We had plenty to lift our spirits in Wandsworth last night, as we did gourd and got fit at our special Halloween run!

Welcome to your first group run Jasmine and Emma! Give them a cheer, Goodgym.

A big well done to

Jo for doing the Chicago marathon and the Great South Run, and to James for his first half marathon in Germany. Great running!

Don't forget an important date for your diary:

It's the GoodGym Christmas party! Sign up here for all the details of the big bash on the 6th December.

After catching up on all the week's news, and with quite a few brilliant costumes on display, we headed outside to do our warm up. We had some Halloween themed moves - the pumpkin (touch the floor), the witch (tuck jump) and ghost (jump up) - and we discussed what scared us. It was an interesting mix of answers, which ranged from Trump, running in the cold and horses, to open water, buttons ('koumpounophobia' apparently) and kittens!

If you've got it, haunt it

After a mile run to our task, we arrived at Eden Community Garden. This beautiful space is for local people of all backgrounds to enjoy and it is also used to preserve bee habitats and make honey. It also happened to be part of a site where people who died from the plague and roundheads were buried - so a very fitting job to be helping with at Halloween!

We were met by Benny who told us about the history of the garden and how it is used by the community, and gave us some jobs to do. The main one was moving wood from the garden into the graveyard to build a big bonfire for the church's fireworks night on Saturday, while there was also compost shoveling and leaf raking to do as well.

Everybody got right to work, and before long there was enormous bonfire ready for the community event (if you would like to go along to enjoy the results on Saturday then check out the details here: https://www.stpaulsclapham.org/links), so after a team photo we waved goodbye and headed to the common for our spooky fitness session.

We divided up into teams, and competed against eachother for a treat or a trick. While the treats were sweet and chocolatey and were earned through relays and other challenges, the tricks varied from burpees, press ups and squat jumps. The spooktacular night was finished off with a run back to base, some stretches and a post-GG social meal. Fa-boo-lous!

Next week we've got more of the same, but with fewer bad Halloween puns. Sign up here for more doing good and getting fit. Until then, run happy!

Welcome to our first time runners Marie, Robyn, Tasha, Alice, Mia and Mairead - great to have you join us!

It was another amazing weekend of all things running with loads of GoodGymers taking part in marathons and other races in places like Valencia, Lisbon, Bruges, Yorkshire, Amsterdam and the Great South Run. Well done if you did any of those, and to Frances who got a new 10k PB at a race in Battersea Park!

Talking of congratulations, it was Oliver's 's 50th good deed last night - give him a cheer! He's been a machine, doing up to a record four good deeds a day, so a huge well done on reaching that milestone.

• Next week we have our special Halloween run, where we have a task helping out a community garden in a cemetery, a spooky fitness session and a social afterwards. Sign up here for the post run social!

After all that good news we headed outside to do a warm up before running to our task. After some high knees, fast feet and jumping jacks, we talked about our favourite pizza toppings and the big Pineapple V Non Pineapple debate. Thankfully no proroguing was needed as non-Hawaiian won out, and the prize for best topping goes to Bruno with salsiccia e friarielli. Who's hungry?

Our job last night was at Belleville school, the first bilingual state school. Jonathan, who manages the grounds, had big plans for one of the areas near the back of the school, but there was lots to do. So after an extended run around the common we arrived to find Jonathan waiting with wheelbarrows, bags and tools.

His plans are to build planters for the children to help them learn about growing fruit and veg, but the area he had in mind is covered with tarmac. Jonathan had spent the day cutting out big holes, and our job was to completely clear the area of the slabs that had come up, the lining, weeds and all the other stuff that was in the way.

After half an hour of heavy lifting and shifting, moss scraping, cutting back,moving fence and, some impressive tactical manoeuvring the space was looking ready for planting and will be a brilliant learning area for the kids. So after a quick photo and wave goodbye we jogged up to Clapham Common to do out fitness session. This week it was circuits, with one group do a run which worked as our timer. With burpees, planks, squats and clock lunges, this was an effective all over workout. Nice one, team.

After a nice brisk run back, we finished off the night with stretches and cake. Don't forget our special Halloween run next week, where, although not essential, dressing up will be positively encouraged! Until then, happy running everyone.

Whether it was your first group run last night or you've been part of the GG family for a long time, this one is for you -

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY GOODGYM!

