Last night 9 GoodGymers ran 1.4km to, do some work on East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO) gardens by the tram track near Blake Road. Witht he help of two of the local residents (not converted to GG as yet) we managed to clear two of the raised flower beds of weeds and discarded rubbish. Although the number of bags filled was not a record breaker there was a noticeable difference in the work completed. As its the party season there were talks about Christmas dos and plans for going forward in terms of our monthly drinks.

We filled 18 bags of weed and litter before tidying up and running back to Solutions for our cool down stretches. MAssive thanks to all attendees.

We welcomed first timer Fiona, who rocked up to her first good gym run with document in hand rearing to go on getting her DBS check so she can start mission and one day coach run. CHeck out her profile give her some GoodGym love. Fiona has already earned four badges since joining GoodGym what a great start, despite her getting lost on her way home from the group run.

Well done to Sally on completing her 25th good deed last night.

To show that the work we do is appreciated and that I am not taking all the plaudits for myself, despite not being able to join us last night due to other commitments. I received the below message from Jerry at ECCO.

Hi Conroy Great work again on the part of Team Goodgym. 18 bags - very neatly filled and stacked - c’est magnifique! Looking forward to seeing you on 18 December. Kind regards

Are you joining us in rounding the year of in style? I know I am looking forward to our visit to Little Bay are you? Sign up here, remember running clothes optional.

Next week we are off to Foundation4LIfe this task is within walking distance from our start location, dont fancy running, its ok you can walk. Sign up here

Although our last group run is on 18th December, There are still mission slots available, why not book one today? Remember you do not need to be DBS cleared to do a community missions.

Have you seen this week's email from GG Central? Well I did, so if you didn't it's ok I'll share!

GoodGym News

• Fantastic to see and read about all the amazing Community Missions this week, lots of cheers all round. Also, great to see loads of Taskforce setting up food collections for Fairshare.

• There is an exciting opportunity to work for GoodGym and help increase participation for women, BAME, those with disabilities and those from lower socio-econmic backgrounds - Check out the job here

• Remember to complete 1 Group Run, 2 Community Missions and 3 Cheers this month to get a limited edition Winter 3-2-1 Badge. Click here to find out about the other badges.

• Looking for a new podcast recommendation? It's your lucky day...check out Marathon Talk, episode 467 to listen to Anji who is the Newcastle Trainer.

Reminder about Group Runs not running over the holidays (24th December - January 6th) but hopefully loads of Community Missions to keep that winter warmth feeling.

We ran around help Saffron Central return its original condition

A sad night tonight as we headed over to Saffron Central where we have helped out on a number of occasions. Saffron Central is the baby of Ally and his many helpers and is the largest pop-up saffron farm in Europe. It's been on the site of the old Croydon council building (Taberner House) for over two years but sadly has to be handed back over this weekend for development. In addition to planting crocuses there has been a Pride flag created from flowers, artwork, herb growing and even yoga in this space and we will be sorry to see it go.

So off we headed from Solutions after the obligatory group photo ready to get down to some hard work. Our main task for the evening was moving pea shingle into bags for residents to take at the weekend. Two teams were formed and armed with spades, wheelbarrows, bags and elbow grease we got stuck in and bagged up around 2/5 tonnes - pretty impressive I thought. Once we'd finished we said goodbye to Ally with a promise to help him on any future ventures he takes on. His daughter (who was really the boss of the evening) came out to join us in the fitness session.

As the run was fairly short I sent the group to warm-up again around the new council building and back to Queens Gardens where Sally and I had set up the fitness session. Tonight we worked on agility by fast stepping along the ladder and also hopscotching - some with more grace than others! While one runner was scampering along the ladder the others were squatting, balancing, lunging and jumping - well we wouldn't want to get cold would we! We finished off with a quick game of Duck Duck Goose - lots of giggling and no slipping on the slightly wet grass.

It was lovely to welcome two new members tonight Daniel and Jonathan and hope to see you both back again very soon.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading towards Ikea to help Unique Roots in their community garden. It is a slightly longer run but don't be put off as it's pretty flat and there is the tram option for the way back if you need.

Finally... the monthly London GoodGym social in May will be hosted by our neighbours in Bromley so why not sign up and meet some other runners.

We ran around 3km to mark up the Peace Garden and deliver morer leaflets for Croydon's Bring and Take sale in March

Positively tropical tonight - well compared to last week at least! Tonight we had a double task so after welcoming back Dom and Carl and a quick head count we headed off for a warm-up and then straight to the entrance of Park Hill Rec. Here we met Josi and Catherine from the Friends of Park Hill Rec who unlocked the gates and we headed in with them to the empty and slightly spooky dark park. Once we got to the beautiful walled garden at the top end of the park Josi and Catherine told us more about the week long Festival of Peace being held in Croydon in June which is following on from the successful Summer of Love Festival held last year in Wandle Park.

The plan is to create a garden of peace in one of the middle beds in the walled garden which will have around 12 separate areas for local groups to plant with flowers that represent peace to them. There will also be a performance area, wheelchair access and rosemary and lavender framing the space. To help with the costs of the work there will be some Crowdfunding where residents and companies will be able to sponsor a tile/brick with their name on it which will be laid in the garden - we are definitely going to have a GoodGym presence there. The exciting news for us was that Josi and Catherine are going to give us one of the 12 beds to plant a GoodGym peace garden so we need to get our horticultural thinking hats on!

