On what what a really really miserable evening, well done for getting yourselves out and into the rain, I'd normally say I don't know what all the fuss was about, it's only a little bit of rain...it wasn't, it was horrendous running conditions!

The highlight of upcoming Community Missions was discussed in great detail at the start, tree and hedge planting at Surrey Docks Farm. Not only do you get to see all the cute animals and do some good planting trees and hedges but you also get a qualification at the end. A qualification in tree and hedge planting! Saturday 10am at Surrey Docks Farm - I can't wait to hear all about it from those that attend.

As a group we voted to have the head count indoors and run straight from Glassmill to the task to avoid time spent in the rain.

The task tonight was to run to Crofton Books without getting absolutely soaked which we failed miserably because we all arrived rather drenched. The real tasks of the evening were:

• Reorganising the modern classics section that was completely out of order
• Categorising a set of books into theme/topic
• Organising the bookshop
• Moving books into sacks that will be sorted through and decided whether they stay in the bookshop
• Moving some heavy items (I'm not entirely sure what they were)
• Writing new themes for sections in the library

There were a lot of tasks to be getting stuck into and a lot of organising going on, and book buying (maybe that was just me). Before I knew it, there was 5 minutes to go and the reorganising of the modern classics had nearly made it to the end of the alphabet. We couldn't leave without completing that so in the meantime I gathered/dragged everyone together and away from the books for a group photo.

We began to make our way back to Glassmill, in the quickest route possible to avoid time spent in the rain. After a quick stretch and discussion about next weeks task, which is being led by Conroy.

Thanks Chloe for backmarking on the way there and Stephen on the way back.

Welcome to those running their first group run with us last night, I hope you enjoyed yourselves!

A super quick warm up (off the grass as it was pretty muddy) and we were on our way to GRACE. It's a pretty busy road that we follow the whole way there so not exactly picturesque but we kept together as a group with Ian doing an excellent job of backmarking.

We arriving at GRACE, picking up a couple of extra goodgymmers that had met us at the task.

Season's Sortings

The task for this evening was to sort the winter clothes (that had already been sorted once, so I wasn't expecting any of the usual random finds) into categories of: mens, womens, girls and boys and then sort further into sizes.

Once the sorted sorted clothes were in their crates, we needed to bag them up and label them. There was an excellent labeling system going on, making it all very streamlined.

I couldn't resist putting on some plastic gloves myself and joining in the sorting.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Ski-suit

Winter was done and all in the correct bags ready to be shipped, we can forget about winter now, it's gone. Time to move onto summer!!

We made a start on the sorted cage of summer clothes with only 10 minutes left, we didn't quite make it through the entire cage but we gave it a good start.

No one seemed to want to stop so I had to announce that whatever you're holding....you have to wear. No, don't worry, just had to get it into its correct pile and be in position for the group photo.

We began to make our way back to Glassmill and at that point I realised Emma wasn't with us and I was sure I was the last person to leave GRACE. Turns out she wasn't spending the night sorting clothes, she'd just got the bus home.

A quick stretch in the warmth of Glassmill and working out just how short of a run next weeks task is, it was time for one more document check (4 in one evening, got to be a record)!

If you'd like to take part in missions that require a DBS check or you'd like to start coach running, please bring your ID documents to a group run so that I can check them.

A very warm welcome to our first-timers this evening, Michael, Sophie and Nick. It was lovely to have you all with us, and we hope to see you again soon! A warm welcome too to Julian who joined us this evening from Greenwich.

We had a slightly different task lined up for us this evening, with a spot of plogging around Lewisham to tidy up our local streets and green spaces. It soon became apparent that the slow pace of plogging was no match for a cold dark evening in February, so everyone formed pairs for some impromptu...

• Sprinting and press ups
• Sprinting and squats
• Sprinting and lunges
• And just plain sprinting!

"Something fruity in the park..." I'll say anything to make speedwork sound fun!

Despite Lewisham looking relatively tidy this evening, we still managed to collect up an impressive 5 bin bags of litter in a little over an hour, great work everyone! Today's top find had to be the crisp £10 note found by Michael! And a big thanks to Chloe for sweeping up as backmarker this evening.

Check out the link for next week's group run and task here; it will be a much warmer affair helping out at GRACE in Lee. See you there!

A huge well done for everyone braving the rain last night and it had luckily stopped by the time we were due to set off! We had a quick round up of Lewisham news (Cross Country, 10k races and January Challenge) but mainly every seems to be off out on long runs in preparation for the Big Half in March.

An uphill run over to the task and we arrived at Chelwood Nursery to be treated to bananas, kit kats and hot drinks (and Amber, Nykolette, Stephen and Jacqueline keeping warm in one of the classrooms).

