51 absolute heroes were out last night to start the year with a bang 💥

And some of those heroes were totally fresh to GoodGym! Massive cheer to Molly, Lawrence, Charlotte, Lara, Clare, Kirsty, Campbell, Jasmine, Faris, Mitch and Jessica. So great to have you along :)

Our task was simple - give Lambeth council a hand by picking up some of the trees from the roadside (they don’t have enough space for all of them in their van when they pick them up) so that they’re not clogging up the streets - and take them to the TREE-CYCLING (😅) plant in Clapham Common.

And after a quick warm up, we split into 5 fabulous teams heading to different areas to pick up as many trees as we could.

After worrying that we wouldn’t find any, we were blessed with absolutely loads - some on the pavements, some hiding behind bins, some small, some massive and some so dead they must've spent their Christmas getting intimate with a radiator.

Trees in hands, we all descended on the centre of Clapham Common like some sort of weird tree cult. Each tree was ceremoniously thrown on top of a big pile and then we ran back to base with plenty of bonus FITNESS DRILLS thrown in.

TREE-MENDOUS

Amazing stuff everyone and such bravery shown when awkwardly carrying trees through some very crowded areas...

Next week is Lambeth’s 6th Birthday!! To celebrate we’re going to Jubilee Primary School to do some GOOD. Then we’re going to the pub to eat cake. 🙌 Sign up here.

Wall of Honour

• Thanks to Dom for tonights Pun! And well done on your Two Tunnels Half Marathon!
• Big Shout to Sam for completing his first run with us!
• Pat on the back to Abi for her Sunday afternoon tea visit to see her coach this week!
  

Lets have a Recap

Last night 9 runners ran 6.5km in total to Galleywall Nature Reserve in Bermondsey. After a quick warm up of gallops and Russian kicks we headed north via the Surrey Canal Walk with Emily leading us up and down the Big Dipper and Dom marking at the back. Thankfully we didn't get lost on my first night in charge!

Once we arrived at Galleywall we were met by Jane & Christine the head volunteers of this hidden community garden. Gloves, spades and saws were laid out with a whole list of instructions for the evenings task, so we split up into teams. Abi & Dom set about sawing through some wood, Ineke & Rich shovelled and spread out sand down the length of the path reminiscent of the yellow brick road! The rest of the team got stuck in weeding, collecting branches for kindling, collecting litter and spotting frogs!

We were even treated to freshly picked mirabelle plums - the same colour and size of a gobstopper!

The 30 minutes flew by and we were hugely thanked by Jane for getting through much more work than their usual monthly session! We ran back as a group adding in a few traffic light squats and finishing with some team running (aka Indian Running - thanks Emily) and a final sprint to the finish.

FACT OF THE DAY 'Indian Run' is when a person at the back of a group runs to the front, and then the next person at the back follows to the front, until everyone has made a loop and is back where they started!

Next week we will venturing a little further 10km in total to the lovely Surrey Docks Farm to see the goats and clear up some muck! sign up here

See you next week Team. Chin up!

Southwark News

• Next week the awesome new trainer Ian is taking the group on a 7k round trip to Galleywall Nature Reserve to get stuck into the allotments. Find out more and sign up here.

• Saturday 7th September come on down to paint Peckham Rye parkrun red. Sign up for a volunteer spot on the spreadsheet found here. And if you're looking for an extra fix of good there's litter picking pre-parkrun for Peckham Rye Summer Fete.

• Final call for Big Half community places! Only £10! Email me lucyj@goodgym.org for details, you must be signed up by the end of August. I'll be coming back for it so look out for a pub lunch being organised afterwards.

• Surrey Docks Farm are putting on a gardening workshop for us! Date yet to be confirmed but keep your eyes on the website for it.

A flipping good handover

Last night an all time Southwark-record-smashing 37 people (THIRTY SEVEN!) descended on Old Spike Roastery to run 6km to Bell House in Dulwich. There was a queue for the sign up sheet! There's never a queue for the sign up sheet! Unbelievable scenes.

Bell House is a stunning Georgian House that currently houses an educational charity that offers support outside the mainstream school curriculum, lifelong learning, short courses, exhibitions, talks and musical events. You can find out more about them here. We've been visiting for nearly two years and seen the garden taking amazing shape.

