While most of us was at home in London Chilling or doing our regular Sunday routines two members of Goodgym Croydon was in Newcastle flying the flag on our behalf. Massive congratulations to Daniel, Dom and Rachel for completing the Great North Half Marathon we salute you on your acheivment.

Today 13 runners ran 2 miles to assist East Croydon Community Organisation, weed, purne and tidy up the area around the raised flower beds along Addiscombe road.

Following a fall Ellie have been unable to run, but after missing a few weeks of GoodGym, she couldn't contain the twitch anymore and gave in to her cravens, to join us today. Still following what the doctor had ordered, she arrived at our meeting point early to inform me she would be joining us but as she could run she would leave in advance and walk to the task.

At the task we were met by Jeremy, who talked to us about what he would like us to do, including the record number of bags from previous group tasks. Instructions received we separated into little groups and began weeding and pruning the flower beds. Doing one of the tasks she likes best was Ingrid who volunteered to be litter picker, this time she remained in sight and did not get carried away with the excitement of picking up litter. At the end of the task Jeremy calmly told us we had broken the previous record and set a new record of 30 bags.

Record breakers

Work completed we began our run back to solution where we made a pit stop in the car park of Southern House our new found space for a bit of a fitness session. Session completed we did some cool down stretches before walking back to Solutions to collect our belongings before heading home.

Next week we are off to Unique Roots in Thornton Heath our run will be a bit longer than usual please feel free to walk with your oyster cards the option is is there for you to take the bus either to or from the task or if you fancy running to and from the task that option is there too. Sign up here

Upcoming events * Beckenham Half 23 September 2018 * Switchback 5 30 September 2018 * Petts Wood 10k 7 October 2018 * Met League XC 2018/2019

Warm welcomes to our two first timers Kim and Sabrina don't forget to give them some cheers!!

12 goodgymers came out to play and do a some good in the community however, it wasn't meant to be!!

We had it all planned and confirmed, today's group run had a buzz as we were heading over to Tunstall Nursery School, to help tidy up and play in the sand pit unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. We arrived at the tasking after running a mile from our start location to find the nursery closed. There was no one there to meet us! Had they forgotten that we were coming? After waiting around to see if they were running late it was obvious they had somehow forgotten we were coming.

A few ideas began to float about within the group of what we could do to fill the gap, top of the list was to go straight to the pub for our social however as good as it sounded, we had to work up an appetite before heading off for refreshments.

I led the group back to Southern House, where we used the car park for our extended fitness session.

• Squats
• Planks
• Shuttle runs
• Press Ups
• 2 person relays
• Mountain climbers
• Star jumps
• Lunges

Just when they looked like they had done enough I suggested a game of "it" to bring out their inner child while getting their heart rate up, as they ran dodged and swerved the person doing the chasing the ones unfortunate enough to be tagged had to squat until a member of the group came release them. To up the ante and give a bit more of a challenge after a couple of minutes I added another person to the "it" team. To bring their heart rates back to a regular pace we finished off with a few gentle stretches and headed back to our starting point for our social at the Bedford Tavern.

**AT the pub we found out Daniel will be heading off to Newcastle over the weekend to take part in the Great North Half Marathon, we wish him all the best and hope to see his bling next week.

Do sign up to next week's group run we are going to ECCO