What a beautiful evening of good that was. We had 2 tasks, a bonus task, 8 tonnes of soil to move, and a huge 44 runners of which 12 had never visited GoodGym before. Big uuuup Oli, Jennifer, Chloe, Rory, Jack, Holly, Catherine B, Catherine M, Dom, Kirsty, Marie and Flavia. So great to have you along!

After a quick warm up, we split into 2 groups:

Soil Dispersion @ Spurgeon Estate Vs. Weeding and Grass Cutting at PAPA's Park

Victoria had a mighty 5 staying at base to do some gardening. Valcie, who runs PAPA's cafe had provided some delicious refreshments to say thanks (guava & mango juice with some chocolate digestives mmmm...) but first they had a run round the block, including a stop off to play the piano outside a local shop!

When they returned, they split and got working on clearing the grassy areas around the trees and getting rid of weeds. Oli didn't even want to stop!

Muchas Grass-cias

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The rest of us were headed to the Spurgeon Estate near Stockwell. They've recently been given some funds to sort out a garden area they have there and Urban Growth had made some planters. All the soil however was in bags on the other side of a fence...

So it was human conveyor belt time. And oh my the GoodGym machine is an efficient one. One team delivered the bags through a gap in the fence while another team moved them to the planters. Then Team 3 slit the bags and emptied them into the planters.

LIKE A WELL-SOILED MACHINE ⚙️

And when Nicky and George arrived with the long route runners, they kicked it up a gear, throwing bags over the fence and getting the planters filled in no time.

BONUS TASK:

There was also a pile of bricks that the residents weren't going to use, so we filled the soil bags and moved them to the road to get picked up tomorrow.

THE POWER OF GOODGYM ❤️

When we got back, we had a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (and planks and sprints...etc.) and a nice long stretch.

Next week we're double deeding again - Ruskin Park (we got given onions last time...) or flyering and painting for the awesome Brixton People's Kitchen (except this is in Vauxhall). Get signed up here. Oh, and don't forget, it's pub week so we'll stick around for a beverage after the run. 🍾

25 incredible people joined me in Lambeth as we helped Agnes Riley Gardens and Portico Gallery and ran 6 and 8km!

In the news this week: * We celebrated Victoria reaching 200 good deeds - amazing achievement! * We welcomed Lisa and David on their first GoodGym run * Nicky told us about the parkrun and community mission this Saturday * Entry for GG Olympics is open - enter here and all the details here

On to the night at hand.... Victoria led us in a fantastic warm up, nice to see "shoo-ing the chickens" again, always good to stretch those hamstrings!

Jim and Nicky took a group of eight over to Portico to help with move some gazebo weights, here's the report from Jim:

"Eight plucky GGers took the scenic long route to Portico. The scenic route also got everyone rather wet, but declining the offers of tea from lovely John we decided to keep warm by doing good instead. The task at hand was to sort the weights for the gazebos which are used for West Norwood’s feast festival. With some splendid sorting and some heavy duty lifting we got the task done on time and were back at Papas in time to dry off."

Great job everyone!

Victoria and I took everyone else off to Agnes Riley Gardens where we met Adrian and helped with a number of tasks:

• Digging and levelling a plot
• Weeding and trimming the vegetable plots
• Trimming long grass from around fruit trees

As we got to work the heavens opened which for a while was cooling refreshment but then we just got a bit wet! In any case spirits were high and we worked hard making a huge difference. You certainly did a good job as Adrian was very keen for us to return!

With a group photo done we then headed back to base, stretched off and then it was time for home. Don’t forget to sign up for next week here, you’ve still got me and we are all going to help at Hillside Gardens and more importantly its Lambeth pub week and we’ll be heading to the Duke of Ed for a bevvy or two!

Thanks for having me and join me again next week,
Pritesh

Big up Emily and JB for joining us on their first GoodGym run - Give them a cheer! 👏

Last night we had a bunch of jobs to do:

👉 Papa’s Park kindly put us up every week so it’s only right that now and then we do some jobs for them. Weeding in some of the ground beds and sanding a big concrete bench in preparation for painting was on the agenda.

👉We also had a load of Food2U posters to spread across Brixton and the local area. Food2U is an Age UK initiative where older people who are less mobile can get their weekly shop bought, delivered and put away for them by a friendly driver who sticks around for a chat. We did this in January and it was really helpful.

Time for a team challenge!

So with 6 different areas to take the posters too, 6 groups were formed. These 6 groups made 6 massive piles of weeds and much sanding was done. Then the 6 groups headed off in their 6 different directions to spread 60(!) posters from Clapham High Street to Herne Hill and everywhere in between.

We were reminded that fly-posting can earn you an £80 fine… Thanks Paul for the heads up! So our teams used their local knowledge to poster in leisure centres, libraries and shops across the area.

See pics for evidence of the mysterious Carnegie library (nice building, but closed), the purple clouds of the Stockwell skyline (actually, it’s a painting) and David Bowie's head.