There were a selection of tasks to be completed:

• untangling a beaded curtain which Amber turned out to be very very good at, there was a little bit to do when it was time to leave but they could still be there now as they were determined to finish it!
• removing cable ties from the fence
• sweeping the sand away from the drain
• carrying 30 bags of (Irish) compost from car to school
• stapling the membrane to the newly built planters
• filling the planters with compost
• planting the herbs that had been donated

After refueling and dividing all the tasks depending on preference and who was feeling strong to go back and forth with the huge bags of compost, everyone got stuck in.

From what I could hear the stapling was rather a fun task and possibly more stapling went on than necessary because it was so fun. Better to be more stapled than less stapled!

Before I knew it, I was giving 10 min warning and it was lovely to see the difference in all the tasks that were going on. The planters were looking amazing and the stray soil was being sweeped up so it was ready for the teachers and children arriving Tuesday morning to began planting more herbs and plants in the remaining planters.

After checking no tools had been left in the planters by accident, especially the sharp tools and all counted back in, it was time for a group photo which I'm not going to lie, took a bit of coordinating (read: me eventually moving people into place)!

We had a downhill run back to Glassmill as a reward for the uphill run there, we arrived back at Glassmill ready for a stretch and chat about next weeks task.

We had a couple of tourists this evening from various areas, I hope you enjoyed yourselves in Lewisham and we look forward to seeing you again if you're ever in the area on a Monday evening!

It was great to see you all this evening! A very warm welcome to this week's newcomer Marie-Claire (or MC for short) - go and give her a cheer - we hope to see you back again soon! It was lovely to see Olivia and Rosemary again this evening, and we gave a well-deserved round of applause to Oli who is GoodGym Lewisham's latest Task Force member!

Think about it, there must be flyer love // Down in the heart or hidden in the letterbox above

It was an intro of two halves from me this week... very light on news and events, yet very detailed on flyering plans (thanks to Sarah for sharing the reminder about GoodGym's 10th birthday bash this Friday!). We waved off our walking groups who were off to get a head start on their flyering, then we had another crack at the Big Wave to warm up - I think we're getting pretty good at it!

Where's that flyer love I keep thinking of? // Worlds are turning and we're just posting on

Like a Pied Piper in reverse, we set off as a group to slog up Belmont Hill towards Blackheath, dropping off pairs of runners at their allotted roads as we went along, before it was just me and Oli running up and down flights of stairs in Prendergast Road. We covered an incredible area between us, flyering about 1,000 homes which will make a massive difference to attendance at Age Exchange's Christmas Fair. Imagine how long it might have taken just a couple of volunteers to achieve the amount we did in an hour this evening - amazing work!

Things look so bad everywhere // In this whole world, what is (Christmas) fair?

The grand flyering plan (fingers and toes crossed) was for everyone to reconvene outside the Lewisham Tavern at 8.15pm for the short run back to Glass Mill and a cool down. I really appreciate how punctual you all were, it certainly saved me a lot of worrying. And for those of you lucky folk who made it back early, I hope you enjoyed the wall sits!

I could rise above on a flyer love // I will wait for it // I'm not too late for it

For those of you who took a few flyers home with you to spread the word a little further - I've listed this community mission for you to sign up to, for a bonus good deed in exchange for your extra help!

I could light the night up with my headtorch on fire // I could make the sun shine from pure desire

As we spent the evening flyering for a Christmas Fair, here are a few other events to sign up for to get you in the festive spirit, including:

• GoodGym Lewisham's christmas social at Ninth Life in Catford

• next week's group run, and flyering round 2 for King's Christmas Trees

• a festive favourite putting up Christmas decorations at Seniors

• the best human chain you will ever be a part of, packing Christmas food parcels for Big Red Box

There's that love, bring me flyer love // Bring me a flyer love

Many thanks to Steve Winwood for this week's pun inspiration "Higher Love", released back in 1986. So much mileage in those cracking lyrics, I've had a marvellous time wringing tenuous puns out of them!

It turns out GoodGym Lewisham are creatures of habit... meeting on the other side of the foyer due to half-term activities threw quite a few of you off! We welcomed two new runners this evening - go and give Aruna and Susie a cheer!

I popped along to GoodGym Leeds last week and was inspired by their warm-up activity, so decided to give the Big Wave a try, which seemed to go fairly well. Let's keep practicing!

Feeling sufficiently warm, we set off on a roundabout route to this evening's task. Even the long way round was less than a kilometer, but it turned out to be just long enough to arrive at just about the same time as our walking group.

A-bra-cadabra!

