With a massive new task ahead of us, 38 amazing GoodGymers turned up to run 4km and transform a neglected community garden!

And we also got to welcome new runners Mitzi, Julia and Anna - give them a cheer! It was also great to see visitors from other areas including Croydon, Barnet and of course our lovely central officers- a big Wandsworth welcome to you all!

We kicked off the night with a bumper news session. To recap:

Inspired by the London Marathon on Sunday? Ballot entry is now open! It's one of the best major marathons in the world, and if you're thinking about taking on the ultimate challenge, you've got nothing to lose by entering the ballot! Just going to leave the link here...

The 2019 GoodGym Olympics are fast approaching! If you haven't been before, this is a very fun day where every GoodGym area goes head to head to compete for the title! Events include track racing, the sack race, a baking competition and lots more. There's the chance to race competitively or just to have a lovely day out - so sign up here to help defend Wandsworth's silver medal position!

Interested in making a real difference in the life of somebody suffering from isolation in the local community? Coach running - where GoodGym pairs you up with an elderly person, 'your coach' - is a fantastic way to spend just a small amount of time which has a big impact on both your own wellbeing and that of the person you're visiting. If you've got any questions come and talk to me about it!

Well done to Oliver who took on the Dubrovnik Half Marathon at the weekend and still made it for the run last night!

Garden State

After all that chat, we headed outside to do a warm up and discuss the best superpowers to have - flying came up pretty high, as did mind reading, the ability to teletransport, speak any language and never to get a hangover!

We set off for our task at Doddington Activity Centre, which was 2 km away, at a good pace. This huge patch of land in the middle of Battersea has been shut for the past eight years, but the decision has been made to open it up again so it can be enjoyed by the community. This is a massive job as it has been so neglected over the years, but something for GoodGym really to get its teeth into! So while some of the group went off to collect the tools, the rest of us got ourselves ready for the job in hand with a few squats and lunges - what better way to prepare?

Getting Turfed Out!

As soon as the gates were open we got cracking with a list of jobs that included rolling up massive sections of old astroturf, sanding down benches, digging over soil, weeding, sweeping and generally making the place more welcoming. We have three weeks planned at this task, and it is going to be incredible seeing the place slowly transform into somewhere the community can be proud of! I'll save the before and after pictures until we're done - watch this space! Amazing efforts from everyone, well done gang.

After 40 minutes of hard work, we popped over to the local community centre to drop of the tools and do a quick fitness blast - unfortunately after all that fun hard work we didn't have much time left for a full on session (I could see you were devastated...!) but we still managed some bear planks, hollow holds, lunge kicks and inchworms. Nice work.

All that was left was to head back to the BAC, tackle that last hill, and stretch it out. It's bank holiday next week, but don't worry, you can still get your GoodGym fix! We're back at the garden for week two of the transformation, then we'll be doing some fun fitness games, and we'll even follow the session with a social at the local pub. What's not to love?! Sign up here. Until then, run happy everyone.

Last night 39 runners ran 4km to Doddington Roof Gardens to lift and spread compost, clear weeds and turn earth for a geodome.

Wandsworth News

• Last week Rebecca Taylor did her 50th good deed! What a amazing milestone, looking forward to seeing that black tshirt! Give her a cheer here.

• Next week it's cleaning and moving furniture at Elays Network a charity in Battersea. Find out more and sign up here.

• This Thursday is the GoodGym social! Featuring International Pun of the Month, Treasure Thursdays AND it's Camden's birthday! Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night 37 of us gathered at Battersea Arts Centre, I was delighted to be covering for Ana for a one night special! We ran the 2km to Doddington Roof Gardens with a lovely bit of wall sitting along the way.

On arrival we were directed to a few different tasks:

• Bringing 50 compost bags up from downstairs and putting them into 10 piles around the garden

• Spreading some of those bags on areas that had been prepped (weeded)

• Prepping more areas for compost-spreading (avoiding planted carrots, broad beans and other food!)

• Turning over and weeding an area ready for a large geodome that's going to be put up as a community activity

• Shovelling and transporting compost from two huge bags onto an area being weeded and spreading it

As we arrived early, we left a little earlier than usual, having completely transformed the goedome area (see photos) and put down tarps so things don't regrow on the area as well as having shifted all the compost, spread 5 bags in the maze, weeded and composted one area and made a great start on another.

'Like a swarm of very helpful locusts' - A GoodGymer

After our team photo we thanked our hosts for having us and headed over to Battersea Park for some fitness fun - 'fun' being the operative word. We started with a game of shark attack - I put down cones on the ground as islands and we start with one 'shark' (holding their hand on their head as a fin), everyone runs around and when I shout 'shark attack!' you have to get to an island before the shark gets you, otherwise you become a shark! It was an intense game with some very sharky tactics taking place - island circling and pack hunting included! We whittled down to a handful of survivors which a sea of 30 sharks couldn't quite catch. Chapeau to you survivors! Next we went onto heads, shoulders, knees and cone. The premise - pairs squat within hands reach of a cone and whilst the caller shouts 'heads, shoulders, knees etc' they have to touch those areas until the caller shouts 'cone!' and then the pair grab for the cone. After a few warm up rounds we went into knock out rounds and those who got knocked out were given exercises to do by Chi.

A huge hello and welcome to Daniel, Georgina and Adam who joined us for the first time last night!

A tense final for heads, shoulders, knees and cone was held and then we were off back to Battersea Arts Centre. The group put on a great last push at the hill up to Lavender Hill and we finished with some stretching and ready for dinner!

