Dodging the rain storms, 15 fabulous runners covered 5km, helped to weed and tidy at Forest Hill Station and enjoyed a special yoga class.

It was lovely to welcome Mark for his first ever GoodGym group run, he chose a great week to join us (surely he wasn't put off by the rain last Tuesday?!).

As we gathered in the garden (with one eye on a very grey sky), we talked weather, watering and wristbands. This week, GoodGym have partnered with the Jo Cox Foundation and are participating in the 'Great Get Together'. We all donned our red wristbands and celebrated everything we have in common. Here at GoodGym Bromley, we get together every week, to share our stories and experiences, with some of our runners visiting older people for a chat, or to help out in their home.

We also celebrated our newly-qualified Run Leader, Louise, who attended a course at Somerset House last week, so she can lead runs independently - go Louise! Putting her training straight to the test, she led the way over to Crystal Palace Park (home last week to the Dino Dash Relay, which was brilliant fun - well done all those who took part!). We had some fun warming up, with a few favourites, knee-tag, heads - shoulders - knees - and cone (knees and cone) and good old stuck-in-the-mud.

Rush hour

Up at Forest Hill Station, we met Ian and Emma, who had just been to a mission, helping an older person in their home - double good deeds! Vic also joined us and was already poised, gardening gloves at the ready! As it had been chucking it down, Quetta told us we would be better spending our time on some weeding and tidying, so we had groups working on the beds and planters at the front of the station, and others on the platform, clearing weeds in the little garden.

It's amazing how many weeds can be generated after a downpour, so there was plenty to do and also plenty of snails - good work Hannah on trying to take care of them, it's a shame Tim had other ideas horrified face . It's a busy place to work, with commuter trains coming and going, but we managed to find space and the beds were soon looking much, much better. We just had time to pause for a group photo in front of the sign and an approaching train, before heading over to Sydenham, for a rather unusual fitness session.

Namasteing power!

For the past few months we have helped GMax Trackstars get their 'Dragonfly Yoga' studio up and running. When we first visited, back in the winter, it was a (very) dusty shell, where we lifted and shifted flooring, ceiling panels, insulation rolls, bricks and eventually painted the walls. As a thank you for our hard work, Mark suggested we come along for a yoga session. It did mean an unusual structure to the evening and a slightly later finish, but we were really up for the opportunity to try out the space and to learn some new ways of looking after our bodies.

We were met by Lindsey, who took us down to the studio, a really peaceful space, considering it's on a busy road! We all found a mat and took a comfortable position to begin. This was a particularly special and useful session, because Lindsey had tailored it for runners, helping us to work on areas that become tight and that we often overlook - there were a few groans, so I think we all came away knowing exactly what we need to work on! Thank you and namaste!

Next week we will run over to Anerley to help in the meadow at St John the Evangelist. I noticed they are collecting women's sanitary products to be taken to the local food bank, you might like to bring some items along to add to the box. Kim will be leading this run, so make her feel at home and have fun!

Ten treemendous athletes covered 5.5km of running whilst gathering discarded Christmas trees for recycling.

It was great to see some familiar faces back after the Christmas break and also to welcome a new face - great to meet you Claudia, welcome to GoodGym Bromley!

Now, this January Challenge we're in the midst of, what's going on?! For those who don't know, the aim is for the GoodGym-wide community to do more good deeds and run more kilometres than ever before. When I checked our placing in our division, before I left this evening, we were in - ahem - last place but, after our run, we had shifted up to SECOND PLACE!! Woo-hoo! You know what you need to do: link up your Strava or Run Keeper for your mileage to count and get out and do the deed(s). I mentioned a little starter session that's happening in our neighbouring borough, Lewisham, on Saturday - a chance to tick off another good deed and you could even tackle Hilly Fields parkrun beforehand :)

We'll never fir-get this

As we all gathered at our start point, a shaggy green shape appeared in the window. We quickly realised it was Louise, waving the tree she had found on the way - great work Louise, you win on eagerness to get started! After a brisk, shakeout warm-up, we sent Tim off to retrieve the other tree Louise had spotted, but of course he came back with two! Jogging down the next street, sharing the weight, we soon made these up to five, so five trees in the first five minutes of our run! We did register at this point that we had quite a long way to go with these heavy weights!

Feeling pine

Running whilst carrying a large tree is, not surprisingly, quite a challenge. You can't see where you're placing your feet and you can't always see where you're heading (if you're at the back). This meant we were a bouncing chain of greenery, with occasional shouts of 'Tree roots!' and 'Bollard!' (yes bollard). This sight prompted a fair few grins from passers by and, when we reached the high street, some jolly toots from drivers. By the time we reached the park we had amassed seven trees, some of which were pretty huge. We then had the additional challenge of getting them over the fence, to the already full drop-off point. No problem! A few heave-hos, a handy road cone or two and they were safely deposited.

With newly free hands, we ran off in different directions, with enough time to gather some more. As we were so close to the park by now, you would imagine everyone might manage to walk their trees a street or two, but no, we found another two trees, wide of girth. Time now to run back. Oh how we flew, feeling light and free and we even had time and energy to pause by Penge East station (now sprinkled with pine needles, sorry) for a swift little fitness session. Great work everyone, don't forget to stretch those quads and glutes after all that up-down action!

Stretching back at base, we looked ahead to next week, when we will be running the shorter distance to Melvin Hall, this time to clean the windows - bring your discerning eye, we want those windows to sparkle! Have a great week everyone and keep up the running and volunteering, we can smash this challenge!

Taking on our first group run of 2019, 13 fabulous runners covered 3.5km and smashed a number of tasks at the Upper Norwood Library Hub.

How lovely to have Oli along on our run tonight, I feel like I can put my feet up and not worry about a pun for our title, he's done it all for me (and a couple of others in this report)!

It was great to see everyone after a break over the Christmas holidays and we welcomed a few tourists tonight as well, from all the way over the border in Lewisham - welcome! It was great too to see Lizzie and Mary again, after they joined us for our starter session on Saturday.

Feeling strangely pine

As we were running through the park, we started our session there with a warm up, a good old game of stuck-in-the-mud. When you run up to the Upper Norwood Library Hub from here, there is no avoiding that hill, so we took it steadily, pausing to regroup every so often and letting those who wanted to fire up and away to the top. On arrival at the library, we were met by Chris, who showed us down to the cellar, where there were a few different jobs to take on.

We had:

• a group of painters in the office space, painting the walls and generally brightening up the space

• a group of sorters, picking through the donated books and putting them into various categories (and getting distracted along the way no doubt!)

• Bradley and Oli, sawing up a Christmas tree, ready for collection

Bristling with enthusiasm

These three spaces were abuzz with chatter and the work was ticking along nicely. Rosemary somehow managed to paint mostly herself, but the room did look pretty amazing once everyone had finished - great work! Once the brushes, rollers and trays had been washed, we said our goodbyes and embraced the downhill, to reach our fitness session spot. With just five minutes left, we had enough time for a quick (but tri-dip-heavy) HiiT blast, perfectly executed by our top class athletes.

Next week will be a fun one, running around the area, picking up discarded Christmas trees that might be blocking the pavements and causing an obstruction. Remember to wear some gardening gloves if you have some!

See you soon :)