Southwark News

• This weekend - run long with us on Sunday morning, 15km starting at Brixton station, one group led by Dom, one by me find out more and sign up here.

• Sunday afternoon - Back by popular demand! Meet up with the smashing Lambeth lot at Tooting Bec track for a track session. Intervals aimed at improving your running technique with pub after. Find out more and sign up here.

• Tuesday 26th Feb Emily is hosting a fundraising pub quiz night in Westminster - help them in their amazing aim to raise £2500 for three fantastic charities. Find out more here.

• Thursday 28th Feb Matt Guy is holding a fundraiser for Westminster House at Batch. It's an evening of short films on running (called 'Running Shorts' oh the pun joy!) - tickets come with a free drink get them here.

• Next week we need ALL HANDS ON DECK for moving a large amount of mulch for Barnaby at Bee Urban. It's an 8k roundtrip and we'll be leaving at 7pm promptly. Sign up for the run here.

That's enough of the business

Last night 17 runners gathered at Batch (Old Spike is having some works done) and immediately were put to work folding leaflets. We had over 200 leaflets to post through letter boxes and stick on lampost/bus stops for Food2You an amazing new service addressing malnutrition and risk of malnutrition amongst older people. Completely volunteer run, it provides a shopping and delivery service for older people and we're helping spread the word!

Last night was special for a few reasons. 1st: Dee, a stalwart Southwark member, left us back in Spring to move (very far) away and came to visit us! 2nd: My first run leading Southwark was 1 whole year ago! The pun was 'Hello, is it me you're leafletting for?' (yep still happy with that). I was blown away by receiving presents and a round of applause. Yes, there was at least one tear.

The runners are GoodGym, without you we are nothing, you are magic

The group split into four groups with different running routes: two 7ish kms, a 3km and a 5km. We all met on Peckham Rye on our favourite corner of Peckham Rye to play games!

Play can add joy to life, relieve stress, supercharge learning, and connect you to others and the world around you.

We played several rounds of Shark Attack, a big game of What's The Time Mr Wolf (once we'd worked out the rules....) and a slippy-slidey round of Squat Squat Goose. You're never too old to play!

We then headed back to Batch where we enjoyed pizza and drinks and I opened my wonderful presents.

What a wonderful evening, you lot are magic.

Lucy J

Southwark News

• That's a wrap for 2019 folks! Thank you so much for making this year wonderful. We're back on 9th Jan when we're heading to Galleywall Nature Reserve - sign up here.

• The Festive season can be amazing but it can also be tiring and overwhelming. Luckily we have this excellent thing called running. The Vet Runs writes about using speed work to 'run it out' when things get a bit much. I am definitely a fan.

• Will you be parkrunning on Christmas or New Years Day? Tweet @ggsouthwark or tag us on Instagram @goodgym_southwark with your festive parkruns.

• I'll be organising a starter session in January on a weekend, keep your eyes peeled on the website and I'll send you info about it.

That's enough of the business

12 runners ran 5.5km to sort donations, build a bookshelf an tape up the window in Red Box Project's new storeroom on Avondale Estate.

Red Box Project is a community-based, not-for-profit initiative, which aims to support young people throughout their periods by providing red boxes filled with free period products to local schools.

Our mission?

• Collect donations from elsewhere on the estate and carry them to the storeroom - including a very fetching (and rather heavy) donkey.

• Sort through the vast amount of donations that they've received over the last month - they went into different baskets depending on heaviness of flow, day and night pads etc.

• Build a bookshelf for in the storeroom for the sorted donations - shout out to Tom and Emma for a stellar job.

• Cover the storeroom window to provide privacy - this proved to be quite a task!

We ripped through the donation sorting whilst the bookshelf was still being built so in the meantime we nipped outside for the 12 Days of Fitmas including burpees, calf raises, inch worms, bunny hops, press ups, tricep dips and more. We got through 18 days before the bookshelf was finished and we ran up the four flights of stairs to finish the job. The storeroom was glorious when we'd finished - a masterpiece of organisation! Christina was delighted.

Before setting off home we reminded ourselves of the 12 Days of Fitmas and set a rule for the run home - every time we stopped at a light or to cross a road, the group chose a number between 1 and 12 and we did the exercise associated with it.

We arrived back to base sweaty and happy and ready to go to Two Hundred Rye Lane for cocktails and nibbles.

Have a wonderful break, enjoy the rest and get out there for a run or two if things get a bit much.

Here's to next year!

Lucy J

Southwark News

• Saturday was the GoodGym Christmas party at the Old Library where we varnished their floors not so long ago. It was an amazing evening with some stunning costumes (theme the first letter of your GoodGym area). Check out the photos here.

• Get your long run on in Waltham Forest fing out more here on Sunday 9th or try out track with the lovely Lambeth lot at Tooting Bec track - check it out here.

• Our own Emily McGovern is organising a Christmas lights fun run fundraiser on Tuesday 11th Dec - come run and look at London's festive lights in support of not one, not two, but THREE charities. Core blimey! Find out more and sign up here password: coolearth1

• Next week is to be confirmed but it will be either carol singing at a care home or running donations/packing up donations for Red Box Project period poverty charity. Keep an eye on the listing here.

That's enough of the business

Last night 10 runners ran 5.5km to Camberwell Salvation Army to wrap presents and put together food parcels to be distributed over the Christmas Period*

On arrival Janet welcomed us and split us into groups - four people wrapping books for younger children's presents and the rest taking food items down from the attic, sorting it into bags and taking them all back up to the attic!

Hello and welcome to Fiona, Chris and Nico who joined us for the first time last night!

The food bags had to contain: one soup, one baked beans, one pasta/rice and a mystery item (oooooh!). On 23rd December when they'll host their Christmas dinner, they'll be adding perishables - turkey and mince pies - to the packages. Janet says that this year they've had more referrals than before from social services for those that will struggle over Christmas so our work last night was really appreciated.

We wrapped 25 books and filled 73 food bags!

Having finished we went through a short core, glutes and hamstrings routine which certainly got those hammys saying hello!

Great work everyone, see you next week!

Lucy J