What’s the only coat you should put on wet? A coat of paint!

What’s blue and smells like red paint? Read to the bottom for the answer.*

Not sure if these are jokes or riddles. Either way, they kick off this week’s mission report because…

After painting the town red on last week's social, Woolwich Goodgymers returned to the Glyndon Community Centre on Wednesday to do their worst to 75% of the walls. Why was the other wall left alone? That’s not a joke, or a riddle. I honestly don’t know. Does anyone know?

It was Mick Jagger who famously sang “I see a red door and I want it painted black.” This time, it was our genial host Andy, who saw a magnolia wall and wanted it painted, well, magnolia.

Back at base, it was going to be no paint no gain with a warmup designed to get us ready for life as decorators who decide to push their feet against walls and do the low sections of wall in a squat.

A fun running game (depending on where you were in the line) followed by some squats got us in in the mood for painting those hard to reach skirting boards. But there was no skirting around the truth, Jen wanted to inflict the same experience as she’d had in her gym.

In honour of many failed London marathon ballots (and I’m sure at least one of us looking disappointed at it, when actually they were relieved), we shared what we would happily do 26.2 of. From reading books, to eating chocolate, to owning pets, it at least showed where our priorities lay. At the venue we sanded, we washed, we brushed and we rolled. Plenty of us made light work of the task, which was just as well because King Charles was appearing on The Repair Shop. A quick photo or two against a newly-painted wall and we were gone.

It was all downhill from there - quite literally as we headed back to our starting point of Woolwich Elizabeth line for a stretch and a reminder that our fearless leader Jen is directing the Charlton Parkrun this Saturday. Go do it!

*Blue paint.

You know that old saying...

*Waiting is better than not waiting. *

Um, no hang on, that's not it..

*Being late is better than being early. *

Oh dear, that's not it either...

*GoodGym reports are best served late. *

Is that it? I don't know, I've lost the plot.

Okay fine... I haven't.

But I'm late writing this and I'm trying to evade criticism. And I was intending on doing this by talking about the wonderful belated celebrations we were celebrating on Wednesday, and how my intelligent report-writing-timing mirrored the belated nature of these celebrations, and how that gets me off the hook, because it was utterly intended, and not absent-minded in the slightest........

Okay!!

There was....

• Marta's incredible good-deeding virtue-tingling 500 dood deeds - take a bow!!
• Julian, Sarah, and Sara's birthdays - Happy Birthday, friends!!
• Steve's wonderful transition from being a Mr to a Dr :)

Which was where we started with the evening. A big circle of positivity sharing and congratulating and well wishing at the same time. It was lovely.

And then we were off. Warmed up with drama games, on the move with a little running, and arriving with good intentions at the wonderful More2Childcare.

Met by Eve, we split into groups to work our volunteering magic over More2 for the evening. We had cleaners; sorters and filers; gardeners; and builders (Alex, Andy, Marta and Steve constructed a lovely cupboard), and it was wonderful to witness the sheer amount of work a big GoodGym group can accomplish.

We then shot off for a happy few hours in the pub to celebrate our belated celebrations, as well as to toast an evening well spent.

Thanks for a lovely one, folks :)

Last night 7 cheerful runners braved the cold and busy streets of London to run to the YMCA on Goodge Street to help sort out donations and tidy the shop floor.

We welcomed some new runners (Katherine , Kate and Danielle) so lets give them a warm welcome cheer!! And meet some regulars from other Boroughs with some great Goodgym stories to share!

After meeting at King's Health and Fitness on the Strand we made our way around the busy London streets towards the YMCA, the cold woke up our bodies and the bustling streets of people woke up our minds. Luckily the snow from the day before had all disappeared so it wasn't slippery under foot although it was just a little chilly on our ears and hands.

Arriving at the YMCA we were warmly welcomed by Marie and a little bit of warmth from the heaters, this was greatly appreciated as we could remove a few of the many layers we had on! We got stuck in right away to see how much we could do before the shop needed to be closed up for the night, we decided it was best to split into two teams so we could help with both tidying the store and the donation room downstairs. The group that went downstairs helped to sort through donations, hang them up on the hangers and get them ready to be steamed in the morning. We all loved some of the clothing donated and got some great ideas for future fashion ! (The fairy wings were certainly a highlight find!) The other half of the group helped with the hoovering, folding beautiful winter scarfs and reorganizing the clothes on display. This was a great task for us to all to chat and get to know each other whilst staying warm and helping out! Marie was extremely grateful for our hard work!

Once the tasks were completed and some photos were taken we decided it was time to brave the cold again for our journey home. This time we took a bit of a detour to Russell Square for a couple of relays to really get our heart rates up and have a bit of a friendly competition! I think we all agreed the skipping race was much harder than expected but we all had a good laugh!

We ran back along Kingsway which had quietened down from all the commuters back to the strand and into the warmth for a bit of stretching and a debrief.

It was a fantastic night meeting lots of new people, getting in some good fitness and having a laugh!

I can't wait to see you all again at future runs!