Ace work everybody! 👌

Sign up for next week’s run here with runs to either the Portico Gallery to move some gazebo weights or a shorter trip to Agnes Riley Gardens.

It was all about the hills today, with 12 top GoodGymers running 19 or 10k around South London, finding new parks to take partners for a picnic (Belair), dinosaurs and a quick detour around a maze (Crystal Palace) and taking a snap with some ruins (Sydenham Hill).

It was a muggy one too, and everyone did a fantastic job keeping a steady pace throughout. It was Maria's first 10k, Phil had just run a 5k PB at Burgess Parkrun and Louise was back in her old South London stomping ground (providing me with directions...).

Some A-MAZE-ING running everyone. Props to all. 👌💪👏👍

It was a delightful evening for a delightful run, with 35 runners in pursuit of the Portico Gallery, a community arts space in West Norwood.

We had a quick intro, welcoming 7 new people to the gang. Nice one Alice, Rachael, Anthony, Hannah, Sarah, Emily and Martha!!! Give those guys a cheer.

SOFIA, SO GOOD.

Then Lavinia told us about the fantastic time that was had this past weekend in Bulgaria. There were some incredible finish times from GG Lambeth runners and a lot of fun was had!

Tom Benson gave us the lowdown on the GoodGym Olympics and the plan for a GG Anthem. 🥁

And we congratulated Will on his sterling effort of reaching 50 GOOD DEEDS. Awesome stuff.

We then hit the road, a tidy 4.5k uphill to The Portico. Tom Hunter lead the “keen” bunch and the rest of us took a more relaxed approach!

We arrived to meet John who gave us a couple of tasks:

👉 Cleaning the walls of the arts space with a “sugar soap” mixture.

👉 folding plastic bags to save space

Everyone got stuck in with some people commenting on how scrubbing the walls was very therapeutic!

Soap pleased to clean you.

Before we knew it, time was up and we had to begin the descent home.

SOAP SOLID CREW.

Well done everyone. Next week we’re at Myatt’s Field for another therapeutic task - removing bindweed!

Oh it was a hilly one today, with a run up Brixton Hill, along Hillside Road to Hillside Gardens.

We set off at a steady pace, dodging the crowds in Brixton until we got to clearer paths before making the ascent towards our destination. Our legs got some respite at the traffic lights and to pass the time, some of us were brave enough to do squats with some cheeky inbuilt calf raises!

We arrived at Hillside Gardens to be met by Tom and Stu, who split us into small groups of us to do different tasks - clearing weeds, transporting compost and moving wood, rubbish and rubble. It was great to get stuck into the tasks while it was still light. After a solid half hour, we finished up, took a group photo at the top of the hill (with some killer views behind us!) and set off on a nice downhill run back to Papa's.

Tom said they were really impressed with what we got done and that sorting through the yard has helped them work out what they need to do for the future.

We had a bunch of new runners to GoodGym Lambeth and some totally new runners to GoodGym, Maya and Sophie! - a massive welcome to you, and well done to everyone for a cracking task and run! 🐣

I made a pun about the wind. But it blows.

It was a wild one for GoodGym Lambeth this evening with diversions, a snoop around Brixton Windmill and many, many tasks.

We started off giving a big Lambeth welcome to Laura and Becky! Woop woop! And we mentioned that our friends/rivals across the border in GoodGym Wandsworth are going to Clapham Common Parkrun on Saturday. GG Lambeth represent and look out for the red tees.

With the wind in our sails we had a quick warm up and headed up the hill with Jim, Nicky and George taking a long and windy route around the houses and myself and Beth heading straight there (apart from missing a turning... but hill training is really good for you!). Freyja and Lucy walked and still beat the rest of us...

When we arrived, we got cracking on a multitude of different tasks inside and outside the Windmill:

• Planting shrubs 🌴
• Trimming branches ✂️
• Weeding in the play area 🌾
• Dusting surfaces in the windmill 🌫
• Removing grass from the pavement gaps 🌱
• Litter picking 🗑
• Getting rid of cobwebs 🕸

When we were done, Jean gave us the lowdown on the Windmill, how the council is building a new visitor centre there and about some of the events they've got coming up. Not least the BEER AND BREAD festival. i.e. two of the best things in the world. Lambeth social? I think so.

On our way back to PAPA's we were thinking about FAB:

F for FORWARDS - Thinking, looking, moving FORWARDS. i.e. no side to side motion.

A for ARMS - Moving the arms back to propel oneself FORWARDS.

B for BALLOON - Imagining a helium balloon attached to our heads, keeping us upright - not leaning down or backwards.

And because of that (and the fact that the entire route was downhill...) we shot back to PAPAs at lightning speed and finished off with a quick stretch.

NEXT WEEK is our monthly social so come along for some well deserved beverages after our run to the Portico Gallery Sign up, show up, eat up, drink up.

Cheers GG LAMBETH 🍻