36 amazing runners, two huge tasks, one great Monday evening.

We started our run last night with a bumper week's worth of news. A big well done to Emma who smashed a hilly and warm Richmond 10k on Sunday, Frances, who ran the Rutland half, and to Helen who racked up a new 10k PB at the Richmond duathlon. What a great weekend of running.

A huge welcome to our lovely new faces, Liv, Kate, Alexandria, Eleanor and Ros. It's great to have you running with us - give 'em a cheer GoodGym!

As mentioned in the intro last night, we have a special buddy-up run happening on Thursday in conjunction within Ideal Flatmate. If you're looking for a new flatshare or the perfect flatmate, then come along to this run to meet others in the same position, and even to get a good deed in at the same time!

We also have a community mission coming up - you don't have to be DBS checked for this one, so if you fancy helping out the lovely Balham and Tooting Community Association put on their Fun Day, helping with jobs like serving tea and coffee and welcoming people, then sign up here - all proceeds from the day go to St George's Hospital, so you'll be doing some real good.

Double the Task, Double the Fun

It was a two tasker last night, and a special night as we celebrated newly qualified Chi leading his first run. Go Chi! So after a warm up, where we got our heart rates up and discussed our favourite sandwich fillings (cheese winning by a massive margin), we split ourselves up into two groups.

The first group was running down to Paul's Cancer Support Centre, a charity which offers support through alternative therapies, counselling and other services to people living with cancer. After a 2k run, we arrived to find two rooms that needed emptying to make room for more services. We got cracking, only to find that it was slightly more complicated than first anticipated. Not to be put off, while a few people played car tetris trying to get all the furniture in, others started dismantling a couple of massive tables that were two big to get through the door. We managed to sweet talk a lovely local bike superstore to take the furniture, saving the charity a trip to the dump, while Clare and Hanna got the tough job of putting the tables back together in their new home. Nice one team!

Meanwhile, Chi was leading the second group on a longer run down to Balham, where Kate, the secretary of the Tooting and Balham Community Association was waiting with 500 (!) leaflets ready for distribution ahead of the Fun Day this weekend. In a huge push, the group managed to cover 8 kms and got rid of all of the flyers. Was it the pumping music? Was it the challenge of getting rid of so many leaflets? Was it because it was Chi's first run as leader? Absolutely amazing work guys.

While group one finished off their shorter run with some gruelling hill sprints and the burpee challenge, group two polished off 8k and we arrived back at the BAC almost simultaneously. GoodGym win! Next week it's another two tasker (fingers crossed), so we need as many of you lovely people as possible - sign up here.

Another Monday night in Wandsworth, another chance to meet up with some ace people, make a real difference in the community and to knock out a few planks.

And it was a extra special one because we celebrated the 50th good deed of one Ms Morag - that's a huge amount of doing good and commitment to others. Way to go!

Hannah, Karen, Zoe, Emily, Hannah and Charlotte all came for their first GoodGym run last night - people, give them a massive cheer!

Before our task tonight we popped outside to knock out a warm up which fired up our muscles and got us thinking about coordination and balance ahead of the run. We also did a quick poll to find out which object we simply could not live with out. It quickly became apparent that food and drink topped the list (with beer, wine, cheese and peanut butter the hot favs) and as well as our indispensable phone, Helen's hugs, and trainers, we had a very sweet moment from one corner of the group who decided they could not manage without eachother. Ahh!

Our job tonight was at Bramford Community Garden, which is managed by volunteers and especially Sha - a tireless lady who can often be found gardening into the night with the aid of a headtorch in order to make the garden a nice place for everybody to be. So, after a 2.5 km run down there we found her waiting for us with gloves and a list of jobs.

While a big group got stuck into picking up the many, many cigarette butts (non-biodegradable!) and scraps of plastic around the garden, a few people used troughs to fetch water from across the road for the desperate trees and plants. Other jobs included crushing cans for recycling - universally agreed to be a great stress reliever and perfect for a Monday!

After half an hour of hard work, we got stuck into our fitness session, which last night focussed on conditioning exercises for three main parts of our body - arms, legs and core. Many press ups, plié squats, planks and bridge lifts later we left the garden behind and made our way back to the BAC. Great work everybody!

