On a balmy Wednesday evening a group of us met at the Castle and jogged a beautiful loop (via the ever-charming dinosaurs of Pasley Park) and picked up our task - in the form of many, many flyers - from Pembroke House.

We set to, walking and jogging an organic route through the nearby streets, targeting all and any letterboxes, and at best doors with multiple letterboxes. Deciding on our flyering route felt somewhat like a task on The Apprentice, with Zoe very much stepping up as our Week One team leader.

The flyers are advertising the charity's new weekend market at Walworth Living Room, inviting the local community to meet local traders at a space where they are welcome to pop in any time for a free tea, coffee and just to relax. If you're in the neighbourhood - pop in on a Saturday, any time 10-2 to have a look at the local market!

Next week we're back off to the amazing Lollard Street Adventure Playground - let's go!

After a jog down for a lush couple of laps of Kennington Park in the evening sun, we assembled to help set up for the regular food bank at Draper Hall - where in recent times they have increased their frequency to offering foodbanks for the local community twice a week. Chalice from Draper Hall shared some of the history of the centre, where alongside foodbanks, they provide a wide range of activities for the community - ranging from sports groups to knitting circles, providing a space where people come to connect and catch up.

The team got straight into a real flow state, setting up a mighty amount of bananas and all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables, alongside a world of legumes, lovingly sorted, and boxes, lovingly crushed.

Many hands made for pretty quick work and so after an hour we cathartically jettisoned our recycling and headed out - some dispersing into the night, and some of us taking a couple kilometres loop around the quieter streets to end the evening and cool down. Great to have Ben with us for his first GoodGym session - and to have such a lovely gang to show him the ropes!

Thanks all for another great E&C task - we'll definitely be back.

Series one, episode two has dropped!

And it was some GoodGymming for the ages. A dozen of us met at the Castle Centre and jogged a lovely route down the quiet roads and across Burgess Park to meet a few more GoodGymmers at the Trinity College Centre, an amazing long-standing community space in the heart of Camberwell. We split up into teams and set to, one taking on clearing up the garden, the largest group deep cleaning the kitchen walls - the kitchen gets a lot of use as they offer free meals in partnership with local charities - and a third sorting through a magical mystery room that needed a bit of a refresh.

With an honourable shout out to Hilary for getting up the ladder to deep clean the extractor fan; the session highlight has to be the team of Lorna Jorge James Sevan Theo and others turning their talents to surgically deep cleaning the insides of two huge ovens - getting in a solid bicep workout and transforming them to look almost new.

Site manager Kevin was delighted and was already asking when we can come back. With a seamless return jog where we stayed perfectly as a group and definitely didn't split into three smaller groups, we capped the evening with a gentle cool down.

A small gang headed to the Four Quarters for some OJ & lemonades (king of drinks!) and to plot our next running events.

See you all for episode 3!

We've launched! It's happened!

On Wednesday 22 Elephant & Castle GoodGymmers headed down to Nursery Row Park to help the Friends of the Park with upkeep of the community space.

We raked leaves galore, giving the grass underneath a much needed chance to grow; a team of the most green-fingered (i.e. the people who had brought gloves) turned over the local primary school's gardening patch, leaving it ready for planting, and an intrepid crew ventured into the orchard to do some advanced litter picking...

We jogged back to our meeting point at the Castle Centre, and after a gentle cool down stretch, a few of us headed to Four Quarters to toast a succesful inaugural GoodGym Elephant & Castle.