Tonight we had three missions in one! How did we do it? Four of our volunteers went to Refugee Action Kingston to sort the kid's clothes, another went to another RAK office to hang a blind and the rest of us went to Elm Road... phew! Here's the run report about our amazing volunteers...

Nettled but Not Defeated at Elm Road!

In sweltering heat, the GoodGym crew took on the nettle jungle at Elm Road playground, working with the local community group to help reclaim the space for local kids. Armed with spades, forks, and a few poorly chosen gloves (ouch!), we tackled the stubborn roots - some so long they felt like they were heading for Narnia.

Marcos and Tom kept spirits high with sports facts while litter picking, and Rachel captured the action on camera. Newbie John gave it his all but ran out of water - thankfully, local residents came to the rescue with bottles of the good stuff!

Despite roots hiding under the fence, we cleared a massive stretch and even uncovered some old mosaic tiles. One hot, sweaty hour later, the bed was clear and the team absolutely smashed it. Great work all round!

Such a sort out at Refugee Action Kingston

Claire, Anna, Laurel and Sabir ran and walked their way to Refugee Action tonight.

We were greeted by air conditioning which was a welcome relief plus lots of children’s clothes that required sorting. Having made signs for different age categories we sorted the clothes by size for boys and girls and boxed them up so that they could be easily selected by the customers. The area is now much more organised and I’m sure we will be back to tackle the coats another day.

Driller thriller

Dave went to a RAK office to help fix a blind. In his own words has a hot sweaty mess but at least the charity workers won't be now.

GoodGym Kingston - you are simply tri-mendous!

This morning was a warm early start at Nonsuch Park for the Epsom and Ewell Race for Life.

I was marshalling on marshal point no.7 in the perfect spot by the amazing Rock Choir who kept everyone entertained.

Everyone came round the course with a smile enjoying the atmosphere. There were also some great costumes including all the Spice Girls, a unicorn and lots of tutus.

After lots of clapping, cheering and directing 500 runners, joggers and walkers a massive £31K had been raised for Cancer Research 🎉.

As the heat wave ☀️continued 3 hardy GoodGymers armed with water bottles and lots of energy got to work.

Weeding 🌱and leaf 🍁 clearing were first on the agenda before Julie and Emily headed off to the mulch 🍂pile for two wheel barrow loads. It was hot work shovelling the pile of decaying woodchip and leaves.

We decided to plant a few new plants 🌾 and after much deliberation on their position and digging some very dry soil we got them in.

This was followed by giving everything a very good water 💦. Our water collection from the river entertained a few park users and gave us very soggy trainers 👟 which soon dried in the sun☀️ .

With everything watered 💦we spread the mulch with Claire and Emily gathering another two barrow loads and then it was time to pack up until next time.

Fingers crossed for some rain ☔️