“Magna opto!” exclaimed Cory leading his brave troops into the freezing air. 26 eager recruits followed him, weaving valiantly through the hostile hordes of Oxford Street like the 300 to Thermopylae. New and old goodgymers joined together with volunteers from Imperial College London to create an unstoppable volunteering force.

We jogged happily down back streets, through Green Park and in the general direction of Victoria causing alarm to various pedestrians and vehicles on route. Our destination was a radio station in need of some renovation, continuing the work of previous groups.

We set to work sanding down the walls immediately, all desperately trying to find an unoccupied piece of wall. As we scrubbed away vigorously dust began to fill the room like the cloud of Vesuvius, but without the fire. Soon we were all coated in a Pompeian dust, but Cory kept us going to the last second whilst filming our Herculean efforts.

On the way back Cory set us even more challenges. We started with sprints – painful. We then moved on to “grapes” aiming to create a fine cognac with our tiny hard steps. After producing our very own Vesuvinum (the earliest known marketing pun for you!) we ran back to base.

Cory once again surprised us all by announcing that we’d run 10k rather than the 7.5k we were expecting – well done team! We finished up with some stretches and group selfies before heading home.

parva magno cum amore facete (do small things with great love)