that won’t stop Goodgym Wandsworth! A great group of us came out and just about dodged the drizzle. We were flyering in support of Foodcycle to build awareness of this great local charity and try and drum up more support. We flew through the pile very quickly and covered some solid distance with some stair sprints thrown in to get round some of the blocks. We even managed to grab a celebratory drink afterwards. Well done all but particularly Ali who did their 50th good deed which is a fantastic achievement! More celebrating to be done for that on our next Group run.

Last night, a group of eager GoodGymmers earned their community service badges by tidying up the outdoor area of a local scout hut. With the space being underused and overgrown, it was our job to make sure it was in tip-top shape!

Warming Up with Some Badges of Honor 🏅

Before we set off on our mission, we kicked things off with a lively warm-up. And to add some fun, we shared what our own personal scout badges would be – and lets just say, they were deliciously varied! From cheese eating to flapjack munching, it is clear that we have varied tastes and skill sets! Some of us had niche talents, like dog grooming, or the coveted town crier badge. Of course, we also had some practical talents in the mix – shout-out to those aiming for the Excel spreadsheet badge, a real hero in any modern taskforce. And let’s not forget the classic carrot crunching badge!

We gave a shout Out to Paul! 🎉, who was fresh off the back of the Vitality 10K on Sunday! Despite his race efforts, he still joined us to lend a helping hand. 🏃‍♂️👏

Let's Scout It Out 🏕️

Once our imaginary badges were awarded, we marched over to the scout hut, where we found the outdoor area in need of some TLC. Armed with loppers, gloves and bags we got straight to work. We cleared away litter and debris from the pathways, pulled up weeds, swept the area, making it safe for little people, and dispatched overhanging branches. With everyone working together, the transformation was remarkable. The outdoor space was soon scout-ready, ready for whatever adventures lie ahead for the small community heroes.

Mission Accomplished! 🎯

With the outdoor area looking better than ever, we wrapped up our session feeling pretty pleased with the change. Another mission completed, another good deed done. As always, it was great to chat, laugh, and get stuck into the task together. The scouts will now have a clean, safe outdoor space to enjoy – and we can all feel proud about that.

We had time to squeeze in a leg based workout before we headed back for stretches, with exercises including crab walks, squat/oblique crunch combo, pulsing lunges and more - making sure to dodge the buses at the same time.

Next Week: Our next Monday GoodGym adventure will take us onto the streets of Wandsworth in aid of Foodcycle, a charity which helps those struggling with food insecurity. Don't forget about our upcoming community mission at the GoodGym garden which we will double up with optional parkrun and coffee. There are plenty more badges to be earned!

Until next time, keep running, keep doing good, and keep dreaming of that cheese-eating badge! 🧀💪

We piled the posh poo perfectly at Paradise plus some post project PE!

If you think it's hard getting your mouth round that tongue twister you should have seen the challenge we took on last night during our Monday session! Yes, the puns were well and truly flying as we shoveled our way through a mountain of horse poo which had been kindly donated by the posh horses at Richmond riding school.

It was a pleasure to be back at Paradise Cooperative after a little time away. The positivity began early as we met to do our warm up and discuss all the nice things we had done over the weekend. From trips to the dump, football with family, fleabag binging and STP it sounds like everybody made the most of it.

It was a glorious evening for a run which was topped off with a minor miracle. For the first week ever we cracked the code for the gate and the shed first time!

This meant we could get straight on with the mane task at hand. With one team making sure the barrows were filled in a strong and stable manner, it was up to the group to giddy it all up into the compost bins. While we worked we covered lots of conversation points, including the fact that yesterday marked 100 days until it's a very mare-y Christmas! Thanks for all the punspiration team, and especially to Annabel and Sophie for this run report title.

After the task we ran over to Wandsworth common to make the most of the last of the light and knock out a quick tabata session. It was fast and furious and covered all our major muscle groups - well done team!

