Another winter run, another sudden burst of water from the sky right when we were about to start running. SIGH. Never mind as it tailed off quickly and we were ready to get on with our task of helping the good people of Age UK, who have got a new 'Food 2 You' programme. This volunteer-led programme will help older people to do their weekly shop across Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. A great idea and very aligned with GoodGym's mission. We were helping to spread the word about this new service by putting up posters in local libraries and shops.

We split into four teams, one walking, one covering 3km, one 4km and one 5km. Each team also had some nice fitness challenges to carry out along the way. After an extended warm up we were off, spreading the word around Brixton, Clapham High Street and Stockwell. After some nice stretches on return, we finished off and went home happy.

Last night we had a round 50 superstar runners to help Lambeth celebrate FIVE YEARS of running to community groups and supporting isolated older people across the borough. We've had a cracking time of it and achieved so much, so a massive THANK YOU to every single person who has been part of our half decade!

John H led a lovely warm up, including the DANGER GAME where 50 people run at random around a dark space then say Hello to new people. It's quite the health and safety risk but surely worth if for all the nice new people we meet along the way.

We had options coming out of our ears this evening - some people chose to walk 1km to the Remakery led by Tom Benson; others chose to run that distance with Katie; some ran as far as Loughborough Farm with Steve, where they did a solid job of spreading woodchip across all the paths; yet more still went on a 4.5km long way round run to the Remakery led by George. Something for everyone, I think you would agree!

Massive thanks to GoodGym for record time scattering woodchip at Loughborough Farm! Said Karen

On arrival at the Remakery, Miguel had lots of moving and sorting for us to do. This fantastic space rescues stuff that would otherwise go to landfill and provides tools and training for people to make wonderful new bits of furniture and other useful things. We've been helping them for a few months as they have a bit of a spring clean and this evening was no different. The woodwork room got a big sweep and hoover, lots of big bits of furniture got taken out of the way and we moved the tool cupboard from A to B and filled it up with tools again. What a great job!

Back at the farm, Steve was leading a crack team of woodchip spreaders, who were also taking the time to pose for a Birthday Shoot on the woodchip pile - we think you'll agree Andy and David look wonderful.

And with that we were all back to base for a bit of fitness and some stretches then the main event: CAKE! Nicky and Phil are fundraising for their London marathon efforts and they had baked a lot of delicious things, as had Beth. We gave our pennies and our pounds and stocked up on delicious stuff. Everyone was a winner and it was a truly celebratory way to finish the evening. You too can sponsor the running duo by visiting their fundraising pages. Sponsor Nicky and Phil as a birthday present to Lambeth!

Here's to the next 5 years!

11 runners ran 3.5km to forage, weed and dig at Grove Park Allotments

It's Wednesday and you know what that means. Getting fit and doing some good with GoodGym Southwark!

A big old welcome to Debbie and Chris who came on their first ever GoodGym run last night. Give them a cheer!

News

• Tonight is the GoodGym wide social. This month it's on tour in South London woohoo! It's a great evening and a chance to meet some of the wider community. It's being hosted by GoodGym Bromley at the Bridge House by Penge West station. Sign up here!

• We're recruiting Taskforce! Taskforce are a group of volunteers at Southwark who help the area flourish - organising socials, being lovely and friendly on group runs, chipping into social media, promoting wider GoodGym activities. The role can be whatever you want it to be! You have to have done 10 good deeds minimum. If you're keen or want to find out more whizz me and email - lucyj@goodgym.org

• On May 27th I'm leading a long run from Battersea to Richmond. There'll be pizza at the end! To find out more and sign up to join us use this linl.

That's enough of the business!

Every weed and the kitchen sink!

11 of us set out for some running-specific dynamic warm ups on the green outside Old Spike Roastery and then set off up the hill to Grove Park Allotments. Liz at Grove Park knows us well so it's always lovely to see her. She split us into groups - foraging for nettles and wild garlic, weeding sticky willy (yes, that's the technical term!) and digging out fresh earth for the plots. The nettles were going into nettle quesadillas - apparently you treat them just like spinach! The wild garlic was delicious and we all ended up smelling rather strongly...

Five bags were filled by the industrious weeders who were instructed to remove the sticky willy and blue flowering weeds from a bed (but not too many because the bees just love them). Meanwhile the forages were hard at work and learning about the best places to pick nettles and wild garlic - see you in Ruskin Park at the weekend ;) - the diggers dug and two strong runners moved a vintage sink. The sink had to be gently rolled over to an area of plots that is used by asylum seekers in the area. After twenty five minutes of hoeing, weeding, digging, rolling and picking we gathered around for a bit of fitness- but not before finding out about a great spot in Ruskin Park for finding berries and musing on making our own Jam - GoodJam!

To warm up we jogged across the tennis courts by the allotments, getting progressively faster until we were really powering. And then we got ready to meet Sally.

'Who on earth is Sally?' You cry!

The Sally Squat challenge is done to a Moby song with the lyrics 'bring Sally up' and 'bring Sally down'. We last did this in February and the team really smashed it this time. We gave our legs a good shake out and set off back down the hill (phew!) to Old Spike for a stretch.

Great work team, we got loads done for Grove Park and there's lots of exciting projects happening there this summer that we can help with.

Next week we're at a community garden in Camberwell. It's a shiny new task hooray! Sign up here.

See you next week. Keep running happy!

Lucy