Let’s start off with Lewisham news (partly in case you didn’t hear me over whatever was going on in Glassmill), there was so much of it, we had:

• GoodGym’s 10th Birthday Party at City Hall which was a wonderful evening of different areas being all together alongside community groups that we support - there may have been a few tears during the speeches.
• Hilly Fields Parkrun 7th birthday, the course was ran in reverse and to celebrate making it round the wrong way, there was cake at the end!
• Marsha Phoenix Relay at Hilly Fields which was raising money for a fantastic local cause, well done Tom/Oli/Jacqueline for taking part and Molly for being the best cheerer!
• Vic also came first at a Parkrun in Italy and had her own personal marshal - WELL DONE!

We started the evening with a quick photo outside Glassmill with the absolutely huge GoodGym flag, that done and a quick selfie so I didn’t miss out, it was time for Amber to run through a quick warm up as we needed to head off promptly to maximise the time we’d have at the task.

We arrived at Dalmain Primary School and split into two groups, the bigger group/people with head torches tackling the wildlife garden across the road and a smaller group cutting back the bushes in a wildlife garden in the main playground to make it easier for the children to walk along the path.

Everyone got stuck into the task and after a bit of running back and forth between the two groups, I went to check on the tyres we’d painted in the summer and they are still looking wonderful.

The group in the main playground also removed some weeds around the edges whilst I went to round up the other group, only to find they’d found an assortment of random objects: a pickaxe, a lightbulb, a babygrow and then the usual litter (there was probably more to add to that list).

Whilst the cuttings where being taken over to compost pile in the wildlife garden, it was up to me to run around the playground like a superhero with the flag.

Back to being run leader and we all got in position for a group photo except the light kept going off and then my phone wasn’t ready, after about 5 attempts we got it! Time for the downhill back to Glassmill and a stretch (thanks Amber).

Next week we are off to Chelwood Nursery and there's various community missions happening this weekend:

• Wildcat Wilderness Chilli Festival on Saturday (and you get lunch for all your hard work)
• Manor Gardens on Sunday

Well done running up those hills this evening, everyone did great!

On a golden Monday in Lewisham, 24 runners covered 7km of hilly terrain to help out at Seniors.

Thank you once again to Oli, who gifted us this excellent title pun and some of those scattered through this report.

Thank goodness the sun has come out at last! It was still a little chilly though, so we might have hung out in the Glass Mill foyer for a tiny bit longer than we needed to! So much to talk about this week!

• First up, we welcomed some newcomers, what a lovely evening to join us for the first time! Lewisham Love to Amy, Anna, Cat and Steve.

Sofia, so good

• At the weekend, over 80 members of the GoodGym Race Team were over in Sofia to take part in races of varying distance. We were superbly represented by a top team of Amber, Kim and Nykolette, who took on what sounded like a hot and testing half-marathon - well done you three!

• Well done to Vic, Caireen, Juliet, Emma and Olivia, who were at the Wildcat Wilderness yesterday to help with various tasks (fixing a roof, bashing weeds, lifting and shifting and...burning stuff). It looked like an epic volunteering session.

• Talking of which, we have two opportunities to join in volunteering sessions this Saturday, with Wildcat Wilderness throwing open their gates at 10.30 and Manor Park welcoming helpers in at 10am - take your pick!

• Still in the Wilderness, the date is set for our summer social (yay!). Maria has very kindly offered once again to fire up the BBQs and invite us in with our food and drink. All of the details are here, please sign up if you can definitely come, so Maria knows how many coals to tip on.

