Wandsworth was on top form last night, spurred on at least in part with a task that featured JELLY BABIES and JAFFA CAKES.

But first, we had some fabulous new runners to welcome to the group – hello Chloe, Anna and Lorna! Wandsworth, give them a cheer.

Well done to Jo who sliced a tidy 30 seconds off her time on her third ever park run, and to Matthew and David who both reached that golden 50 milestone. Well done team! Hat tips also belong to Matthew Sarah and Sophie for covering the most miles this week.

Tonight’s task was a great new one at Allfarthing Primary School, and in a Wandsworth first, we even had the lovely head, Tom (ahem Mr Holmes) join us on the run to the school. It was great to have you along, sir! After Tom had told us a bit about the school, and we had done our weekly CoRUNdrum (Which seaside resort is closest to London?) we set off. With only one minor detour and a few squat stops, we arrived at the school to find the amazing PTA waiting for us with sweeties, chocolates and jaffa cakes. If we didn’t say it enough at the time, Allfarthing School, we are always happy to help out. Anytime. Seriously, just say the word.

The team split up into three groups – painting sheds in black and brown, clearing the fence of ivy, and running up and down stairs to transport bags to the bins. We were kept very well fuelled throughout the tasks – turns out a sugary high is great for our work ethic. It was a lovely place to help out, surrounded by beautiful playgrounds, a teletubby hill and a vast expanse of astroturf which we were allowed to borrow to do a quick fitness session. This included doing a Core Triathlon – three segments of ‘swimming’ planks, bicycle crunches and mountain climbers – followed by a set of sprints. Before we left for the run home, the PTA let us know that every Tuesday morning at 7:45 Allfarthing Running Club meets to take students on a local run, and very kindly invited us to join them. Drop me an email if you’d like more details.

With the Wandsworth playlist turned up high, we began the run back to the BAC. Feel free to add any songs to the list for our aural pleasure – you can find it here: https://open.spotify.com/user/monsieurbullfrog/playlist/1vkh31Mku1qkU3nPYkJLRm. After a nice push on that last hill, we had a good stretch with several people cracking the CoRUNdrum, knowing that Southend on Sea is the closest resort to London. Thanks to Vicki who sent us that one all the way from Oz! Thanks also to Jen for the ace pun this week. Keep 'em coming! Don’t forget if the London Marathon inspired you yesterday that the ballot opens on May 2nd – get in there quick. We have the GoodGym Olympics on June 10th – entry is now live so make sure you sign up here!. Wandsworth FTW!

Next week is bank holiday but we will be running because doing good don’t stop. Of course we’ll celebrate with a couple of drinks afterwards, as all work and no play makes for sad Wandsworthians. You can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/a-spot-of-doing-good

On a gorgeous golden evening, twelve pacey Peckhamites pushed through Rye Lane to get to the Surrey Docks Farm, for some sh*t shovelling, apple picking, leaf lopping, pig feeding fun. A total of almost 12km were run (yes, 12!) and we all left happy, safe in the knowledge that no animals were harmed in the making of this run report.

A very big thank you to Beth, for tonight's Old MacGoodGymtastic pun

As regular Southwark trainer Jo was away this evening, I popped over from Lewisham to have some fun with some stalwart regulars and some eager first-timers - hello and hi-five to all of you ( I won't name names here because I kind of lost track of who was new and who wasn't, sorry!). Thank you to Beth, who was the key-holder tonight and let us all in, so we could enjoy the smell of coffee and leave our belongings safely during our run. Once we had all assembled, it was time to run through a few introductions, go through the evening ahead and chat about coach running and missions (and maybe mention a little relay race this weekend, that is set to rival the Olympic Games themselves!).

Before long, we were ready to warm ourselves up before what would be a pretty long run. Some name-checking (and double-checking, using not a ball, but a 'thingie', fashioned out of a handy buff, GoodGym trainers are resourceful folk you know). We checked our form with a few drills (walking high-knees, fast high-knees and so on, you know the kind of thing, made to give you super strong cores, light landing and that all important powerful sprint finish).

Lead the way!

As this is not my usual area, but I do sometimes dip in and out of here on my bike or long runs, I am sort of familiar with the area, to a point. Thankfully I had Michael to reinforce my belief in my carefully learned directions and we took the lead together towards Surrey Docks Farm. Well, I say 'together', he is FAST! 'Come back!' I shouted, 'Slow down!', 'Steady!'. With Beth kindly offering to back-mark, we knew that nobody would be left behind, but made sure we regrouped every so often and kept a regular head-count going to ensure nobody ended up going the wrong way down the Old Kent Road, urgh!

