In the week that we celebrate GoodGym’s 10th birthday, 36 of Lambeth’s finest met inside Papa’s park ready to run and do good.

After welcoming a few new runners and giving temporary custody of the Lambeth good deed wings to Sam we marveled at how much good has been done since GoodGym started back in 2009 - over 165,000 good deeds in case you’re wondering.

With the introductions out of the way the first thing on the agenda was to get some pictures with the GoodGym flag so we all headed off to pose in front of David Bowie and the Ritzy and then split into two groups. A small group headed back to our base at Papa’s park to do some weeding and sweeping to give the place a bit more curb appeal. The other group headed up to Hillside Gardens hoping to also do some weeding but the failing light meant they unfortunately weren’t able to get the task done so had to turn around and head back. Luckily for them we had a freshly warmed bread and butter pudding waiting for them courtesy of Paul and we also enjoyed some tasty focaccia from Mira.

Happy birthday GoodGym!

What a banging evening of running and doing good from the rockstars of GoodGym Lambeth!

We kicked off by welcoming Tasha, Jon, Saoirse and Georgia to their first run with us - give them a cheer!

FUN FACT: Loads of Lambeth buildings are named after prominent Afro-Caribbean figures. Max Roach was a Jazz drummer from NYC 🥁

This week’s task was a new one for us - Loughborough Community Centre at Max Roach. It is an awesome place for children in the local area - they host a whole range of clubs and activities. Over the school holidays they had about 200 children who came to play together and have a meal every day.

We split into a few groups to get there (walking, chill run, long run) and met Candice who gave us a bunch of jobs:

👉Barrowing wood chip from outside the sheds to the One O’Clock Club’s vegetable garden.

👉Rearranging the logs into seating areas

👉Sweeping the entrance and concrete areas

👉Dismantling planters

👉Weeding in the vegetable patches and ‘mud pits’

👉Getting rid of the bindweed in the compost area

👉Watering the plants in the poly tunnel and vegetable patch

I’m getting tired just listing them!

So our wondrous team of GoodGymers got to work shovelling and pulling and transporting and clearing. It was a sight to behold.

And after half an hour we’d blitzed the place. Props to Lauren to finishing that mud pit!!

We then headed back for a biscuit 🍪

Top work everyone!

NEXT WEEK is a big one - GoodGym’s 10th Birthday! Our no.1 task is to get a photo in front of Lambeth’s best known landmark (after the London Eye…) but then we’ll have a couple of task options:

• A bunch of jobs at Hillside Gardens

• Clearing some weeds at Papa’s Park

And then the real party begins…AT THE PUB. 🍻 Click here to sign up!

45 GG runners turned up tonight for a couple of mega gardening tasks.

At the start, we welcomed new runners Phoebe and Matt and congratulated Carol for reaching 50 good deeds, Elise for reaching 200 and Frances for reaching 250.

ABSOLUTELY SMASHING

Steve also awarded Tom Benson his own personalised bottle of beer for his utterly incredible organisation of the GoodGym Olympics!!

A team of 5 walkers (mostly whacked from some incredible racing at the Bath Two Tunnels) headed off whilst Tom gave the rest of us a good warm up.

We then split in two: 💥Most of us ran 2k to Brixton Windmill to do a load of weeding in the play area. 💥A smaller group took a 3k route to Agnes Riley Gardens to help fill up some planters.

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Brixton Windmill is London's last working Windmill don'tcha know! And it provides flour for Brixton Prison's bakery as well as The Old Post Office bakery in near Papa's Park (do check it out!). They provide regular tours of the Windmill to locals and are in the process of building a visitor centre to host school groups and more community events (they already host the Bread and Beer Festival in May 👅)

Our job this time was on the outside of the Windmill, pulling and scraping all the weeds out from around the play area equipment. We promptly got to work with 7 large hoe/scraper devices, a few small forks and a whole load of gardening gloves.

There were big weeds, small weeds, shallow weeds and far too many stubborn weeds. Commitment to the cause was strong however with some relentless deep root excavation. We filled up a MASSIVE bag of weeds and even brushed away the debris.

Bang tidy.

We then headed back down the hill (with obligatory stops for press ups, jump lunges and squats) and took on our Home Stretch Strava segment (well done Dharmesh - 12 seconds!).

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Here's the lowdown from Tom and the Agnes Riley Gang:

So a merry band of 15 of us took up the mission and headed to Agnes Riley Gardens to meet Adrian. The mission as far as we were aware involved planters, nothing more. So off we jogged lead up by George we all made it there safe and sound. Adrian greeted us with a plethora of tools, including forks, spades, hoes, wheelbarrow…..spades, it was a right box of tricks, Christmas had come early for team Lambeth. So the main operation was to move some planters onto a new patch of soil. However before we moved the planters we had to level the soil, as the patch was on a slope. So banded with our lovely tool set we got down to shovelling soil from the high point, loading up barrows taking it 5 meters to the low point empty it, and giving it a rake. We repeated this motion more times than I could count but the end effect was we had a level playing pitch it was quite a sight!

Whilst this was going on a band of three Lambeth members got going on tidying up the surrounding allotments, making them weed free - the place looked cracking.

Once the ground was level, it was operation move the planters into place. Now these bad boys looked quite heavy however thankfully they came apart in two sections, the legs and the body. This made life loads easier, and before we knew it we all 4 of them in place. Adrian was happy we all patted ourselves on the back for a job well done and then ran back to HQ.

Nice work Lambeth - also while I’m here just want to say a massive thanks for my present last night, loved it and will save it for a special occasion, its currently chilling as I type. Really made my day, you are a wonderful bunch and thanks for so many of you coming along and getting involved, it was mega. Nice one team.

Tom

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And off to the pub we went, for many beers & the bake-off draw!

Cheers GG Lambeth! 🍻

The last week of February turned out to be unfathomably warm, which was lucky for us as we had an outside task. Less lucky for the state of the Earth, however. But if global warming leaves you feeling a bit glum, other than getting behind some great campaigns you could also come to GoodGym and feel better that your excess energy is being used to help your community, rather than power the treadmill!

We began with much celebrations as we found out that the lovely Mark G will be leading the good ship Lambeth from the end of March. We also celebrated 50th runs for Emily, Emma and Andrew and also Tom Hunter's200th good deed. Katie also gave out her last ever Shit Prize of the Month to the brilliant John Hunter, who is on a 50 month run streak for his coach runs. What a gem! Party poppers everywhere!

Mark G led the group out for a warm up and we then split in to two groups. We had the Straight There's and the Round the Houses. The Round the Houses set off, led by Tom H, on a 4km trip to Brixton Road Youth Centre, whilst the Straight There's went, well, straight there, led by Mark and Katie. On arrival, lots of leaves that were in black bags mixed with rubbish needed emptying into green sacks for recycling and the rubbish put in different bags. More leaves fallen around the yard also had to be gathered up and put into bags. Our big team set about this with enthusiasm and in no time we had sorted MANY BAGS!

There are so many bags that we have sorted! Said everyone

Team Straight There ran back to base and did some circuits, whilst the Round the Houses stayed to finish off. On return to base we did some stretches and headed home after a lovely evening. Well done Lambeth!