John greeted us with a very warm welcome, and gave us a helpful overview of the work that St Christopher's does in the local community. Their new shop has only been open for three weeks, so there was plenty still to do to continue getting them set up, including: getting mountains of clothes hung up ready to be priced, sorting racks of empty hangers into size order, and making sure all the bras were labelled with the right chest size.

Size matters.

John was extremely chuffed with what we achieved, reckoning that we'd tackled about a week's worth of hanging in less than an hour. Special mention has to go to Darryl for modelling the outfit of the evening - a pair of disco trousers and matching halterneck top! I imagine there's a few of us who might be back to hunt that one down (...or maybe just me!).

Many hands sort light shirts (and dark!).

After a short run back to Glass Mill, there was only one way to use up the spare time and energy - with a time trial! Thanks to everyone for participating and cheering with such enthusiasm, you did yourselves proud!

Thanks to Clare and Oli for this week's puns, Jacqueline for walk-leading, and to Rebecca and Oliver for back-marking!

See you next week for a spot of flyering for Age Exchange's Christmas Fair - sign up here.

It was another rainy Monday evening in Lewisham and a smaller than normal group of Lewisham’s finest arrived in the foyer of Glassmill ready for an evening of doing good!

It was a quiet weekend for news apart from a birthday parkrun and a community mission at Crofton Books, putting up the bunting reading for Croft Fest.

We headed outside into the rain and played a game of “everybody’s it” (after some interesting explaining of how the game worked - I promise these make sense in my head) involving squats and starjumps. Then it was off to Crofton Books, following virtually the same route as last week’s group run to Beecroft. Thanks for backmarking Chloe!

Once we arrived at Crofton Books, Jason began explaining the tasks that needing completing and wheeled out a suitcase and boxes full of books (full of classics) to be sorted and priced.

The tasks for the evening:

• cleaning the shelves of the bookshop
• organising various sections in the bookshop
• clearing/raking outside
• sorting and pricing the boxes of books
• saving/sorting/separating some books that had been water damaged from a leak in the ceiling
• organising Jason’s secret area of books/office area

It’s always a lovely task that everyone can get stuck into and there’s always lots of chatter.

As always some classic books were found including the Good Housekeeping Guide to Easy Entertaining in which everything looking slightly undercooked in the pictures and a bargain to cook. And a book on dogs which was given to me to find the animal section which I’m afraid I never did find!

It was time for a tough decision - extra time getting the tasks done or hill repeats in the rain....hill repeats was the clear winner!! I joke, everyone suddenly had lots of jobs to complete!

It was time to round everyone up and get in place for a group photo, after multiple group photos with multiple phones, we headed out of Crofton Books into some misty rain!

With nearly everyone except 5 of us peeling off to go home on our way back to Glassmill and me hitting my elbow on a bin and Martin falling over a bench (just as we were saying how these benches are so hidden), we finally made it back to Glassmill to stretch and near enough of one piece even if down on numbers.

Big thanks to Sarah for bringing the lovely cookies, they were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone!

This evening there is a community mission at GRACE, sorting clothes as they have a large shipment that needs sorting to be sent out. I can’t wait to hear what delightful (or undelightful) things you find in the donated bags!

Pat yourselves on the back for being part of such a big group of happy runners this evening - it was fantastic to see so many smiling faces turn up in spite of this evening's questionable weather! And a massive welcome to our veritable troop of first time runners - go and give them all a cheer - Luke, Claire, Polly, Raya and Katie (who gets an extra special mention for being dragged along for an evening of being told what to do by her big sister - which sounds a lot like most of our childhood!).

When we finally arrived at Chelwood Nursery (after only a mild diversion - thanks for backmarking this evening and keeping us all together Chloe), we achieved a huge amount this evening, even in the playground's gloomy conditions...

What's long, brown and sticky?

An entire hazelnut tree was felled (before the nuts have chance to grow, avoiding unwanted allergic reactions in the playground), chopped up into bits, stripped of leaves, and the resulting sticks were sorted into varying size categories ready to be used for... den-making! Just think of the hours of fun you've all contributed to in preparing den-making equipment (and the hours of fun you probably had making dens back when you were younger)!

They call it Nutbush city limits

Another hardy group ventured round the back of Chelwood's swanky new building to clear up some of the remaining building materials. It was tough work moving lots of heavy planks and shovelling rubble in the dark (it did look a bit like prison camp back there), but totally worth it to discover the nursery's long-lost story-telling penguin - on top of the den-making and the teeny tiny rakes, this evening's cute levels were off the scale.

Can you twig it?!