The rain stopped, just for us!

We set off in two groups - party pace (slower) and 'in a hurry' which quickly became three groups because there was so many of us! To get to Bell House we run straight up Barry Road which is a solid mile of uphill - tough going! Then we pass through gorgeous Dulwich park before ending up at Bell House. Our tasks? One group turning and moving compost, one group weeding (and fussing over Clementine the dog). We got an insane amount done - giving the beds a good sorting out and turning over huge amounts of compost - that would have taken George hours to do on his own.

Hello and welcome to Ineke who came on her first group run tonight!

Before we knew it time was up and we needed to split into three groups to run back home where we stretched and went immediately next door to Batch.

And now the soppy bit

Being at Old Spike Roastery every single Wednesday evening come rain, shine or anything in between has been the joy of my week since February last year. There is no other job (or anything) in my life that has grown my confidence, strength and compassion like GoodGym Southwark. Last night saying goodbye to people individually I realised that as trainers we are in such a special, privileged position. We are a constant in lives that twist and turn around us, we are a reliable friendly face, a hug, a question about that race you did, we are there to support every single runner in whatever capacity they need that day. How do I express what that means to me? All I can really say is that whether you've come once or you've come a hundred times to a group run please know that your presence has at some point made my day.

There are many, many thank yous to say. First of all to the amazing individuals on Southwark taskforce who have been with me every step of the way, from last minute task cancellations to finding new task contacts to being the lively, joyful heart of the group. Thank you to those who arrive early and chat with me about their day, thank you to those who arrive (just about) on time and scrabble for the sign-in sheet. Thank you to the people new to running who bring their enthusiasm, their interest, their fresh energy and thank you to the veterans for their wisdom and encouragement. Thank you to all of you for putting up with the same exact intro speech and jokes for the last year and laughing politely at the particularly bad gags about peanuts. Thank you to those that organised and contributed to my gifts - what an amazing peanut butter gluten free cake! Who knew such wonders could exist! I look forward to putting my fabulous tea towel to good use and of course those amazing gardening tools. Thank you for becoming my friends and my family. I cannot wait to see what you all do next.

And last but by no means least, thank you to Ian for taking on this wonderful group of people and undoubtedly taking GoodGym Southwark to new and exciting heights. I know you will love it as much as I do because, after all, there's really nothing quite like it.

Keep running happy,

Lucy J

Southwark News

• HEY TEAM thanks for welcoming me along to Southwark last night, and thank you LUCY for showing me the ropes!

• Next week 14th August is sadly her very LAST run, she would love to see as many of you there! We're running 6km overall to Bell House. Find out more and sign up here. And also giving Lucy a suitable send off after our run, next door at the very friendly BATCH BAR!

• The following week will be 7km overall run to Galleywall Nature Reserve for a bit more digging and clearing pathways to help local kids access the site. Find out more and sign up here.

Now lets get down to business

Last night we ran 2.5km overall to do some weeding and digging up potatoes at Cossall Estate gardens.

We were met by Victoria, one of only a few volunteers who tends to these gardens on Sundays, to help maintain this space so that the area can be enjoyed by anyone living locally or just passing by!

Shout out to Kate, Emily & Lawrence who came on her first ever group run tonight! We hope to see you again soon :)

The gardens were only small but there was plenty of growth amongst the nettles and weed activity, including plenty of small potatoes. We set to work in 2 groups: one group tackling the metre tall weeds within the potato bed in extremely quick speed!! so quick in fact I wasn't able take a before photo! The second group skillfully identified which were weeds and which in fact were raspberry plants, whilst braking down brambles and filling up 10 or so bags, being careful not to rip into any plastic or flesh! In 40 minutes we'd dramatically changed the shape of these flower beds, unearthed a few potatoes and even said hello to a tiny snail! We were thanked by Victoria who was thoroughly pleased with our efforts, managing to get through so much in such a short time! She also said we are welcome to make a return trip... hopefully we will visit again soon.

All that was left was a quick team workout featuring Mexican wave Press Ups & Squats, GoodGym style Wrestling, and a race from the floor with a photo finish!

Well done to Lawrence for leading his time to victory :)

Overall a great evenings work, see you next week team!

Ian G