This week saw us heading on a challenging 7k round-trip. We're not put off by a few hills though are we? A very big thank you to Conroy, who led the way on the run and Nykolette, who kept us together as back-marker. When we arrived at the task, we had a slight moment of panic, when it seemed like we might not be able to get in! All was well though, as Di was in the building already and she and Alice then guided us out to the amazing garden. There is always plenty to do, so pretty soon we had various jobs going on:

• A hole lotta fillin' - a team of barrow pushers found holes in the lawn and filled them carefully with soil
• A pressing bench workout - with sanders smoothing out the benches on the terrace
• Water we doing? - some TLC, repotting and lots of watering in the polytunnel
• Dust another job for GoodGym - a very determined and dusty sanding down of the cupboards in the main room

As our run here is slightly longer, the time seems to go more quickly, so we stretched it out as much as we possibly could, before sweeping up, putting away and heading off. We look forward to returning again soon.

A trip here at this time of year isn't complete without pushing hard up to Blythe Hill Fields to enjoy the view over the city and, if we're lucky, the setting sun. The Fields did not disappoint! Back at base, we looked forward to next week and another longer run, this time to a brand new task at Camelot Pre-School to paint their fences - sign up here. Tomorrow is the third birthday of our very good friends GoodGym Croydon. We wish them all the best and hope they have lots of fun!

See you soon xx

On Easter Bank Holiday Monday, 14 bouncing runners hopped and skipped 3.5km to Luxmore Gardens.

Did you have a lovely Easter weekend? One runner, Emma, really made the most of a bit of extra time away from work, by tackling three missions! That's three visits to the home of an older person, to help with something that was challenging them. Excellent work Emma - give her a cheer!

This week we welcomed Philippa for her first ever GoodGym group run, she chose a lovely evening for it! Lewisham Love to you Philippa!

NEWS

• If you want to get involved at the weekend, but are not yet mission verified, why not look out for community missions? These happen in the kind of community spaces we visit on our group runs, but allow us to stay for a bit longer to get the job done. We have a really great community mission coming up on Saturday May 4th, from 11am, at St Mary's Church, Lewisham. Check out the details and sign up here.

• Entries are now live for the Dino Dash Relay in Crystal Palace Park on June 12th. Don't worry if you don't have a team of three, we will work it out between the different areas. Check out the details and click through to enter the race here.

• A bit further into the future, entries are also open for the Petts Wood 10k in October. It may seem a long time way, but entries sell out and it's a really great race (with money raised going to St Christopher's Hospice). Have a look here and click through to sign up to the race itself.

This week's task took us to Luxmore Gardens for the first time this year (thank goodness for lighter evenings!). This lovely little 'pocket park' is hidden away behind some houses in New Cross, just a short stroll from the busy Lewisham Way and New Cross Road. A very big thank you to Kim for leading the way (and thank you for flying solo last week, while I was on holiday!) and to Marta for being back-marker tonight.

Weed better get a move on!

Last year we came here to dig over the borders before the plants were put in. This time we admired the beautiful plants and noted how well they are doing, before setting to, weeding between them all. This is a great time of year to get on top of the weeds and keep up with those pesky little sycamore seeds that spread themselves so easily. Everyone grabbed a tool and got digging, with a regular journey to the compost pile, to get rid of all the grass and weeds we had unearthed. At this point, I think I confused (and possibly worried?) a few people, by wandering around asking is anyone wanted a kiss, but I was merely sharing some sweet treats I brought back from my holiday ;) With a bit of watering, some sweeping up and a last few tugs at the weeds, we were ready to head back towards Glass Mill. We will be back here in two weeks' time, so don't worry if you were eager to complete the job!

Back at base, we continued the Easter bunny theme started in our warm-up, with a few brisk high intensity rounds of squat jumps and bunny hops, before possibly the most confusing build up to planking ever seen south of the river. We got there in the end...the perfect appetite builder before popping (or hopping) over to Mamma Dough for a post-run social.

Next week we are heading to Deptford, to visit the 999 Club for the first time. This homeless charity do amazing work locally and have a great task for us to get stuck into. Sign up here to join in. In the meantime, our runners Jacqueline and Nykolette are taking on the London Marathon on Sunday. Good luck to both of you, we will be right behind you and looking out for you en route (and on the telly). Run strong!