With the backdrop of the most beautiful sunset, a group of GoodGymers met to have a theatre-themed evening of doing good and getting fitter.

The Cast

It was lovely to see some new faces from other areas to our Wandsworth run - welcome to the group, everybody is always welcome! We also cheered Alessia who came along to her very first session - great to meet you!

Act 1

We launched straight into a warm up that really tested our coordination skills but definitely got our hearts pumping...remind me, was 1 or 2 left hand or right hand?!

We also discussed our fave comfort foods, with crumpets coming top of the table, with toast and mac n cheese proving popular and even a surprise appearance from pistachio ice cream!

Act 2

It was a shortish run up to our task last night, which was at the lovely Omnibus Theatre. This is an independent charity which saved a beautiful old library buildings from developers and instead created an organisation which brings the arts to local people.

Our job was to have a good go at the garden and a giant old apple tree which was being threatened by the weeds. It was possibly the greatest equipped task we had experienced at GG Wandsworth, with headtorches, tools and even a series of beautiful lamps set up to help us get as much done as possible. And work we did! Weeds were eliminated, dead apples cleared, and tarpaulin spread down to stop it being overtaken again. The before and after shots are pretty impressive...

Final Act

Waving good bye to the theatre we jogged over to the Common for a fitness session which saw us playing TicTacToe, or as I discovered, a game better known as Rock Paper Scissors! With several round of forfeits which included sprints, squats and jumping jacks, we were soon ready to move onto working on our ABCs - agility, balance and coordination. Great moves everyone!

Curtain Call

It was at last time to drop the curtain on our Monday night session. Next week we've got a new task helping transform a garden - hope to see you there. Until then, take a bow, GoodGym Wandsworth!

With blue skies as far as the eye could see, it was the perfect night for some running about doing good - and what made it even better was seeing some lovely new faces to GoodGym Wandsworth! Welcome everybody.

We started off the evening with some warm ups (not that they were that needed) and a gentle jog down to the local park next to the school where we were set to help out. We launched straight into some not-so-gentle tabata, after a discussion on how to pronounce it properly. If anybody has the magic answer let me know! After a few short but intense rounds of mountain climbers, high knees and squat jumps (all the classics), we moved on to a round of ab-based tabata where you all proved you had cores of steel. Amazing work.

Pumped and ready for our task, we headed round the corner to meet headteacher Colette, who showed us into the magical secret garden the kids use to grow fruit and veg and learn about nature and wildlife. There was a mountain of wood to shift, but we cracked on with it, slowly but surely filling the massive skip with loads of wood and clearing a new space for the kids to use. Check out the after shot - I cannot believe how much you managed to get in there!

After admiring the fruit (and perhaps sneaking a tiny sample, just in the interest of keeping blood sugars up of course) we waved goodbye to Christchurch school and the little kitten who had overseen our work, and headed back to the BAC. Finishing off the evening with that big old hill, we eased our weary muscles with some stretches. We also chatted about:

• For anyone not competing in Hackney Half, on 26th Sept but in the mood for something to do (and a material incentive!) here's a page for the GG Aid Station It's now operated by a different company, so the incentives now include money off road races, duathlons AND triathlons

• If anybody is doing a parkrun on saturday and fancies some company or a coffee afterwards, pop it in the whatsapp group to see who is about!

• Next week's run is full at the moment as the task has limited capacity, but I'm hoping to add on another extra task close by so watch this space!

Until then, happy running everyone!

So lovely to see some new faces at our group run last - a huge welcome to all of you who came for your first run at Wandsworth and to Vanessa, whose first every GoodGym experience it was!

We started off with some warm ups, and a chat about our fave ice cream flavours - joint winners were salted caramel and mint choc chip. Excellent choices!

Dreaming of ice cream we set off for ChristChurch primary school, a favourite task of ours, but one we haven't been able to return to for ages. They have an amazing secret garden which is a beautiful learning resource for the kids, and after so long, there was plenty for us to do. We shifted rubbish, tested our expertise weeding, and did some heavy lifting, all under the watchful eye of our visiting Pup. After half an hours solid work, we admired the new learning area made possible from the jobs we did there last time, and munched on some freshly picked raspberries as our reward.

Over to the park for a conditioning session, we did some furry intense exercises, with some more than pawsable planks, squats and press-ups, all without any paws at all.

After that, it was a short run back to the BAC, some stretches and a cool down. Brilliant work everybody! We have a lovely community mission next week, you can sign up here] (https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/tackling-a-massive-woodpile-and-other-jobs). Until then, run happy!