Next week is a bank holiday, but we will still be running to a local rooftop garden. What better way to spend it?! Sign up here to do good and get fit on your day off [https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/lending-a-hand-at-rooftop-community-garden]!

With 44 runners ready to run to an amazing community café, we kicked off the week good and proper last night.

We had some great parkrunning over the weekend from the Wandsworth troops - don't forget to wear your tshirt if you're heading to a parkrun this weekend, and you'll be almost guaranteed to find another GG buddy there!

Nicola, Flora, Chris, Matt, Olivia and Martynas all came for their very first GoodGym group run and for that they deserve a massive cheer. Well done!

Before our run down to Caius House, an amazing community youth centre, we had a warm up outside the rapidly refurbishing BAC. After getting our heart rates up, we asked everybody to tell the group one nice thing they planned to do this week. From treating friends to meals, to ringing elderly relatives, to making a cup of tea for flatmates and baking cakes, you lovely lot have a week full of kindness ahead of you.

With a shortish run we set off down the hill, and it really is heartwarming to see the general public's reactions to the sight of almost 50 runners streaming through the streets of Wandsworth on their way to do good. We soon arrived and met Aisling from the Grub Club waiting for us with a list of jobs.

There were lots of painting jobs to do, so we split into teams to tackle furniture, walls and those lovely murals, while one massive group set about giving the kitchen a huge clean ready for the café's upcoming inspection ahead of the big opening. The Grub Club will run free after-school cooking courses for disadvantaged families who wish to improve their cooking skills, confidence and knowledge, and we've been helping them set up this brilliant initiative for a little while now. With the opening in sight, Aisling has promised us an invitation, so watch this space!

With all the jobs done, we enjoyed the watermelon and cola bottles that the Grub Club had laid out as a reward, and headed off for a nearby park for a quick fitness session. Dividing up into small groups we took it in turns doing sprints and thinking up fiendish exercises for the rest of the group to do. After that we nailed a little abs blast featuring a variety of planks, before heading back up that hill to the BAC.

Great job everybody! Next week we have a massive community garden to help out - sign up here.

The past two years have flown by in a blur of gardening, painting, human chains, cleaning, sanding and many, many squats. Last night we celebrated our second birthday in Wandsworth!

In this time we have done a colossal

3707 good deeds

184 jobs for older people

62 runs to our coaches

37 413 kms run in the process

That is pretty inspiring stuff!

It was a first group run for a some lovely people. Put your hands together and give a huge cheer for Alice, Emily, Alex, Isabelle, Rebecca, and Emma!

A huge shout out to Anil who reached a very special milestone last night, having clocked up a massive 50 deeds. Next time you see him in his black 50 tshirt, give him a high five for all the good he's done! A special mention should be given to Matthew who has not missed one single Wandsworth group run since we very first began. Way to go!

It was also lovely to have some great GG tourism from Lewisham, Hounslow, Westminster, Haringey and Lambeth - great to see you all!

Our task last night was a very well timed one given the ongoing heat. We had been asked by Leonard Cheshire, a fantastic organisation in Battersea that supports disabled people, to come and wash their fleet of mobility buses. So after a nice steady mile run down, we arrived to find buckets and sponges and a list of jobs to do.

While half the group got started getting those buses squeaky clean, and themselves a little dirtier, two other sets of runners got stuck into sorting out the garden and washing windows respectively. Forty minutes later, the place was looking much tidier, and we could see our hot and sweaty faces in the shining buses! Setting off for the park we were even 'treated' to a surprise watery ambush by Chi and Andrew from behind the fence. Naughty!

After a little jog over to the park, we eschewed the usual fitness session for a series of party games that still managed to get our hearts pounding. There was some excellent action from the ladies in the biggest British Bulldog game of all time, so amazing super strong Planking lions, and a semi successful game of Blob Tag.

All that was left was a run back to base, a good stretch and then to head over to the common to celebrate our birthday with a special Wandsworth picnic. There were laughs, there was cake, there were party poppers and hats!

Here's to you, GoodGym Wandsworth, for making our borough proud and putting so much into doing good. Happy birthday!

ps our special birthday video will be making an appearance on twitter and facebook, so keep an eye out for it!