It was a good turnout today, with 6 of us turning up to help out at Hillside.

I thought that I was (for once) early and had beat the lot, but Lindy and Tracey were already out there watering plants when I arrived!

As soon as we had all arrived Tom gave us all jobs: Lindy and Louise had a go at trimming the hedges by the tennis courts and the rest of us, Tracey, Kaz, Frances and I had the job of watering and weeding by the the trees/hedges we had planted months before.

We cleared strawberry beds and patio of a abundance of weeds that had grown

Although, our streak of having a newbie come to our group run each week was broken (5 weeks in a row!), we did have a newbie in Mark (AA of GG Bromley) come to his first GoodGym Southwark group run during Sam's time as AA. It was great to see a dozen GoodGymers show up for tonight's group run as Sam kept his GG intro speech relatively short and told everyone the ice-breaker question in advanced. Since we had three bank holidays in May, he asked: If you were to create a bank holiday, what would it be called and what would you have to do on the day?

With over ten responses, we had a variety of fun, political and community based bank holidays that would need to pass through government before they could be implemented.

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A cut above the rest

After the warm-up, this time around we had Lindy back mark to ensure no one was left behind. It took us 20 minutes to run up to the clubhouse at Old Alleynian Rugby Club, which is just over 3k. We met Emma along the way as she cycled from work to meet us at the task, but we saw her waiting at Dulwich Library.

As we arrived, Ian greeted us and was surprised with the amount of GoodGymers that showed up as Sam did say a day before that 7 had signed up. 24 hours later, we have 12! Ian quickly thought on his feet and said a second team could continue with what the Sunday Green team were doing - cutting back the brambles on the edge of the community rugby club. Yet, the first group which had Alastair, Lindy, Nathan, Oliver, Steve and Tam took shovels, shades, rakes and brooms to clear an area outside the changing rooms. It was an astroturf patch used for the rugby players to take off / clean their boots (by stamping off the mud/soil). The soil had built up over time to become a solid new layer. The task was to clear this layer off, dust it off and make sure it looked as good as new. Team "Clear" as they became, cleared and cleaned it within 30 minutes!

Meanwhile, Team "Cut" consisting of Benjamin, Daryl, Emma, Katy and Mark gathered the tools they needed from the Shed and continued to chop and clear at the bramble that had become the natural barrier between the community rugby club and Peckham Town F.C.'s training grounds. By the time they started, they had 25 minutes to do as much as they could.

As it approached 19:45, Sam stopped both teams from continuing with their tasks and head over to the rugby pitch as Ian marked out the area we would be playing in. The teams had already between split....Team "Clear" vs. Team "Cut". Ian explained the rules briefly, but a few of the rules were soon brushed aside. The main one that stuck was 10 minutes to score as many tries as you could... with tries from Daryl and Emma, Team "Cut" were just a cut above the rest... well done!

As we were getting ready to leave, Ian generously brought out sweets for everyone. We said our goodbyes before dashing off to see the viewpoint at Dawson's Hill, which was a slight detour back to base.

Well done to everyone who came out tonight!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Firstly, another warm welcome to Mark for coming along to his first GG Southwark group run in a long time. Secondly, to Lindy for backmarking and ensuring no one got left behind and finally, everyone for running uphill on the way there, getting the main task done in style and for the slight uphill run on the way back!

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Thank You Ian

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian for thinking on the spot when he realised there were more GoodGymers than he expected, so he quickly got more tools for another task. Also, for arranging the rugby, explaining the rules and giving out sweets at the end! It's always a pleasure to help out at Old Alleynian and we cannot wait for the 30th of August!

Thank you team for turning up on a sunny bank holiday Sunday to sort the rough sleeper donations and untangle a mountain of coat hangers