Delivering food parcels with Southwark Foodbank -

Last night 12 Goodgymmers ran 3k (and back) to the Old Alleynian Rugby club. It was an unusual session because Sam was not leading, and instead it was me - Paulin! The session started with cake - a surprise from Sam to celebrate my 300th good deed. Then it was over to me, starting with the welcome speech and the warm up.

The ice-breaker was a work-related question from me about things you’d ask to a chat bot that recommends recipes. The questions we came up with ranged from practical “What can I cook with only two tins of beans?” to morbid “What should I eat that is less than 50 calories?”. Either way, very useful market research, thanks a lot!

Once we arrived at the rugby club, we were met by Ian, who had the floodlights on ready for us. Our first task was to seed a muddy pitch, and it was great to see everyone self organise to methodically cover the whole area. After that, we did some edging - which means scraping off the edge of some grass which had overgrown into the carpark.

After a quick photo and some chocolate treats from Ian, we ran back to Old Spike. At the end when we were cooling down and stretching, we “collaboratively” remembered the task for next week’s group run, as well as a few missions that are on this week-end (Thorlands on Saturday at 12 and Peckham Rye Junior parkrun on Sunday at 9am.

Opening up Old Spike Peckham with not just one key, but two as Old Spike had a break in a few weeks ago and Sam had to get a spare key for the second lock.

As our regular runners came in, it was great to see Tony come and claim his second good deed. Slowly everyone trickled into Old Spike in Peckham and as 18:45 arrived, Sam promptly went through his usual GG intro speech, but formally introduced himself (which was weird...). Afterwards, his ice-breaker questions were to do with a host of social dates including Pi Day, World Sleep Day and St. Paddy's Day. Firstly, everyone had to answer what their favourite pie and how many hours of sleep they normally get before Sam started a word association game with things to do with Ireland (with the added touch that what was suggested couldn't be used again).

There were all sorts of pies from steak and kidney to apple pie. The average hour of sleep everyone got was 7-8, but quite worrying some got less than 4 whilst others overslept...From Guinness to Whiskey and Shamrocks to potatoes, our Ireland word association game didn't prove difficult at all!

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Getting ready for bed and a corporate group

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group through the backstreets of Peckham and up Chadwick Road (the hill) and down towards Denmark Hill. Arriving at Thorlands Gardens slightly late, we met Simon who was filming us running in. We also met James and Jessie at the task, as they opted to walk and run to the task, respectively.

Simon had already gathered the tools we needed, so we proceed to the "Wild Garden" to put down the tools and split the group:

• Isaac, Lindy, Paulin and Tony were up for the mulch run as they brought over wheelbarrows of mulch for the beds where we will grow exotic trees.
• Simon needed a trio team to clear the terrace, so that it would be ready for the corporate group to use on Friday. Andrada, Jessie and Maria swept the terrace, dragged the bags of sticks and brambles and even helped cut them down further to ease the composting method.
• Lastly, the majority, weeded. They needed to clear the weeds from the mulch beds, so that the mulch runners could put mulch on them. This group had Gemma, James, Nathan, Nelly

Since we were slightly late within 30 minutes, we managed to take out all the weeds where the mulch beds will be and some extra in other places. Plus, the mulch running team brought six wheelbarrow's worth of mulch and team terrace cleared the terrace. Everything was all set for Friday, apart from a flat tire on a wheelbarrow.

After putting back the tools, we left Lindy, James and Paulin there before running off back to Old Spike. On the way back, Andrada and Jessie peeled off back to their respective homes.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Our regular monthly sessions at Thorlands Gardens is always appreciative and we got the site ready for a corporate session on Friday. Thank you to Daryl for backmarking the runs to / from Thorlands Garden and to everyone for getting stuck in.