Running late as Sam had to rush back home to get the all essential portable lights, he just arrived in time to see Andres (the Old Spike manager) locking up Old Spike. The handover was brief as Nathan, Sophie, Daryl and Gemma made their way to the starting point. We caught up on our weekends and the week we had as we waited for Rachel before Sam started his GoodGym intro.

After the intro and a quick warm-up outside in the alleyway, Sam informed everyone of tonight's ice-breaker question, which was to do with the fact it was Valentine's Day yesterday: What is your favourite Rom-Com?

We had Fifty First Dates, Along Came Polly, Two Weeks Notice, Notting Hill, Love Actually, How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Deuce Bigalow.

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Bin there, done that

Deciding to run the backstreets of Peckham, we took a slightly longer route to get to Surrey Square Primary School as it was a planned 3.5k, but ended up being a 3.75k run. We took our time and stopped in places despite speedy Sam leading at the front and Daryl backmarked.

We arrived just after 19:15 to meet Jack who came for his second good deed and the cyclists, Emma and Magda as well as Peter (the task owner), who explained a bit about the school and the task at hand. Peter had everything prepared, so Sam split the team delegating Emma and Sophie to be in charge of moving the wheelie bins of woodchip from the pile to the spot where they needed to be laid whilst Magda used a pitchfork to rake the woodchip into place. The next team of Daryl, Gemma, Jack, Nathan and Sam took turns in shoveling soil and woodchip to fill the bins and wheelbarrows as the wheelbarrows of soil was initially transported to the beds in the polytunnel before filling a few beds outside.

We had 40 minutes to smash through the task as much as we could as there was tonnes and tonnes of soil and woodchip to transport. What wasn't done on the night was all done come Thursday by Peter. A "Best of British" playlist with a random assortment of songs got us through the session as we called it a night at 19:55 as we had to put the tools away.

A quick snap on the slide before we said our goodbyes at the school gate as Daryl, Gemma and Sam were the only ones to run back to Old Spike. This time taking the shortest and most direct route to get to the pub to watch the footie!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Another long run to get to the task, so thank you for keeping up with the pace as we arrived on time. The task itself was hard-working, but rewarding to see the difference and the kids will appreciate that they can grow fruits and vegetables come next week.

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Thank You Peter

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter for this annual treat to come and help out at a local primary school whilst the kids are away on annual leave. I look forward to hearing about other community gardens we can help out with.

Rushing from work via home to collect the portable lights, Sam thought he was going to be late meeting everyone at Old Spike Roastery and leave them out in the rain. Yet, he made it on time and luckily, the rain had stopped too. The next worry on his mind was that the weather would deter a few members and knowing that the task was going to be a big one, he kept on refreshing the website to see if anyone had dropped out....

One by one, members started to show up...Paulin, Emma, Benjamin and then Sophie showed up as we knew Emma had signposted on the website that she would meet us at the task. We waited for Ayub and Frankie, but once it turned 18:45, Sam went through the shorten GoodGym speech just giving updates of what is happening over the weekend and next week!

Knowing we had to run 3k in 20 minutes, we had a quick-ish warm-up before answering our ice-breaker question, which was: Since it's Random Act of Kindness Day tomorrow, what random act of kindness would you do?

We had offering a hot beverage or baked treat to a colleague, giving away fancy scones to a friend, being more empathetic when having a 1-2-1 chat with a friend and just being nice.

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TONNES of fun

With five runners, we ran pretty much as a group with Paulin back-marking just in case someone wanted to go at a slower pace. We ran down Peckham High Street into Surrey Canal Walkway before arriving at Burgess Park, which we cut through to get to Surrey Square Primary School. Sam told Peter he would be there by 19:15 (latest) and the group arrived right on time. At the school, Emma was there, but also Ayub and Frankie (mistaken for "Katie"...)! Hooorrrrayyyy as it was Ayub's second good deed and first group run and Frankie was staying at her brother's - she's a Hackney regular. ❤️‍

With no time to lose, Peter showed us to the tonne bags of woodchip and soil as well as where he wanted us to lay down this stuff. As he was doing this, Sam and Paulin strategically put down the six portable lights as it was pretty much pitch black in some places (safety first!). With eight GoodGymers and two areas, one would split it fifty/fifty, but Sam is clearing not great at maths 🙄....but he also knew one area needed an extra person 👀 So, he made Paulin sub-team captain of Ayub, Benjamin, Emma and Sophie as they took care of two ton bags of woodchip, which had to be put down and spread along a bordered path. There was another task for them to wheelbarrow one ton of soil to the polytunnel, but limited time and resources meant this was put on hold. Yet, let's not dampen the mood like the weather dampen our day! They shifted two tonne bags 😲 that is 2,000kg of woodchip in the dark with strong (but warm) winds in 40 minutes! 🤯 Five of them...no wonder our bodies felt tired afterwards... 💪

