A fabulous fourteen ran 5km to plant trees, shrubs and roses and to push themselves in the outdoor gym.

A big welcome this week to Angela, who joined us for the very first time - she chose a lovely evening, with a nice outdoor task and a fun fitness session. Great work Angela!

There was a lot of talk this week about London Marathon, with most people having tuned in on the telly and some going over to watch in person - what a day! We also talked about parkrun, for those who hadn't heard about it before. Check here to find out about the free, timed 5k runs, they're really rather special. Ian told us that his son reached his 50th parkrun milestone on Saturday in Bromley and, over at Hilly Fields, Bradley ran another PB (he's unstoppable!). Meanwhile, over at Oxford parkrun, Tim achieved the highest age grading, of just under 80%! Great work everyone! We also talked about Strava, it's such a great way to keep track of and support and encourage each other and Bradley has very kindly set up a GoodGym Bromley group, which you can see - and join - here.

Avenue of blossom

This week's task took us on a slightly longer run than recently, with a 5km round trip to Sydenham Community Library. The run, though a little chillier than at the weekend, took us past the most beautiful blossom, which has sprung into life since our last visit (a big thank you to Ian and Louise for back-marking). As I located Ilse, the rest of the group explored the outside space, with Hannah (quite rightly) taking the throne and Bradley rushing off to try out the outdoor gym! Once the shutters to the library were lifted, we were able to collect all the tools, plants, gloves and hoses and head over to the beds that were to be our focus for the evening.

Having a whip round

Ilse very patiently went through the various jobs, with large plants, smaller shrubs and tiny 'whips' needing to go in. After the recent - and sudden - hot weather, the ground appeared very dry and hard but, once our strong runners got busy with the shovels, holes were appearing all over the place and plants were going in at a pace. Particularly impressive was Torie, who was determined to dig a hole deep enough for the beautiful choisya. She dug and dug, referring back to the plant to see if it would fit and, pretty soon, in went the plant. This will definitely be one of those tasks that we will revisit and enjoy, seeing the progress and growth that will happen over time. Once the roses, hedging plants and shrubs had been planted and watered, it was time to gather our tools and return them inside, where Ilse had very kindly provided us with drinks and snacks - thank you, we really appreciate it!

Play away!

After saying goodbye, we only needed to jog a few steps to reach our fitness session, which allowed everyone to have a go on the outdoor gym that had been pulling them earlier. A little warm-up in pairs was followed by a shuttle-run/gym equipment relay. We all commented that the machines, if used for long enough, really do offer a pretty good workout - they seem popular too, with a few people coming and going while we were there). Good, strong work all of you, that was fun!

Running back, we pushed hard up the final hill to our start point (there's no avoiding it!), where we stretched and talked about the upcoming GoodGym Olympic Games, which we need to start practicing for - sack race, egg and spoon, relay, all the favourites. Next week we are delivering flyers for a fantastic organisation called Bloom Bakery, who provide training for people who are unemployed, to help them on the journey back into work; sign up here to join us. Before we all went our separate ways, there was just enough time to tuck into some ginger cake, to celebrate my 250th good deed. I can't believe how quickly they've added up, with sixty of them being visits to my 'coach' for a chat - you can find out more about this in a little feature that appeared on the BBC this evening and also here. It's a lovely thing to do and makes a big difference to someone's quality of life.