What a Tuesday evening to be alive — and running! We had a gloriously large group join us tonight, with perfect weather rolling out the red carpet for our feet. Lacing up alongside regulars Fi, Jo, Michael, Ben, Tilly and Katie, we were thrilled to welcome back Rich and — making his Lambeth group run debut — the legendary George! 🍾💪🏼 First run done, George. There’s no going back now.

With an extra spring in our step (and an extra 3.6km each way to justify the post-run snacks 😅), we set off on a slightly longer route than usual — and the group ate it up like it was nothing.

Our destination? The Weir Link, who were absolutely delighted to have us back. And honestly, the feeling was mutual — because when we arrived, the tools and equipment were already waiting for us in the bin shed, like a beautifully organised welcome gift. No faff, no fuss — just straight to the good stuff. 🙌

Front and back, we got stuck in clearing out weeds and leaves to give the centre grounds a proper spruce-up. The weeds didn’t stand a chance against this lot. What they thought was job security turned out to be a very short-term contract. 😂🌱

Big love to everyone who came out and gave their evening — and their knees — to make Lambeth a little greener. The Weir Link were over the moon to have us, and it shows just how much this community cares. ❤️

See you on the next one! 🏃

We were back at Doddington for our regular task last night and it was the second consecutive super moon session - but this time it was no ordinary super moon. It was a super beaver moon, the brightest yet this year!

We met as usual at the BAC, where we got to welcome Alice to her first GoodGym session - great to have you join us!

We did a quick warm up where we discussed dog (and one cat) breeds before heading off by the light of the moon to the garden.

As always there were plenty of jobs to do, including leaf clearing, grass pulling and hedge trimming. We divided up into groups and got to work.

The time flew by and before we knew it we just had time to down tools and do our fitness session in the square. This week it was tabata - think fast, dynamic exercises for short bursts. There were lateral leaps, there were squat jumps, there were more steps than you could count. Great effort everybody!

If you've got some time to spare this Saturday and/or next Saturday and would like to help out again at Doddington, please join the weekend sessions - it's a great way to kick off the weekend!

Next Monday we're heading to help create a mud club for under fives - plus a double celebration. See you there!

Last night we #Lifted the Curfew with a special Halloween themed session that got us all out on the dark streets of Wandsworth to do good and get fit.

Our collab with This Girl Can is all about getting active outdoors in the darker months - something very close to our hearts here at GoodGym! Too often women don't feel safe running after dark. We believe there should be no barriers to anybody who wants to get out at night in the place they live, especially to spread some community love. We want to help highlight the message that there should be no curfew for anybody - our city belongs to us all.

So after a warm up, and a quick discussion about our favourite scary movies (this was our spooky Halloween special after all), we headed out towards Lark Hall park for our task.

We talked about what lifting the curfew meant to us.

Some of us noted that we remove headphones when we run at night so we can be hyper aware of what is happening around us. Some said that they take the long way round parks and public spaces to avoid being too isolated. One person had done a self defense workshop put on by This Girl Can just the week before, and many agreed that they would completely avoid poorly lit spaces after dark.

We also had the idea of creating a resource where it could show us the busiest routes are currently happening, and we would welcome a Strava tool which highlighted the safest place for women to run.

As a group we arrived at the park to find the Friends of Lark Hall park waiting for us with tools and instructions. Our job was to tidy up the beds around the trees, remove dead branches, sweep up the leaves, weed and litter pick. There was plenty to keep us going!

It was great to see what could be done with so many pairs of hands working together, and after 40 minutes the place was looking much tidier. We helped put away the tools, and it was lovely to get some appreciation from other park users as we passed!

Job done, we hit up the kids playground for our fitness session. Steph demonstrated how to zipwire in a most elegant fashion, before we divided up into pairs for some frightful fitness featuring zombie fast feet, jumping spiders, vampire squats and a few tricks thrown in for good measure!

There was just time for the skele-run back to base, before enjoying some incredible Halloween treats and a competitive (if small scale) game of pumpkin rolling. A (belated) big shout out to lovely Beth for reaching that magic 50 milestone - give her a massive cheer for doing so much good!

Nice work everybody. Don't forget about our weekend mission at Paradise cooperative garden on Sunday. Next week we're back at Doddington for our monthly session folowed by pub quiz - join us!

One task, double the impact! Tonight 12 GoodGymers carried bin bags of leaves from Christchurch Gardens to Doddington Roof Gardens, proving that one person's trash really is another person's treasure. GoodGym Wandsworth collected the leaves into bags at a previous task, to help keep the church garden, clean, safe and accessible. But rather than see those bags head to landfill, the quick thinking team arranged to carry them a mile down Battersea Park Road and hand deliver them to Chief Gardener Melissa at Doddington Roof Gardens. In their new home, the leaves will be tossed on the compost heap and turned into nutritious mulch to fuel another year of gorgeous garden growth.

We also welcomed Rosie to her first ever GoodGym session and the lovely late summer sun tempted Carol, Andy and Jamie back too! It was great to meet them and to share not one, but two of the local community spaces we have worked with in the past year.

After the task the team took on a 5 minute fitness relay, with two teams going head-to-head in sprints, jumping jacks, plank holds, squats and high knees, to get the heart rate up, test our strength and even have a bit of fun in the meantime. Then it was onto the pub quiz for our monthly social (delayed by one week). Not everyone could stick around this month, but the 6 Salt & Shakers who stayed came a respectable 3rd - no cash prizes for the garden this time, but a good time was had and we all left with a hankering for old-school crisps with names that alliterate (Hula-Hoops, French Fries, Monster Munch...)