That's not even the end of it! An extensive weeding campaign was carried out, with Chloe, Martin and Sarah (who did her 50th good deed this evening, hoorah - more cheers needed please!) delicately foraging for weeds in between the strawberry and pumpkin plants (check the size of that pumpkin!). Tom did a sterling job watering the bamboo plants (yes, even in the rain), whilst Laura and Polly hunted down escaped smooth pebbles using only their sense of touch (like dolphins apparently, which are known for their highly developed sense of touch due to the nerve endings in their skin - who knew!).

"We're like dolphins!" - Polly

Fuelled by bananas, we set off back to Glass Mill taking the "scenic" route via a sprint up Hilly Fields (it would be rude not to!). Thanks to keeping us together. Don't forget to check out this Saturday's community mission planting bulbs at St Mary's Primary School in Lewisham, and get yourself signed up for next week's fizz and cake bonanza to celebrate adding the finishing touches to the Sensory Garden at Beecroft Garden Primary School.

Happy running!

P.S. Please excuse the really dark photos! 😬 P.P.S Thanks for the puns Oli!

Let’s start off with Lewisham news (partly in case you didn’t hear me over whatever was going on in Glassmill), there was so much of it, we had:

• GoodGym’s 10th Birthday Party at City Hall which was a wonderful evening of different areas being all together alongside community groups that we support - there may have been a few tears during the speeches.
• Hilly Fields Parkrun 7th birthday, the course was ran in reverse and to celebrate making it round the wrong way, there was cake at the end!
• Marsha Phoenix Relay at Hilly Fields which was raising money for a fantastic local cause, well done Tom/Oli/Jacqueline for taking part and Molly for being the best cheerer!
• Vic also came first at a Parkrun in Italy and had her own personal marshal - WELL DONE!

We started the evening with a quick photo outside Glassmill with the absolutely huge GoodGym flag, that done and a quick selfie so I didn’t miss out, it was time for Amber to run through a quick warm up as we needed to head off promptly to maximise the time we’d have at the task.

We arrived at Dalmain Primary School and split into two groups, the bigger group/people with head torches tackling the wildlife garden across the road and a smaller group cutting back the bushes in a wildlife garden in the main playground to make it easier for the children to walk along the path.

Everyone got stuck into the task and after a bit of running back and forth between the two groups, I went to check on the tyres we’d painted in the summer and they are still looking wonderful.

The group in the main playground also removed some weeds around the edges whilst I went to round up the other group, only to find they’d found an assortment of random objects: a pickaxe, a lightbulb, a babygrow and then the usual litter (there was probably more to add to that list).

Whilst the cuttings where being taken over to compost pile in the wildlife garden, it was up to me to run around the playground like a superhero with the flag.

Back to being run leader and we all got in position for a group photo except the light kept going off and then my phone wasn’t ready, after about 5 attempts we got it! Time for the downhill back to Glassmill and a stretch (thanks Amber).

Next week we are off to Chelwood Nursery and there's various community missions happening this weekend:

• Wildcat Wilderness Chilli Festival on Saturday (and you get lunch for all your hard work)
• Manor Gardens on Sunday

Well done running up those hills this evening, everyone did great!

Everyone began gathering in Glassmill ready for one of our favourite tasks over at Wildcat Wilderness, welcome to the new faces at Lewisham last night, hope you enjoyed your evening of doing good!

There were lots of Lewisham people out and about running at the weekend, from Parkrun to Thames Path to Great North Run - well done everyone!!

After a longer than normal run over to Wildcat Wilderness, we were greeted by Maria at the gate, she had a number of tasks lined up for us in preparation of the Chilli Festival on 21st September.

Adam and Florence began delivering flyers to the surrounding roads to raise awareness of the upcoming festival and Wildcat Wilderness.

The rest of us went through to the outdoor kitchen and orchard area (first picking up tools) to began cutting back the weeds and brambles that had regrown over the summer. There was weed bashing, bramble digging and cutting back of brambles/nettles along the path.

We had 10 min to go and half of the flyering team hadn’t returned yet after wondering what I was actually meant to do if I lost someone (probably text Adele in a panic), I located them and the rest of the group had begun putting their tools back.

It’s getting dark pretty quickly now and it felt especially so in Wildcat last night! We all made our way out in the dark as one group ready for the group photo.

Before we knew it, we were back at Glassmill after a sprint finish and ready to stretch, big thanks Amber for leading everyone through the stretches.

Don’t forget:

• GoodGym 10 year Celebrations at City Hall on Thursday (check recent GoodGym emails for details)
• Hilly Fields 7th birthday on Saturday and running the course in reverse
• Wildcat Wilderness Chilli Festival community mission on

Next week we are off the Dalmain Primary School, it’s a slightly longer run again but a really fun task that makes up for it.

All credit for the pun goes to Stephen