Not content with the horrific snowstorm of last week, this week we had more like sleety-rain instead. But not to worry because there was lots to do and we were up for it! We awarded our first ever Shit Prize of the Month for 2019 - it went to the lovely Jules who is back after some time off with an injury. She used her time to get her doc checks done and is all ready for missions and coach runs now. Go Jules!

After a warm up we split into three groups - Nicky led small team to a nearby GP surgery to help shovel some soil into planters. Sadly the shovels had been locked away in a room that couldn't be reached so they ended up joining us at the Remakery.

John H led the 1-mile run to the Remakery and Tom H took a group on a longer 4km route to get there. We were greeted by the fabulous team and soon put to work. One team set about dismantling a big wooden table and sweeping the floor. Others took on cleaning up the woodwork space with brooms and hoovers, and others still took on the favourite job of sorting a massive pile of random nuts and bolts into sensible piles of things that are the right size.

After 30-minutes of solid clearing, all of our work was done and we ran home in the nasty sleety-rain before rushing to a warm shower. Great work GoodGym!

Our first run of the year was a total blinder, with loads of fabby new people, some fabby old people and a new trainer - the very lovely Esther who is going to be starting up with Poole very soon.

Trainer Katie waffled on for ages introducing her task force and telling everyone about our jaunt to Liverpool - coming up soon in early March. Do come along!

I've got Tate membership and there is a Tate in Liverpool! Said Tim, giving us yet one more reason to go there in March

We did a nice warm up outside and then Katie led one group 1.5km to the Grove Adventure Playground, with Nicky leading a walking contingent and George and Jim heading off on a longer run towards Clapham Common to pick up any pesky Christmas trees that had been left out and about.

On arrival at the Grove, we got about scraping the paint from around the windows so that they were nice and neat, whilst others did some great sweeping and mopping. We did some ankle conditioning with some simple but actually quite tricky heel lifts.

George and Jim set off to fetch some trees and Phil grabbed one straight away and dragged it to the common as part of some sort of personal resistance training. Once a bit closer to the common, the rest of the group collected up more trees - 15 to be precise - and took them to the recycling depot on the common. As it was Clapham, the sight of 20 runners carrying trees received no less than a Macbeth quote:

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane...

According to George this means that "everyone carring the trees looked like the army carrying trees as they moved forward to attack Macbeth (the witches said Macbeth would be king until the wood reached Dunsinane)." So there we go lads, a bit of Shakespeare for you. As well as running, George led a fitness session and an 'extra special extra run after a dubious people’s vote'.

It's what the people wanted! Said George

Not the first time we have heard that in recent history.

On return to base we all did some nice stretches and headed off home. Thanks for a lovely evening, we got loads done!

We had lots of lovely new people this evening and indeed lots of lovely regulars, amounting to over 40 human beans that were kicking off their December in style with a monster GoodGym Lambeth session helping out our old friends at Vauxhall Foodbank. It's a 3.5km run each way and on arrival Alice had some Christmas tunes and mince pies waiting for us - nice!

The Foodbank helps families and individuals facing short term crisis. Unfortunately the number of people relying on foodbanks in the UK is rising and the festive season is also a time when many people are in additional need. This means it's a busy time for the staff and volunteers, so our help was needed to sort out their bumper supermarket collections. You may have been given a list at your local supermarket and asked to buy a tin of something to donate to your local foodbank. Vauxhall is no different and there were crates and crates of food to sort out into categories. This time there was an additional complication of also separating by use by date. It took a little while to get the system set up but then we were really cooking on gas.

Now we're really cooking on gas! Said Freyja, who was in charge of proceedings

Katie took half the group outside to do some beautiful fitness that everyone LOVED and one the crates started filling up it was time to get weighing. We ran back in three groups at three speeds, so everyone could get a comfortable pace going. As the 'in a hurry' group were getting ready to leave ANOTHER load of donations were delivered. So the team also helped to get these into the building.

Alice did her sums and it turns out we sorted nearly ONE TONNE of food, which was quite amazing. On return to base, we enjoyed our last Bake Off treats - Freyja's delish pistachio and chocolate cake. YUM!

Merry Christmas Vauxhall Foodbank - we love coming to visit you but at the same time, we hope that maybe next year there won't be so much need for your services. Now that's a Christmas wish we can all get behind.