Team two consisted of Emma, Frankie and Sam as they laid down half a ton bag (500kg) of woodchip around the raised bed area of the school garden. With one wheelbarrow (and then we found a spare bag) and a shovel between the three of them, this team's effort might have looked to have been dwarfed by what team one did, but as a member of this team I can say we did not stop for one second. Shoveling and moving woodchip is some serious business - tough work! 🔥🙌

As the night approached 20:00, we just had about enough effort to move the final wheelbarrows of woodchip before calling it! After a slight scare that Benjamin had lost his phone (Emma found it), we took our group photo before saying our goodbyes to Peter and those who left us to go home from Surrey Square Primary School.

Frankie partially joined the group run back to Peckham - peeling off near Burgess Park before Emma did the same near Surrey Canal Walkway. The rest of us forced our tired bodies back to Peckham for a much deserved stretch just as the rain had started again.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night to run 3k each way in the strong winds and especially on the way back when our bodies had a workout! It was a proper classic GoodGym session and GoodGym weren't lying about their phrase of Getting fit whilst doing good!

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Thank You Peter

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter for thinking of us when he got this contract to help Surrey Square School via Edible Rotherhithe. I hope you manage you put down the soil and the rest of the woodchip this week!

5 Goodgym-mers, new and old, met at St Joseph's School in Rotherhithe. It was the first ever GoodGym task at the school. Sam came back to GoodGym after a few years living abroad, and brought Clare with her - her first ever GoodGym task!

Tamsin let us in and took us to the school allotment. The school allotment had been neglected until Tamsin started working there last year and decided to bring it back to life. A big task for one person! She asked us to help shovel manure, followed by top soil onto some raised beds. Just over half an hour into our hour, and we'd finished. It is amazing how a few more pairs of hands makes light work of nearly 7 tonnes of manure. With time to spare we were able to help do some weeding and clear away rubbish, some of which looked like it had been there for a very long time...

There's lots more to be done at the allotment. I reckon they'll be seeing a lot more of GoodGym in the months to come!

Oh, the grand volunteers of Southwark, They had 10,000 tons (of soil), They wheeled them up to the top of the hill (full), Then they wheeled then down again (empty). The chatter kept spirits up, Though they were never down, Cos that's the GoodGym way you see - deeds with smiles not frowns!

A great task tonight shifting three bags of soil to fill the beds in the polytunnel and surrounding area at our favourite primary school! Well done all!

Wall of Honour

• Thanks to Emily for back marking and keeping the group together.
• Big Shout to Reece, Rebecca, Victoria, Lowri & Flo for completing their first run with us!
• Pat on the back to Rosanna for completing her 10th good deed this week!

Let’s have a Recap

Last night 21 runners ran 7km in total to the community garden at Surrey Square Primary School run by Edible Rotherhithe. After discussing what to wear in the windy weather, we snuck round the corner to get ourselves warmed up. Taking a less crowded more scenic route Helena kept us on track as we followed the Surrey Canal path up to Burgess Park, over the bridge and through Surrey Square Park to meet Christina at the school gates.

She lead us over to the mound of green at the back of the playground where the newly constructed poly tunnel stood above the school kitchen, so their food can be grown and transferred straight to their plates in minutes. You can’t get much fresher than that!

With Christina's instruction 1 group got to work planting herbs and parsley in the newly turned beds. The 2nd and tallest group began decorating the inside of the poly tunnel, putting up bunting and children’s paintings turning it into a vegetable art gallery! And the 3rd group filled the air with a lovely lavender aroma, separating the dried flowers from their stems ready to be pouched and sold at the school fair. Everything was completed inside 30 minutes and after watering the plants and tidying away, all that was left was a GoodGym Slide-athon down the slide with surprising speed!

With the night getting darker we set off back into the park for a series of lamppost sprints, avoiding all pigeons, foxes and startling small dogs! Finishing with a burst along the Big Dipper (a mini hill) and a fast dash to back to base, all that was needed was a quick stretch and a pint!

FACT OF THE DAY Carrots in the wild were originally yellow and white, before being cultivated by the Dutch into the orange ones we have today!

Next week we will be running 6km in total taking a scenic route around Peckham Rye over to the Peckham Festival in Copeland Park to help set up their community hub for the upcoming Open Studios event. sign up here

See you next week Team. Chin up!