A super seven ran around 5km through the streets (and trails) of Penge to help attack some weeds at Cator Park.

It was a relaxed start to the evening, with a sit and a catch up on the benches in the garden, enjoying the home-grown strawberries that Tim (in his black 50 t-shirt, very nice!) had brought along to share. Our start point (a pub) doesn't make it easy to jump up and run, but jump we did, out onto the pavement, entertaining the traffic, as we do at about this time on a Tuesday.

No newcomers this week, but how lovely to welcome back Torie who, since we last saw her, has got married and been on her honeymoon! Congratulations Torie!

Let's take the scenic route

Now, our group run routes are usually very well researched and planned (I even wander down roads on Streetview sometimes, just to be clear), but I didn't think I needed to plan this one, feeling very sure that Cator Park was, in fact, on Cator Road. So sure was I that I even started veering off into what turned out to be the entrance to a school, when Tim piped up that the park was a little further on. Oops! Thanks to his extensive local knowledge and sense of direction, we enjoyed a scenic trail run, making our outward leg up to 3km. Great work everyone!

Crossing the park, we could see some people gathered around the shrubbery, pulling up weeds, so made our way over to join them. We were greeted by Millie, from the Friends of Cator and Alexandra Parks, who introduced us to everyone and showed us what they had planned. We were all a little distracted at this point, by the beautifully laid out new tools and the friendly dogs who were saying hello. We've never had a dog at a task before, so this was an added extra. We were to focus our attention on an area of shrubbery, some of which was hidden completely by some rambling hops, brambles and other random weeds. Gloves on, we set-to, very quickly revealing what was concealed underneath.

All tooled up

This kind of task quick quickly amasses a lot of 'off-cuts', which I noticed were spreading across the cycle path. What a treat then, to have some professional picker-uppers (modelled in the photos by Louise) to help shift things over and out of the way! It wasn't long before we had to down tools and gather for our group photo (not before we had all shown some love to the most adorable spaniel puppy who had made an appearance), admiring our handiwork along the way.

It feels great at this time of year, to be able to use the parks for our fitness session. The light evenings and dry grass making it all so much easier! We worked through a timed circuits session, adding extra exercises each time round, until everyone was worked to pretty much exhaustion (though amazingly, still with enough energy to manage some planks as well, smashing!).

Taking the more - ahem - direct route back, we rounded off with a quick stretch and a mention for next week's task, another brand new one, this time at the Crystal Palace Museum Garden and orchard, sign up here to join us. After all that hard work we had quite a thirst on, so headed back into the Bridge House for some food and drink, perfect.

See you next week x

Thirteen of Penge's finest took on 4km of running (up some very steep hills) and tackled a whole load of weeds at Westow Park.

This week we welcomed new runner Helen, who was joining us for her very first group run, welcome to the group Helen!

There was a lot to celebrate this week, with our wandering half-marathoners Stuart and Nykolette back from the great big GoodGym Race Team trip to Bucharest, well done both of you on completing this distance in the heat! Well done also to Hannah, who ran her 100th parkrun (and a PB!) on Saturday, at Norman Park and a very big congratulations to Ian, who took on the half-marathon distance in Plymouth, bagging himself a smashing time and a rather lovely medal and t-shirt (which he proudly wore this evening).

Up and away!

We were off to another brand new task this week, up and over the hill to Crystal Palace and the lovely Westow Park. We haven't really been up this way on a group run before (though we did touch on it slightly when we did our plogging session back on a dark winter evening), but know full well that there is no avoiding a hill, however you approach it. So, in true GoodGym Bromley style, we gritted our teeth and ran through the park and up, up, up to the crossroads at the top. It was here that we paused to take a group photo, the one where everyone looks slightly bemused, pointing in different directions, the reason being it's where the five boroughs of Bromley, Lewisham, Southwark, Croydon and Lambeth meet (hence our occasional crossing of boroughs to tasks...).

At the park we were met by Cathy from the Friends of Westow Park, who very quickly split the group into three and directed everyone towards the various tasks. One group went up to the petanque pitch with another of the friends, Don, who showed them how to rid the gravel space of weeds and generally make the surface better for playing on. Alongside the path, we had a group working on the edges of the flower beds, neatening the grass and pulling up weeds as they went. Further into the park, we had a crack team of thistle thrashers pulling up the pesky weeds from the bed in the children's playground, not a great feature for the little ones to encounter!

All of this activity was spread across the vast space, so I found myself jogging between them, taking photos, keeping everyone updated on time and admiring the lovely grey cat that was being taken for a walk on a lead (really). By the time eight o'clock rolled around all of the tasks had been well and truly smashed and everyone was able to step back and feel a great sense of achievement. I think we will have to come back and help some more (and this time have a little play on the fantastic playground...). There is an opportunity to help out at an upcoming sports event for children, on June 14th, as part of the Crystal Palace Festival - please let Cathy know if you can volunteer you time.

Choosing to stroll back up the incredibly steep hill, we waved our goodbyes and got ready to embrace our downhill return - weeeeeeeeeee! Back through Crystal Palace Park we went, Stuart noting a hill that might be good for repeats. Oh, how disappointed he was when I said 'Carry on!' This area of the park has lots and lots of steps, so where better to tackle our fitness session, with the views out to Kent in one direction and the transmitter in the other? Once we had step-climbed, squatted and planked, we were off down the hill to our final stretch.

Next week we will return to a favourite task of ours, Living Well, at Holy Trinity Church. Expect a shorter run and lots of heavy lifting and sorting at the food bank. We talked also about a fun relay race that's coming up on June 13th, the Dino Dash. A chance to race the 3k laps as a team of three and experience some real teamwork in action. Have a look here to find out more.

See you soon for more goodness!