Not even a sunny bank holiday could stop 14 community heroes from doing something positive for their community - and knocking out a nice 4 km run in the process!

Fresh from a long weekend of fun, we all met outside the BAC for a quick rundown of the week's news:

It's the GoodGym monthly social! This Thursday - and this time Southwark are hosting. [Have a look at the sign up page for all the juicy details] (https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-social-on-tour-southwark

Fancy a nice long training run with company followed by something to eat? Then look no further! On Saturday 18th May it's the monthly GoodGym long run. With options of distance and pace, everybody is welcome. Here's the sign up page with all the info you need.

It was the second week of a massive ongoing task last night. We've already been down to the Doddington estate in Battersea to start a job of transforming a community garden that has been shut for a number of years, and so we were eager to get back to the task!

It was a 2km run down to the Venue to meet Hadas, who runs a number of community organisations in the area. She had our tools waiting for us, so after picking up a selection of useful bits and pieces, we all walked over to the garden to get stuck in. It was action stations immediately, with people sweeping, weeding, litter picking, chopping down ivy, rolling up turf and cutting back brambles. There was so much to do, and it is very satisfying to see how, week by week, it is all coming together and will soon be a lovely place for the whole local community. We were even helped along by a new furry GG mascot who put our own energy levels to shame - check out the pics!

We were getting so much done that we didn't notice time flying by, and by the time we had packed up and returned the tools we found we didn't have time for the fitness games that had been planned. But don't worry - they'll keep for another week! Instead we decided on a quick plank competition which saw no fewer than five ab-tastic GGers reach that two minute mark - even with some, ahem, 'assistance' from Emily! She was allowed to do whatever she pleased last night though, as it was her two year GoodGymiversary! Two whole years of getting fit and doing good, nice one Emily!

We finished off our 2km run back to base with a hill sprint and some stretches and that was job done for the night. Well done everybody for some real bank holiday community spirit. Next week we're off to the Kambala estate to do some planting and other jobs and a good solid fitness session to make up for the shorter run. Here's your sign up page - see you there! Until then, run happy everyone.

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.

We cannot get enough of these light evenings to start our group runs in Wandsworth - there's no better way to kick off the week!

We began our night with lots of lovely news....

A big GoodGym welcome to the gang Hannah and Sachin

Well done on some spectacular running this weekend - there were lots of great performances from Oliver at the Adidas city run, Chris at the Manchester marathon, to a parkrun PB for Frances!

Fancy a new sort of challenge? Why not get a team together and try Take the Bridge at the end of April? The idea is that you hit a certain number of checkpoints throughout the city with your team - there are some pretty nice prizes on offer and a lot of fun to be had!

Huge congratulations go to Luke and Jessie!

After a warm up outside during which we discussed our favourite things about weddings - turns out that we love dad dancing, the late night buffet, good-bad DJs and the cake. But most of all we rate a free bar!

Time to shift

We had a new task last night at the amazing Elays network. It was a short run there so we soon arrived to find Abdi, the organisation's coordinator, waiting for us. He started off by telling us about the incredible things the charity is doing. Abdi and his team run a place which supports young people whose prospects have been challenged by issues including gang crime, exclusion, violence and mental health. They run programs and support networks to help these young people, many of whom have a Somali background, and help them to achieve their potential - Elays even means lighthouse in Somali!

With the organisation going through a big refurb, our job tonight was the shift a load of furniture and other bits and pieces ready to be cleared out. Super organised Abdi had already labelled everything with post-it notes of various colours, so while one team went outside to weed and litter pick the entry area, the rest got on with sorting the furniture into the correct areas. There was also a back room to sort out, and some sweeping and clearing to be done, and after half an hour we were done. Abdi kindly invited us to Iftar at Elays, which sounded brilliant, so watch this space for more details! If you want to keep up with all the fantastic things Elays is doing then or get involved yourself then check out their website here.

Short circuits

We popped over to the park next door to make the most of the light evenings and the blossomy trees for our fitness session, which given that it was a short run, was some tough circuit training. With 11 stations, each featuring a regular and a tougher option, we spent 40 seconds working hard and even threw in a couple of burpee and tuck jump challenges in for fun! Then came the power round - a loop of 15 seconds for each station with no rest in between. It was great to see such fantastic effort being put in.

All that was left was a good steady run back to base, and some stretching. Don't forget that this weekend several GGers will be meeting at Clapham Common to do the parkrun then brunch -all welcome - and that next week is our monthly GoodGym social where we will be staying around after the group run to take advantage of the burger offer at the BAC. Hope to see you there! Until then, have a great week everybody.

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