27 GoodGymers ran between 3-5km to paint and garden.

After tropical weather recently the sun was shining and the evening was set for doing good. We collected together with the news this week:

• Polly has hit 50 Good Deeds and earned her black t-shirt!
• Everyone did amazingly at Run Hackney on Sunday - well done!
• There are DRINKS tonight at the Joker of Penton Street, come along
• Also GoodGym Croydon starts next week, tell your Croydon friends and get them to support!

We had two tasks again this week. Firstly we were continuing painting for Kentish Town Tenants Association, they are a community group who help improve the lives of those living locally, especially those who are elderly and isolated. Secondly we did some gardening at Cecil Sharp House, this is proclaimed as the home of English folk music and does lovely events from ceilidhs to weddings which require the grounds to be tidied.

Home of English Folk

After an active warm up and some talk about socket to pocket the group split and we headed off in opposite directions to #DoGood and #GetFit.

Cecil Sharp House Report:

After a lovely 1 mile run through the streets of Camden we arrived at the spectacular Cecil Sharp House to do some active weeding and gardening. We'll be heading to this task monthly for the rest of the year to help keep the place ready for events and community work.

Interesting tools

When we met the task owner Susannah she explained the importance of having us come along and already expressed gratitude for us being there. There was orange & blackcurrant squash on offer before picking various tools, including some interesting ones! The team scraped, weeded and swept the front and back gardens. Lucia seemed addicted to sweeping continuously falling blossom, Steve seemed to have lots of garden chat as always and George got the technique of using the interesting tool down. We stayed until the task was done with everything looking lovely and tidy. Well done everyone!

Jess's Painting report:

The other group sprinted off to help the Tenants Association finish painting fences for local residents. We’d made a great start last week, and Vaughan was happy to see us again.

Black paint beard

After a nice run there we got to work quickly, sprucing up the shabby fences with a slick coat of shiny black paint. Some of the group managed to give themselves a new coat of paint too - special mentions to Jackie for her very thoroughly painted arms, and John who accidentally (we think) gave himself a rather striking black paint beard.

Laurence Llewelyn Bowen has nothing on us.

Shout out to the many snails and other insects we came across - hope they’re enjoying their surprise new home makeover. Laurence Llewelyn Bowen has nothing on us.

Finally our time was up, and after a quick scrub with white spirit for some of the paintier members of the group, and a refreshing round of orange juices kindly provided by Vaughan, we sped back through Kentish Town to the community centre, just in time for PB’s stretch session.

As always brilliant work everyone! See you next week, we'll be going to Skip Garden and Alara, sign up here.

Remember drinks tonight and our taskforce member Frances is organising a 10 mile trail race in July, go along and enjoy the picnic afterwards.

PB out.

A crew of 12 ran an amazing 7.5km in 40 minutes up to Surrey Docks Farm to help sort out some overgrown flowerbeds.

Creative license over distance was unintentional but panned out well as everyone absolutely nailed it!

The last few weeks have been all about weeding and people being able to finally plant things that won't get frosted to death. This week was no different. Aside from all of the animals, the epic run and the delicious sunshine. And did I mention the babycham bucket?

Our group assembled and welcomed Amy along for the first time. Gorgeous sunshine in Peckham meant that we were bobbing and weaving our way up Rye Lane a little but made it clear in no time. As Beth mentioned, it felt like a mini tour of some other tasks at Peckham Platform and Galleywall Nature Reserve but onwards we went. All the way passed Surrey Quays Station and towards proper docklands areas.

We were welcomed to Surrey Docks Farm by Gemma who promptly got us water as it was such a warm and lovely night. She showed us some of the animals there, a calf who was born in October, pregnant Esther the pig and some very, very cute lambs. After we'd gotten over the sight, we set to work clearing some overgrown flowerbeds that are to be raised and used for community allotments. This is as well as making the unused areas less of a buggy runway and more engaging and nice to look at.

The farm is used as a learning experience for children and to engage the local community. It's a welcome sight in the shadows of Canary Wharf and the hustle of the city.

We cleared mint, potatoes and lots of nettles as well as some hefty rocks and made progress, as ever, in no time. Well before we wanted it to be, time was up and we got a quick feed in with the pigs and the calf.

Sun setting, it was time to race down Rotherhide New Road for some to run the full distance and others, taking a leaf out of GoodGym Westminster, to catch the overground back to Peckham.

Luckily, we made it back at not too dissimilar times ready to stretch off and discuss food.

For the second ever GoodGym Southwark social, we were meant to be off to Forzawin but due to our massive and wonderful group, we ended up on a table hunt and found just the thing at John the Unicorn. Beth and Michael celebrated by being the first people to ever order the Babycham bucket. Despite the suggestion, I'm not sure babycham will become a 'thing' for us to have everytime but it's always good to have a throw back. Menu aside: Salted shortbread is not the one

Well done runners. That was a lovely evening well spent and excellent effort on the distance covered.