Tonight 10 lovely runners turned up to Solutions Gym only to find out that our task to the Scout Hut had been cancelled at short notice. We had two options - pub or a long fitness session so of course we chose running, squatting, jumping, balancing and stretching in the rainy park - we are GoodGym Croydon after all.

Ably led to Park Hill Rec by Martin who made sure we got there in one piece and back marked by Nicky we arrived at the park for a warm-up lap or two - it's a hilly place so hear rates were raised and the rain was welcomed as it cooled us down. We headed to the shelter for out first session of the evening and the runners competed their first circuit of 7 exercises which certainly helped them feel the burn. Hills were next with arms pumping, knees lifted and some great technique by all. Back to another circuit just to make sure they were well exercised and then we finished off with an old favourite "Heads or Tails". Before we headed back we spent some time practising some stretches to improve our technique and make sure we got the maximum benefit from them.

Then off we ran back to Solutions for a final cool-down stretch, chat about the next couple of runs and also our social at Mr Fox on Tuesday 25th of June which is being organised by Sarah.

Today was a special run for Zara, it was her 50th good deed with Goodgym, she switched allegiance from GoodGym Lambeth to GoodGym Croydon when she moved to the area and has been an ever present member of the group since, today she had her moment in the black hat which she rocked with pride from start to finish.

Every Friday evening Love Loud, provides a hot nutritious meal for the homeless people of Croydon at St Andrews Church. Tonight 15 runners ran to St Andrews to tend to their garden which had become over grown and taken over by bind weeds and other weeds, which was a huge task for the elderly ladies who would normally tend to the garden.

All we do is weed weed, weed

The task had already been explained to me from Friday so on arrival at the task I was able to brief the group and showed them where we would be working. The tools and rubbish bags had been left out for us as David had informed me he may not be there when we arrived. One of the ladies who helps out in the homeless kitchen pop out to see what all the noise was about and she was surprised by the number of us who had turned up to work on the garden. She went back inside to tell the others and before long they too came out to see us and joined in where they could before going back inside.

While working one of the ladies came outside and informed us that we wasn't allowed to leave before having tea, coffee, cold drink or a snack.

Within 45 mins we had completed the task and we all went inside to have a hot/cold drink biscuits and scones, before bidding farewell to embark on the return leg of the run. Not before one of the ladies informed us that she takes part in aerobics classes and she was interested in our fitness session. Not wanting to disappoint her we decided to complete our fitness session in the court yard of the church. She joined in for a while before retiring and let us complete the fitness session under her watchful gaze.

Following our fitness session we ran back to our start location, where on the way the group had the chance to push it a bit on two of the hills we encountered along the way. Back at solutions we did our stretches then went inside to celebrate Zara's 50th good deeds with cake and chocolates.

On Monday we (GG Croydon) had a good representation in the Vitality 10,000, those who where able to attend the group run today were presented with their finishers certificates, look at those smiles in the picture, well done everyone. Also a little extra shout out to Nicola for completing 20 miles on Sunday and found the energy to run the Vitality 10k on Monday.

This weekend (1 June) GoodGym Southwark will be doing a parkrun take over at Dulwich Parkrun fancy taking part? Sign up here

Fancy doing double good deeds next week Tuesday? Why not sign up to the biggest GoodGym session of the year.

On Wednesday 12 June the famous Dino Dash Relay will be held in Crystal Palace park form your team be creative with your team names sign up and lets have some fun.

Next week we will be visiting Park Hill School to do some work in their forest school area and check out the path we create don our last visit, sign up here

Tonight 31 runners ran around 3 km to paint, water, weed, dig, plant and celebrate!

It’s been 3 glorious good deed filled years since GoodGym Croydon launched and headed off to Croydon Arena in South Norwood. For this special day I decided to be a little bit less ambitious about the length of the run and head off to one of our favourite task venues – Park Hill Rec Community Garden. As it was our special birthday we asked Councillor Lousia Woodley, who had launched us 3 years ago, to come along and send us on our way. Councillor Oliver Lewis also joined us for the send off and headed up to the garden with us for some hard graft. It may have been the thought of the amazing cake that did it!

It was a beautiful sunny evening – just as it should be for a birthday – so after waving goodbye to Louisa we headed off to Park Hill to meet Catherine and Erica who had a list of jobs for us including mural painting, weeding, digging, planting and watering. I think they were a little surprised by the sheer numbers but quickly made use of the enthusiasm and work rate of 31 Goodgymers. Catherine, Erica and Josi had also kindly bought us some bedding plants for our section of the Peace Garden so we will be back to check how they are flourishing.

The time flew by and before we knew it the drinks, snacks and THE CAKE were brought out. Huge thanks go to Rachel for her amazing creation – looked too good to eat but we managed and didn’t leave a crumb. Some runners, not going to name them, even managed 2 slices! There should have been a fitness session however we decided to spend a bit more time in the garden and painting and cake eating and strangely enough nobody objected!

There have been some thefts recently at the Community Garden so earlier in the week we had a collection for some B&Q vouchers so the lovely Friends Group could replace the plants that were taken.

We also welcomed three new runners tonight, Oliver, Karen and Sara - hope you all enjoyed yourselves and see you back again soon.

To finish off our celebrations some of us headed off to the Porter and Sorter for a quick drink or burger and had a great time plotting our next races including the Dino Dash in June and also helping out GoodGym Bromley with the South Norwood takeover at the end of the month. There are also lots of GoodGymers heading off to the London 10K on the 27th of May so if you are going sign-up here and don't forget to wear your t-shirt. Conroy also told the group about the GoodGym Olympics coming up soon and the challenge of writing a Croydon anthem – let’s see what we can do!

Finally, a big thanks to Conroy for letting me take over tonight - I'll be asking for the 4th birthday run too if that's okay!

Next week’s run will be off to a the Peppermint Centre so don’t forget to sign up!