With the final week of a massive ongoing task for us, it was great to see so many GoodGymers on board to make a real difference on a Monday evening!

*A very big welcome to Alice, Sophie, Celia, Jonny, Caroline, Bastian and Zak who all came along for their first run tonight. Give them a cheer!

Well done to all those who got out and raced this weekend, shout out to:

• Jo who wombled her way round a race at Wimbledon Common!

If you’re up for adding purpose to your Saturday run, why not check out

• this fun event in King George’s park in Wandsworth. This is a community mission, so you don’t have to be mission verified, and involves running (5k) or walking (2k) whilst picking up rubbish at the same time! Get that double endorphin hit of not only keeping fit but helping the local community. All equipment will be provided including gloves, rubbish bags and even a free Plogolution t-shirt!

Don’t forget that it’s the monthly GoodGym social this Thursday:

• Sign up here for all the details of the monthly GG knees up in central London

Parklife

After a warm up and a survey of our favourite comfort food (mac&cheese, chocolate, toasts, mash, roast dinner, crisps, grapes that are made into wine...all the good stuff!), we headed down for our final week at a Battersea community garden. As you all know by now, this space had been closed for eight years, but the decision has recently been made to open it up for the local people to use. But there has been an awful lot of work needed to make it a safe and welcoming place to use.

So after running to the Venue Community Centre to pick up tools, we made our way over to the garden to start the last of the final jobs. The big task for tonight was staining the benches and sanding the tables, so we got stuck straight in, as well as tackling loads of other jobs like litter picking, weeding, digging and cutting back bushes.

After 45 minutes of hard work, we called it a night, but not before taking a step back to see all we’d got done. The place is almost unrecognisable from the overgrown and unsafe space it was only a few weeks ago and almost ready for the local community to enjoy. Check out the before and after pics – what a job, people!

After dropping back the tools we jogged over to a little green space on the way back to the BAC to do our fitness session. It was the first Monday of the month, so it was time for our monthly core blast! So with a core triathlon to kick off, we then moved into various drills to really work those abs.

All that was left was a run back to base, and a nice stretch to cool down. Great work everybody. Next week we’re back to the Kambala estate to do some more planting of bulbs. Sign up here for all the details. Until then, run happy!

With the clocks soon to go back, blossom on the trees and the sun finally peeping through the clouds, GoodGym Wandsworth was ready to spring into action last night!

We kicked off the night with some news...

Give a big cheer for Olivia, Viv and Freyah who all came on their first group run last night!

RunUK are offering a free place in any of their upcoming runs if you volunteer at the Putney & Fulham half marathon on the 14th April - if you're keen just drop me a line

..before heading outside to do our warm up and discuss our fav things about Spring. We love all the flowers, Easter egg chocolate, lighter evenings and pub gardens, so, with a spring in our step we headed off for our task for the evening.

Following a huge delivery of woodchip, Paradise Cooperative garden had asked us to come and spread it out over the pathways . This organisation exists to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening. They combine participation, education and celebration in cultivating under-used land in Wandsworth.

So with just under 3k ahead of us, we set off for the garden, just opposite Wandsworth Prison, and arrived to find an enormoooous pile of woodchip waiting for us.

Collecting up buckets, wheelbarrows, spades and rakes, we set about the task in hand. Meanwhile, Ollie, Paul and James started a big job sorting piles of logs into two piles ready for use. All in all it was a fantastic upper body work out, and after 40 minutes of work, we stepped back to see what we had achieved. We had made huge headway with the paths, which now were almost entirely covered in neatly raked woodchip, while the logs were divided up into two massive piles. What took us just one hard working session would take just a couple of the regular volunteers a lot longer, so well done on some great effort, team.

With a canny little cut through provided by Hanna, we emerged at Wandsworth Comon, ready to for our fitness session, which this week involved one green and one red ball, and a whole lot of chaotic fun. We started by dividing up into two teams, and playing a burpee squat sprint race game which saw a dog run off with one of the balls, then followed that by a plank wave. The result was too close to call a winner. Except maybe the dog.

All that was left was a nice steady run back to base, and some stretches. Next week the task will be down at Doddington and Rollo roof garden, where there are many bags of compost to shift up to the community garden. Sign up here for all the details. Until then, happy running GoodGym!

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!