This session we had an special visitor - a journalist from the Guardian who was writing a piece about Goodgym! This involved many (many!) photos. Afterwards, we set off to do our deliveries which were pizza kits.

Special shout out to Angela for a successful delivery + first session! 💪🎉

It was a miserable rainy December evening but what better way to bring Christmas cheer than by gathering at Papa's Park (with swish newly opened playground) for the last Lambeth run of the year. There were two tasks to do. We all ran together to Loughborough Farm, where we dropped off some ABSOLUTE HEROES, led by Beth. Here's her report:

Our job was to move some bags of soil from A to B. A and B weren’t very far apart but with the rain making everything slippery and the soil heavier than it needed to be it was a tough job. Various buckets, trays and wheelbarrows were employed to transfer the soil from bags on one side of the farm to the other. By the time we’d finished we’d emptied one bag and very nearly another and made really good progress on the rest.

More impressive than the amount of soil we moved, Elise did it all whilst holding an umbrella.

The rest of us carried on round the corner to sort out the hall at Grove Adventure Playground. Some poorly painted windows needed scraping to neaten up the edges and the floor needed a good sweep and mop after a party at the weekend. Everyone set about this with cheer and some Christmas tunes were blasted from the stereo.

We all ran back to base, picking up our pals at the farm before some stretches and then headed to the lovely Seven in the Village for some food and drinks. The tapas were delicious and people enjoyed some cocktails as well.

Katie had put together a quiz of questionable content and it was really 50/50 as to whether people enjoyed it but really, that's what quizzes are about, wouldn't you agree? She then wowed the crowds with some FACTS about Lambeth, namely that to date, there have been:

2205 attendances to Lambeth runs, missions and coach visits in 2018 AND COUNTING!

Just amazing. Then it was on to the big ones, the Shit Prizes of the Year (SPOTY). We had first chick and first dude across DISTANCE and of course, GOOD DEEDERY. Of course everyone at Lambeth has been completely stellar this year, as with every other year but the winners were:

DISTANCE First chick: Nicky Woodall - 1150.36km and counting....! First dude: Tom Hunter - 2050.54km and counting....!

GOOD DEEDERY First dude: David Ewens - 114 and counting....! First chick: Frances Collier-Wright- 115 and counting...!

As you can see these numbers are INCREDIBLE and huge cheers were given to all. And that's a wrap Lambeth - thank you for being so amazing in 2018 and see you in the new year!

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.