So back to the main task itself. Using long pieces of string, wooden canes and spray paint we marked out where each bed would be and also the performance area - there was a lot of giggling so hopefully our lines were straight! Half way through the task 4 of the runners headed off to deliver 50 leaflets to nearby houses promoting the Bring and Take sale in Surrey Street market on the 17th of March and next week we will be heading back to the same house to pick up any bags of donations they leave out for us. For the eagled-eyed amongst you you may have noticed Jim is back and joining in with us after his long sabbatical with Dom.

We didn't have much time after our task and the very welcome hot drinks and biscuits supplied by Josi and Catherine so it was a quick round of Heads and Tails before we headed back to Solutions for our stretches and debrief.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading back to the Park Hill area to pick up the Bring and Take donations.

This evening we ran around 4km to dig turf, weed, plant and litter pick in a local park

After promising an indoor task this week I had to break the bad news the evening before that the warm indoor task was cancelled and replaced by an outdoor task. The Croydon bunch are hardy runners though as we still had 22 amazing runners turn up for some running and hard physical labour

So after the group photo we headed off to White Horse Park via Tescos for our warm-up. Tonight the speedier runners were led by Ellie and Andy who did a fantastic job with their looping too and we all arrived safely. Charles was our task master for the evening and he explained the tasks we could help him with. The Friends of White Horse Park are planting round the sides of a large circular raised bed so he demonstrated how to dig the turf out neatly round the edges – he did make it look very simple – turns out it’s quite tricky! Others did some weeding and planting and the reset went rubbish hunting around the garden area. When we arrived it actually looked really clean but then we found the “beer can bush” - only 5 feet from a bin but an entire rubbish sack was filled!

By the time we finished it was bitterly cold so we headed off for a warm-up slow jog then to a quiet street where we practiced the art of accelerating -always useful for that last minute sprint to outpace your friends! There were some impressive increases in pace especially once the arms started driving back with real power. On the way back Ellie and Andy’s group headed off for a slightly longer run so we all managed to finish around the same time and cool-down as a group.

While we were stretching they were reminded of an extra session this Sunday – meet at Heathfield Gardens at 10.45am to help build a garden for the bees. We will do the task first and then go for a run in the woods if it’s not too muddy or locally if it is. It’s a great chance to do a deed in the daylight and also to bring along a friend or family member who might be worried about the whole running thing but would like to give GoodGym a try.

Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total. If you set it up yet then go onto your account, go to profile, settings and finally Strava/Runkeeper and follow the instructions there.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading to Lloyd Park

This evening we ran around 5km to move coffee grounds from a mushroom farm to a community garden

25 runners tonight!!! Fantastic to see some of the new runners from last week back as well six new runners so a big GoodGym Croydon welcome to Helen, Sarah, Tim, Claire, Iljeet and Kerry - look forward to seeing you all again soon.

We started with our customary group photo – needing to huddle together nowadays as my camera doesn’t have a wide enough lens to take in the whole group. Then off we headed for a warm-up in the nearby car park where we had to dodge a surprising number of workers heading home just as we got started – no collisions luckily. We headed in one large group, ably led by Ellie, Amatare and Andy and back marked by Sally and Rob down towards Reeves Corner to the Reuse Centre where mushrooms are grown and furniture made from pallets. Andrew met us at the corner and explained a little bit about what goes on in this well-hidden plot and then got us to work loading up the van with many many bags of coffee grounds which were heading to Wandle Park Community Garden to help fertilise the earth there. So with 25 runners in a chain(gang) formation we made very light work of moving the coffee and as soon as we’d finished we headed down to the park to help unload. Slight glitch with the key to the park gate not working and with discretion being the better part of valour we decided not to try and climb the fence so carefully threw the bags over for Andrew to sort in the morning.

Lots of time for a fun fitness session in the relative dry of the underpass. Amarate kept the group warm and moving while a few of us laid out the circuit – hopscotch, squats, hill sprints, lunges, chest presses and many more “fun” activities were done for 2 minutes each. We worked on strength, balance, speed, coordination and having fun which they were all very good at.

With burning muscles we finally headed back to Solutions gym for our stretches and a chat about next week’s task and also the GoodGym January Challenge – hope we are still leading at the end of this week. Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total.

I just had a quick flick back through some old run reports and apart from our very first run tonight was the largest run ever – Well done everybody.

Our next run is on Tuesday 16th of January - an indoor task!

This week 16 wonderful GG-ers ran 4.5km (ish) delivering booklets for our fabulous hosts, The Phoenix. Most were kitted in their Santa hats / outfits, with Graham even riding a reindeer. Paul came armed with extra outfits, including a Santa dress – which Hazel wore with pride.

We were joined by GG newbie tonight, Heather – who moved to London to marry Shawn! Give them both a cheer!

After a quick warm up by the side, we ran off up the hill. After about 1.5km of running, we split into teams and began the leap frog flyering. Damian took one team, while I took the other. We had four bags full of the booklets – and as ever, made quick work of the lot!

Then it was time for a quick fitness session, starting with squats, burpees and lunges; and finishing with a race to 100 step ups on the curb. Graham was the speediest, very quickly followed by Sarah.

Damian then lead us back to base, while Freya and Rupesh took charge of the back-marking.

We then did all the stretches before heading upstairs at the Phoenix for our Christmas celebrations. There were many snacks, some even homemade, and a surprise appearance from Eleanor.

Tonight was Danica's last GG Barnet run before she leaves the country forever (or for ages) to go traveling. Give her all of the cheers and the virtual hugs

Thank you all for a wonderful year of GG Barnet-ing. Next week will be our final run - but I won't be able to make it. You'll be guest lead by the wonderful Camden Paul. See you all in the NEW YEAR!