What an excellent start for GoodGym Lewisham! A very enthusiastic 32 athletes limbered up to take on some heavy-duty book-shifting at New Cross Learning and even had enough time to do some Cardio Box Crushing (yes, it's now 'a thing') before jogging off to the recycling centre, cardboard in tow.

Speech!

Before we ran off into the darkness, we gathered in the foyer of Glass Mill Leisure Centre, where Councillor Obajimi Adefiranye made a short speech, welcoming GoodGym to the borough and highlighting the work we do with isolated older people in the community. We were also joined by Councillors Stella Jeffrey, Joan Millbank and Damien Egan (who has promised to join us on one of our group runs soon!).

Enjoying the warmth of the leisure centre, we realised we would eventually need to brave the cold and go outside. It wasn't long before we felt warm again after a head-count and brief burst of high-knees/fast arms and a swift jog up Lewisham Way. Adele led the group, with Beth kindly offering to take the position of back-marker. En route to the community library, we also spotted the fabulous phone-box library, adopted by the people of Lewisham after it went into retirement. We kept a steady pace and, with Lewisham Way being a busy, fast-paced kind of road, we got in some short sprints as we crossed side streets.

The Task

Before long, we were outside New Cross Learning and being ushered around the back by Kathy, to avoid wading in through a public meeting. Gill introduced herself and also told us about the task, telling us how long this job would take them without our help. With a group this large, we soon had everyone in their positions: a team in the downstairs space, transferring books from boxes into bags, a chain of workers on the stairs, passing the bags along and up, a group in the upstairs room, decanting books and freeing up the bags and an intrepid bunch of recyclers, crushing and transporting the boxes to the nearby recycling centre.

Working at pace and with great determination, the group soon had all the books moved from the downstairs room (ready for a future task!) and we made our way outside, where we did some squats to keep warm, while Gill thanked everyone for their hard work.

Our Return

We now ran back towards our start point, with Conroy showing us a more scenic route than the one along the main road. Gathering near Deptford Bridge station, Adele suggested that anyone who might want to push a bit harder could do so along this stretch, with a large group choosing to go fast and hard, then turn to rejoin the rest of the group, before heading back together with a sprint finish into Glass Mill.

There was a buzz of chatter while we stretched and heard about next week's task, with many nodding heads and calls of 'See you next week!'.

Same time, same place then!