We haven't had a proper summer in England and our last Wednesday in July only summed it up - downpours. As Sam waited inside Old Spike, runners like David, Emma, Tim, Isaac, Nelly, Paulin and Claire all came in to take shelter, catch-up and listen in to Sam's speech.

After Sam delivered his intro speech, they made their way to the alleyway (as they were going to head out this way and the Green was wet and slippery) to do their warm-up. Sam prepared them in advance for tonight's ice-breaker question, which was: Two days ago was National Wine and Cheese Day, what would be your pairing and the second question, since we will be doing our first HIIT session of the year, what is your favourite workout exercise?

There were a variety of wines and cheeses that I forget, but the exercises I do remember. We had from wall sits to planks to squats and ab crunches.

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The impossible compostable

Running in the spitting rain, we ran through the backstreets of Peckham and East Dulwich to get to East Dulwich Station before venturing behind Champion Hill towards North Dulwich and finished on Sunray Avenue with a hill climb. We took our time and arrived with a few minutes to spare. Thanks to Paulin for backmarking on the way there and to Emma on the way back.

We met Rose at the top of Sunray Avenue as we arrived at Denmark Hill Community Garden, but unfortunately she had received devastating news about funding for another project. We let her collect her thoughts whilst we litter picked the area of rubbish. At this point, both Clare and Folarin had walked over to the task.

When Rose opened the tool shed, she knew there would be one task we could tackle in a group. There was a compost bin that should have been collecting compostable food waste from the residents and from the garden, but upon tipping the compost out; we realised nothing was usable. Unfortunately, some residents were using this compost bin as a normal bin - plastic bags, dog poo, etc. were in this compost. We took it in turns (in groups) to bag the waste in black bin liners and threw it away in the normal bins. The smell from the compost will stick in our memories.

Whilst one team was dealing with the compost and watering plants that did not receive enough rain water (due to trees shading the beds), the other lot were doing a 5 minute HIIT blast with Sam. The five stations were: push-ups, wall sit, squats, lunges and tricep dips. Every station was a minute long. After one round, the teams were swap jobs.

The rain did increase, so with 10 minutes to spare and having completed the main task, Sam decided to call it there and run back to Old Spike (via the quickest route).

With no motivation to stretch in the rain, we rushed into Old Spike to "get dry". Hoping for drier Wednesday night group runs in August!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was pissing it down with rain from start until the end, so I appreciate that you all are weathered runners and took on the task like champions too! The added HIIT session did burn my triceps for days, so I hope you all got to feel the effects of the workout.

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Thank You to Rose

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 Rose for coming out in the rain after receiving some devastating news too. We hope we could put a little smile on our face by cleaning and clearing out that compost bin plus doing some litter picking.