Great work team! Thanks for having me :)

Lucy J

It was the very last run of the year in Wandsworth last night, and there was singing, the 12 days of Fitmas, and not one but two cakes! What a way to see out the year...

It was also a time for us to look back at what we've achieved together. We have clocked up a colossal 4473 good deeds so far - next year is going to be a huge one for us as we hit our 5000th good deed!

Things you got to snow

It was the first run for Lou and for Anneka last night - give them some festive cheer, GoodGym!

Our first run back next year is on the 7th January, can't wait to see you all there ready for work off all that Christmas pud!

Absolutely delighted that on our very last run of the year, our lovely Jordan hit his 100th good deed! What an extraordinary amount of doing good across the borough and beyond, time spent making other peoples' lives better, and an innumerable number of squats and sprints! Well done Jordan!

Let's make it rein

Tonight we had a special one off run following the fun we had last year. We love to support Paul's Cancer Support Centre, an amazing organisation near Clapham Junction that provides support for anybody living with cancer, offering alternative therapies, counseling and advice to everybody. It's an incredible place that is vital for communities, so tonight's task was a running and caroling session to raise as much money as we could for them.

So after a quick run through to prep our angelic voices, and a warm up where we made like athletic Christmas puds, angels, Christmas trees and Rudolph, we set off for our first stop. Paul's Cancer Support has a good relationship with Asda, so it was just a short jog down to kick off. There were no first performance nerves from us though, as we got started with Jingle Bells before a rather fine rendition of Silent Night, even if we do say so ourselves.

We did a few more belters, before moving off to Clapham Junction, where we were enthusiastically supported (conducted) by a lovely older lady waiting for her bus, which was much more encouraging that the competitive man we encountered at our next stop outside the pub. Undeterred, we ran up to Clapham Common, where we finished off the night with some lovely harmonising and a rousing rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas! Watch this space to find out how much we raised last night...

All that was left of our festive run was a fitness session on the common, where we got competitive with a game of The 12 Days of Fitmas. It was a very tight call, but after one team had to repeat 12 skaters for the upteenth time, it was Team Warrior that pipped it to the post and were rewarded with cheers and chocolate.

One myrrh for the road

After a speedy run back to base, it was just time to stretch it out before we headed over to the Four Thieves for our final social of the year, and to eat cake.

If you want to relive our tuneful endeavours last night, check out the video here - sounding very nice GoodGym!

It's been a huge pleasure to run with you this year Wandsworth - you make Mondays brilliant. Thank you for all your amazing efforts this year to make your borough and beyond a better place to live. Here's the 2019 and all the good deeds and fitness it will bring! Wishing you ALL the most wonderful end to the year xxx

With the penultimate run of the year and two tasks ahead of us, we were feeling decidedly Christmassy in Wandsworth last night !

We kicked off the night with a bumper news session...

If you're free on Friday and can sign up for this mission on Friday for the amazing Evolve housing charity, please do as soon as poss! The organisers need eight people for the mission to go ahead and will cancel it if they can't get that.

Next week is our last run of the year but we're back on the 7th January for our first run - perfect for shaking off those January blues and any vestiges of a NYE hangover. We'll also be doing a starter session, so let your friends know if they wouldn't like to find out more about GoodGym!

Remember all those bulbs we planted for the Kambala Cares project? They're having a Christmas party on the estate, complete with local choirs and mulled wine, and we've been invited! Check out the details here.

We had to bid a tearful farewell to Alyx who is leaving us for new adventures in NZ! She's been a big part of the GG family, and we'll miss her. Thanks for all your amazing efforts and enthusiasm over the last two years Alyx! Come back to visit please!

Two Task Monday

It was a biggie last night, with two tasks to choose from. The first was a shorter run down to the Venue Community centre to various jobs at this local centre, and the other was a longer run to a family refuge centre in Balham to do a painting and weeding job.

So after a warm up and a discussion on our favourite veggie meals, we divided up into two groups, with Alyx (who might have thought she'd get a night off on her final run for a while with us) taking one half on the longer run.

The Venue group made it down to the centre in very quick time....perhaps a bit too quick as the task owner hadn't turned up yet! But after a quick call while Helen led the group through a few exercises and our weekly plank minute, we got our instructions, and started by taking compostable waste over to the local community garden. On returning, we knocked out a few less fun jobs, such as clearing rubbish and cleaning, before moving onto the creative bit - decorating the community centre! The decorating methods were pretty inventive - from some lovely tinsel garlanding, to some trolley-based arranging ("I've never been so tall" said Beth!) - but very effective. We left the place looking very festive, and jogged over to Battersea Park to do some competitive fitness. Dividing up into groups, everybody had a turn in choosing the exercise (including dancing like a fairy? Apparently this worked our ABCs...!) before sprinting, with one team just pipping the other to the post - but not by much. Excellent effort guys!

Over to Alyx to hear what the guys who ran down to the family refuge centre got up to:

After a long but steady run, we arrived at the house ready for action and were greeted, welcomed in and shown our task. One of the bright yellow rooms was to be painted yellow, plus there was some weeding to be done outside! We took it in turns painting and doing 1 minute planks, so despite the long run we still all got in an abs workout too. After just 30 minutes we had weeded an area of the garden, laid down some wood chip and painted an entire room - many hands sure do make light work! We ran back to the BAC to meet Ana and the rest of the team for some stretches.

Next week it's our final run of the year! (sniffle). But don't worry, we are really going to go out with a bang. Sign up here for a very festive running and caroling task in support of a local cancer centre, a very Christmassy fitness session and then our very last social of the year in the Four Thieves across the road. See you then for a Christmas cracker of a run!