We started off this week by celebrating loads of brilliant running over the weekend: Freyja, Tim and Emma ran 10-miles in wet and windy Liverpool and Paul, Phil and Frances ran the half marathon - including a massive PB for Frances. Top work by Team Liverpool! On home turf, Michael took part, Victoria ran her first ever half and David smashed his PB target as well in the Big Half. Well done for all showing up despite sore legs and recovery!

We also celebrated Phil's 50th and Ruth's 100th good deed - WOWEEE!

This week we were helping out our lovely home, Papa's Park. We did a deep clean of their indoor hall, planted some bulbs and did a spot of weeding. This was combined with some 1-mile reps and a fitness session. Shout out to Freyja and Tom B who got all Art Attack on us by creating a FIVE out of bits of essential GoodGym equipment.

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!

Lambeth News

• Fancy a long run this Sunday? We're running 15km from Brixton station this Sunday, finishing with yummy food of course! Find out more and sign up here.

• Back by popular demand! Sunday afternoon, come along to a GoodGym track session - an hour of running bits n bobs based around improving your technique. 'I've heard it's fun!' - Ruth. Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week Katie is back, it's Shit Prize of The Month and you're off to either Crisis (8km total) or Brixton Youth Centre (3.5km total). Sign on the line here.

That's enough of the business

Last night 32 of us gathered at a very lively Papa's Park for two excellent tasks: 8km roundtrip up the hill to the Portico or 3km round trip to The Remakery.

The Remakery splinter group were 17 strong and headed out after a warm up on the basketball court and a very swift cough moment dithering with padlocks. And off we went!

Saw-ry seems to be the hardest wood

On arrival we were met by Manuel and team who took us through to the back quietly as there was an event on... at least we tried to be quiet but the Incredible Edible Lambeth team spotted us and shouted 'Wahay GoodGym!' And we walked through the room to loud applause. What an entrance! Once there we split into four groups: breaking down pallets (with minimal tools, very ingenius), taking nails out of planks of wood, bagging up wood and sawing wood.

It was a more-than palletable experience

After half an hour we had loads of bags filled with wood (see photo), many pallets deconstructed and the task owners were thrilled.

A few words from team Portico

Fifteen of us ran the 4km up Brixton Hill to the old favourite Portico Gallery. John and Methuselah (the Portico cat) were waiting to greet the gang and tell us about our tasks for the evening, but only once we had learned about methuselah’s biblical namesake (the grandfather of Noah).

Big warm hello and welcome to Jen, Laura, Emanuele and Rachel who joined us for the first time last night!

We split into two teams, with one sorting gazebo sides into ‘clean’, ‘dirty’, and the suitably intriguing ‘dirty dirty’. The other team helped to move buckets of pottery glazes so that John could work on replacing the shelves next week. In no time at all we were done, and set off again to enjoy the run downhill back to base, finishing with a good warm-down stretch against the railings.

Smashing work all around team.

See you soon!

Lucy J

Not content with the horrific snowstorm of last week, this week we had more like sleety-rain instead. But not to worry because there was lots to do and we were up for it! We awarded our first ever Shit Prize of the Month for 2019 - it went to the lovely Jules who is back after some time off with an injury. She used her time to get her doc checks done and is all ready for missions and coach runs now. Go Jules!

After a warm up we split into three groups - Nicky led small team to a nearby GP surgery to help shovel some soil into planters. Sadly the shovels had been locked away in a room that couldn't be reached so they ended up joining us at the Remakery.

John H led the 1-mile run to the Remakery and Tom H took a group on a longer 4km route to get there. We were greeted by the fabulous team and soon put to work. One team set about dismantling a big wooden table and sweeping the floor. Others took on cleaning up the woodwork space with brooms and hoovers, and others still took on the favourite job of sorting a massive pile of random nuts and bolts into sensible piles of things that are the right size.

After 30-minutes of solid clearing, all of our work was done and we ran home in the nasty sleety-rain before rushing to a warm shower. Great work GoodGym!