I mentioned a couple of upcoming sessions that might be of interest, including this one tonight handing out food and other resources for rough sleepers in Trafalgar square and also this one on the following Tuesday in Leicester square sorting donations for a refugee centre that could really do with some more help if you're free!

Next Monday in Wandsworth we're going to be helping out at the Scout Hall, hope to see you there!

There was just the slightest sense of seasonal change in the air as we met for our group run last night in Wandsworth. Maybe the back to school feeling was because the summer heat wave seems to be behind us, or perhaps it was because we were heading back to Sacred Heart for the first time in a while for our evening's task.

We started off the session with our usual warm up, and this week we tried to think of movie stars with whom we shared our initials. Among us last night were Julia Roberts, Liam Neeson and Patrick Swayze!

We ran down to the school and had a bit of an adventure trying to find the right entrance. Luckily Jared the Head came to rescue us and explain the jobs for the evening.

There were two main tasks - sanding and undercoating the planters, and dismantling the one that was in a state of disrepair. We split into teams and got started. It didn't take long for us to finish taking off the flaking wood and start getting the paint on. Meanwhile the wreckage team were busy breaking the wooden structure to bits and transporting the wood and its contents across the playground.

Jobs done, we waved goodbye to the school and headed next door to the park to do a mobility and strengthening session. We knocked out lots of different moves aimed at stretching and conditioning our muscles before running back - just in time as the heavens unexpectedly opened! Great job tonight everybody.

Next Monday is a bank holiday - we'll still be having a session but it will be earlier int he day so that you can make the most of your day off! Sign up here for all the details.

On Saturday there will be a community mission to help out at our GG garden with an optional 5km together beforehand - the details of which will be in our whatsapp group so if you haven't been added and would like to be then let me know.

Breaking news!

Last night, not only did we turn a whole eight years old, our group session pushed us over the 10 000 good deed mark! What an amazing way to celebrate.

And celebrate we did! On the hottest day of the year, a huge 21 of us met to do good and get fit on the anniversary of our very first group run. It seemed right that we should be going to our own GoodGym garden, a space where we've been growing fruit and veg to donate to the kids program at the theatre.

So after a warm up where we did, you guessed it, 8 reps of various exercises, we went round the group and said what we wanted to do when we grew up when we were 8 years old. Answers ranged from footballer, to two dentists and even Xena Warrier princess!

We set off for the garden, and were delighted to find that there were loads of crops ready to be harvested, including potatoes and some delicious looking kale. We also collected loads of the fallen cooking apples, weeded, staked and strung up our runner beans (appropriate for us!).

The produce we grow will be used to donate to the children's sessions at the theatre, which is run as a charity, and to other community food organisations. We are also repurposing what would otherwise be underused land and increasing biodiversity, so it's a win-win-win situation!

Job done we headed over to the common to play some very silly but hopefully fun ball based fitness games. We started off with human hungry hippos, before testing our squat and reflex skills before having a plank off whilst balancing the balls on our backs. There were some interesting tactics on display and luckily we had the VAR courtesy of Paul to go back and watch game play. Shout out to Kevin and Jordan for collecting the most, with Hugo and Suresh in a close second! In the plank off it came down to six of the strongest cores - well done Catherine, Beth, Hugo, Elif, Sophie and Jasmin!

After all that fun and hard work, it was time to head back to the Omnibus bar for some drinks, chats and incredible food. Everybody outdid themselves with the goodies, but it was Catherine's masterpiece of a cake that had us all talking. It was an amazing creation, and what made it more delicious was that is was baked using blackberries forged from Wandsworth common - what could be more GoodGym than that!

We had a wonderful speech from Jordan, who put what GG means to us all into words better than I could hope to here. So to echo him, there are so many memories we've made over the past 8 years. There have been lots of new faces and we love that our group is welcoming and inclusive. We have achieved so much together and made some beautiful friendships. So here's to the next 8 - and beyond.

Apparently 8 years is a bronze wedding anniversary, but I think every single one of you deserves a gold medal!

Next week we'll be back for more doing good and getting active, when we'll be painting playground planters. Hope to see you there!