It was a very soggy troop of GoodGymers that met in Greenwich last night, but the heavy downpour proved to be no match for them. There were even four new lovely faces to brighten up our evening, hello to Pritesh, Rachel, Ella and Izzy who braved the hideous weather conditions for their first run.

After a quick cheer for Alex and Ben who are topping the good deeds table, we set off for our task at Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice shop. Since it was such a short run, our extra (ahem) bit of mileage trying to find the shop worked out almost as if it had been planned. Well done to Tom who must have covered an additional kilometre trying to locate it, and to Ben, who gallantly went out to locate Tom. And to the rest of the team, who, while waiting, drew a few sidelong looks from the passers-by for doing some exemplary chest presses against the railings on a busy bit of pavement.

We finally made it and happily dripped into the warmth of the shop, where we were met by Jane who divided us up into teams. The ladies were dispatched to a huge pile of clothes waiting to be tagged and folded, while Tom and David (who had come all the way from Wandsworth for the evening, well done David) sorted all the hangers. Pritesh, Christian and Ben turned their artistic eye to the displays, while Steve and Alex cleaned windows and tidied the shoe displays. Christian in particular looked very at home modelling the Winter 16 collection in a rather fetching fur coat. One for the GG Christmas party maybe? Meanwhile Rachel, Ella and Izzy were doing a fantastic job sorting the pile of clothes, and getting first dibs on some hidden treasures.

With the shop looking sparkling, the display fit for Harrods’ Christmas window, and a huge pile of clothes tagged, we set off for our fitness session in what could possibly be the quaintest square in Greenwich. The shine soon wore off, however, as we launched into a set of sprints and circuits that got our hearts racing. Two sets of burpees, planks, jumping jacks, power lunges and some very wobbly back-to-back squats later, we set off in Indian file back to our meeting spot. Past the Cutty Sark we swept, the cries of ‘puddle’ echoing up and down the river path. There was an impressive surge of sprinting at the end with the Murtough genes proving very strong, but the prize ultimately goes to Ben who solved the Greenwich-themed CoRUNdrum, knowing that John Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal. Well done that man.

Next week your lovely trainer Sarah will be back, and leading you all the way to Deborah Ubee Trust to help out there. You can sign up for what is sure to be a great run here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/doing-good-in-greenwich-5f208bfa-307e-49ea-80ce-432dd0c99232

Thanks for having me Greenwich, lovely to see you all and well done on a cracking session. Ana x