Loads of runners smashed a super long run to Streatham Common and a shorter run to Ruskin Park to garden like they have never gardened before

As we start to lose the lovely long evenings, we did our last lovely long run to Streatham Common and the joyful Rookery Gardens. 19 fearless souls took off up Brixton Hill and kept going, and kept going, then turned left, then turned right, then kept going until finally they reached this little slice of heaven. A solid 5.5km each way, lovely groundsman Dominic gave us all lots of water when we arrived and, armed with trowels and forks, we took to weeding the Stairway to Streatham. It was great until the midges became familiar with our legs then it was less good. After 20 minutes hard work we took full advantage of the new portrait photo function on the website. POW!

We completed the equivalent of 5.5 hours work for one person in just 20 minutes!

The rest of the group completed a 5km round trip to Ruskin Community Garden. Lovely Justin was waiting for us to get on with weeding the beds, digging into the compost and spreading it on the freshly weeded beds. There were lots of midges there too...what can we say?

This GoodGym is a tasty lot!

Loads of excellent runners ran between 3 and 12k to support THREE tasks across Lambeth. Then James wrote a pun based on Linkin Park's appearance at Brixton Academy that evening. No raking was involved in this run

It was a lovely hot evening and that meant we had a bunch of lovely new starters - unlike last week when everyone was at home cos it rained. After a quick intro, the long run group set off, led by Tom Hunter, to Streatham Common and the beautiful Rookery Gardens. A solid 5.5km away, this isn't a run we do often but on a summer evening like this, a long run and weeding some crazy paving is just the ticket!

Here's the lowdown from Tom:

11 Runners braved a colossal 11km round trip to the far-flung location of the Rookery in Streatham Common. It was a lovely evening for it, with some stunning views of South London along the way.

We met Dominic who informed us that as a protected site, The Rookery is forbidden from using chemicals to kill their weeds. So they have to take care of them the old fashioned way... With a committed group of sweaty runners and a selection of trowels. Absolutely no problem at all for our group and with Steve demonstrating superior broom handling ability, we had the whole place looking even more splendid.

Despite the offer of a bus ride back. Nobody was even the slightest bit interested! (and definitely not because we had forgotten our oyster cards either!) We then stormed it back home in amazing time. Well done all!

The rest of us split into two groups and did a warm up based on animals, inspired by Tom Benson's love of Lekkido the Lobster. James also did some singing of Linkin Park songs. Then we were off!

Did you know Linkin Park are playing at the Academy? Asked James

One group went with Sarah back to Holland Park Estate to finish off making a cascade flower bed by adding some logs to create steps. The second went with Katie to St. Mark's Primary School near Oval. They have an amazing outdoor space, which needed some weeding and lots of painting. We did some calf strengthening exercises and then headed off home all hot and sweaty.

NICE!