In those years you have all been part of creating a huge movement for good and in doing so you have run a mind-blowing

2.5 million kilometres!

Say whaaat?! That's incredible. Last night's 7kms run by 32 of us is the start of the next decade of doing good and getting fitter, and I'm looking forward to being part of that with you.

To kick off our special birthday run we had a few announcements:

• We welcomed Diego and Daniel to their first group run - give them a cheer!

• As part of our special birthday week, this weekend it is #SuperSaturday where we attempt to put on the greatest number of community missions than ever before across the UK. In Wandsworth we have a great one helping out with a spot of yurt washing at a local community garden at 10:30 on Saturday morning. Sign up here - be lovely to see you there! Remember, community missions are open to everybody, you don't need to be DBS checked.

• It was also a special milestone for Stephanie who last night hit 50 good deeds - what a brilliant thing to do. Next time you see her in her new black tshirt give her a massive high five! Congratulations Stephanie.

We had a very appropriate task for our birthday run last night - helping to assemble and check cots for the amazing Little Village charity in Balham.

This organisation provides for free good quality baby clothes and equipment, donated by local people to families that need them. It's like a foodbank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children and they're committed to alleviating material poverty in London. They believe no child in the capital grows up without these essential items and promote sustainable living. What an amazing project!

We did a quick warm up back in our usual spot which BAC had kindly repaved and leveled over just for us to use at our group runs (kind of) and did a poll to see how we all like to spend our birthdays. Eating cake was top, along with friends and drinks, brunch, bed, days of work and, of course, GoodGym!

After just over 3km of running we arrived at Little Village to find an amazingly organised Jo there waiting for us complete with flow charts and a list of jobs! It meant we could get straight in with the task, so dividing up into groups we started

• Assembling and checking cribs

• Checking travel cots

• Helping in the stock room

This was one of the tasks where we had to use brain power as well as our muscles, but after about 40 minutes of work there was a wide range of different cots to show for our efforts, many travel cribs had been checked and even a spot of sweeping had been done. Great effort everybody. We were so engrossed with the task that it sadly (?) meant we had to forgo our fitness session, but with a 3km run back we still got in a good workout. Double session next week!

Speaking of next week, we have not one but two tasks on offer. Check this out, choose your preferred task and sign up! Both are shorter runs, so plenty of time for that fitness session...

Great work last night gang and many happy returns GoodGym. Thanks for every run you've done to make our city a better, kinder, fitter place.

After a drizzly old day in Wandsworth, it was great to see GoodGym runners bringing the cheer to our Monday group run last night!

• It was the first group run for Beth, Rob, Ellen and Ariane - give them a cheer for being ace!

• On 21st September we are having GoodGym's first ever #SuperSaturday! We will be attempting to have the biggest number of community missions happening across the UK than ever before. There will be a mission going on in every area, and in Wandsworth we will be going to help create a learning space at a Tooting School. You can sign up here to get involved.

After a warm up where we did some coordination and heart raising exercises, we set off for the Kambala estate to do various jobs for the Kambala Cares. This great project is run by residents to improve the life for local people, has strong links in the community and supports local businesses, charitable organisations and community projects to benefit and people in the area. They are a non-profit organisation, run solely by volunteers, and led by Donna who met us after a 2km run with various jobs to do.

While Hanna's team got involved sorting the plants in the secret garden and were soon surrounded by wafts of lavender from the herb beds, the second team were hard at work sweeping and litter picking in the streets around the estate - a slightly less fragrant task given the dog poop - while the third group got stuck into weeding the raised beds. As well as lots of weeds and rubbish, they also discovered other treasure, including a whole bike wheel!

After 40 minutes of hard work we downed tools and headed over to the local park to do fitness. In the spirit of some much needed democracy at the moment, we took a vote between a speed and pace session or a core blast. It was abs that one (just) so we got straight on with sets of 45 seconds ab exercises with a 15 second break in between them, and finishing off with a plank minute. It was hard work, but given how much a strong core benefits your running form and protects against injuries, is an important part of our training. Great effort everybody!

Next week we have a special run as part of the UK wide celebrations for GoodGym's 10th birthday. We've got a great task at a Balham based charity building cots for disadvantaged families, then we'll be having a social after the run. Go on, sign up here to do good and have even more fun than usual!