You know you're approaching the farm because you can smell it before you see it. I say this in the nicest possible way: after last night's rain and due to the pruning and weeding that was going on, the air was fresh and country-like, right here, in the heart of our city. We were greeted by Gemma, who had already set out our tools, wheelbarrows and various containers. She quickly directed people to tasks: lopping back the stray branches overhanging the fence to the orchard, crouching down amongst the trees, picking up fallen apples, some of which would be used to make chutney (mmmm) and some would be fed to the pigs (more of that later). Alongside the orchard was a pile of sacks...containing well-rotted manure, sh*it basically. This didn't deter an intrepid few, who got stuck straight in, re-bagging, tying and relocating the sacks, using a combination of wheelbarrows and sheer might.

So little time!

Sadly, as our run was quite a long one, we had a quite short amount of time at the task; we would love to have stayed longer, but had to get back. Some last minute shifting, shovelling and grabbing was done. This anxious trainer did the rounds, counting down, promising an opportunity to meet the piglets and reminding the volunteers that we still had to get back to our start point. Combining a number of final activities, we wheeled greenery to the compost heap and carried crates of less-than-perfect apples to the pig pens. The pigs!

Last time GGSouthwark visited, Esther, the sow, was about to give birth. Since then she has had fourteen piglets! After we had admired the rasta sheep, given a nod to the donkeys and stroked the resident cat, we got busy chucking the apples at the pigs (this is allowed, they love it). Out they wandered, one by beautiful one. Tiny ones, pink ones, spotty ones, bigger ones and proud mum Esther, popping out to see what the commotion was about, giving a tired snort whilst snuffling a few apples to herself. What a wonderful treat to finish off a rewarding task.

It was such a shame to hurry people along, but we definitely did have to get going. I really hope people go along one weekend and spend some time enjoying the farm, there's so much to see (a personal favourite is the snoring goat...and the cafe, obviously).

Ee-ay-ee-ay-oh!

At this point there was the option to catch the train back or make it an 11k run. All but one ran both there and back (one challenged knee taking the overground option). A couple of people peeled off en route, heading homewards, but the rest of us kept up what was a pretty speedy pace, this time choosing a more scenic route along the old canal path, over the busy and polluted main roads. All sorts of chatter could be heard on this leg, sculpture, ultra running, half-marathon aspirations, but our conversation was suddenly interrupted by one of our party legging it after the ice cream van, which pulled over. Seriously, if this was nearer our start point we would all have been up there, stocking up on 99s and bubblegum ice lollies! (Whams, do they still sell Wham Bars? we wondered...).

We continued our run, ice cream fantasies pushed to the back of our minds, dodging in between the pedestrians on the still busy main stretch of Peckam, to our start point and a whole load of stretching. Thank you Southwark for having me, it was a real pleasure running with you!

Adele x

8 runners, 2 teams, 6km(ish) a piece, a borough to explore and prizes to be won.

Tonight's GG Southwark run and deed was a bit different to normal. A last minute change on task and need to make sure we put our efforts into something worthwhile led to something quite fun! We also welcomed Vivian to her first ever GoodGym experience and GG Lambeth coach runner/photographer/old timer John. Hiya!

Back to the task at hand...

Link Age Southwark are getting ready to launch their Autumn campaign for recruiting volunteers to support the services they provide. They need to put up posters in the best locations around the different parts of Southwark.

Two teams...

both alike in dignity,

...were given three checkpoints to reach each spread 6km across either Nunhead or Dulwich. Not only were decent poster sites required, but they also had a variety of other tasks to achieve. The more tasks ticked off, the more prizes!

The not-so-random acts of kindness included rubbish collecting and even helping someone with the mechanics of their car. Though it's possible this may have been staged for the photographic evidence.

The best team pose was a hard one to call though the sunset and London backdrop for the Nunhead team did swing it. But strong lunging from team Dulwich.

We covered up some shabby stickers, posed beneath road signs, hugged lampposts, hugged fake foxes, told people about GoodGym, gave them a flyer and asked them very kindly for pictures of the event.

time of the signs

Both teams found some excellent locations for posters within the local community. They were all duly and appropriately rewarded with love hearts.

Map reading was required throughout the evening and there may have been a few wrong turns along the way resulting in further running ... More fitness! But everyone made it back to the Rye for photo sharing, story telling and prize giving.

Not done with traversing the borough, we had a mini body weight exercise session. A few 'I hate press ups,' 'what are these things, mountain climbers?' and 'can we go to the pub?' requests and we were done. We have photos to prove it.

Never before has a cool down seen so many chocolate rolls, jelly tots and Freddos devoured. #balance

See you next week!