The second Parkrun race of the "Parkrun on Tour: South London edition" brought 10 GoodGymers to Brockwell Park to run this one and a half hilly race.

There was a high presence from GoodGym Lambeth and GoodGym Hammersmith & Fulham as we all meet before the run began.

Once we had our briefing and made our way to the start line, we all set off at our own pace. Here are the results:

1. Sam (75th - 23:45)
2. Matt (94th - 24:41)
3. Helen (98th - 24:47)
4. Katy (144th - 26:39)
5. Jonathan (174th - 28:13)
6. Katie (182nd - 28:46)
7. Chris (194th - 29:25)
8. Hannah (234th - 31:51)
9. Stephen (235th - 31:51)
10. Dave (250th - 34:31)

Great running from everyone on a sunny Saturday! As customary, we got in a group photo too.

After a parkrun, the best part is getting a coffee (and pastry). Making our way to Herne Hill for a coffee before making our way back to Brockwell to sit, chat and drink our coffees. We even had an innocent looking dog come and say more than "Hello". 👀🐕

10 Brave souls met at Papa's last night for one of Lambeth's longer and more challenging runs... The route starts out through crowded Brixton dodging pedestrians, partygoers and people desperate to get home after work, then we zoom over seemingly never ending traffic and pedestrian crossings until we are free and on Effra Road.

Before setting out we found out what everyone wanted to do for a living when they were a child and Adam (aka Godzilla) led out the group with Sam setting a brisk pace. We had meteorologists, investment bankers, teachers and of course mutant lizards in the group and for those who didn't make their dream job happen yet - Chris sagely pointed out there is still time!

Tulse Hill is a lovely place, full of wonderful people and amazing things to do in your spare time, it also has a long - slow - quad burning hill which the group dealt with in quick fashion, the front runners taking a little pause to catch their breath and wait for the poor AA who was bringing up the rear.... I mean acting as back marker (ahem). 😁

Down the other side of the hill we went, a few zigs and zags round the back streets and we were at Access Self Storage to meet Andrea and hear about the gentleman (spy??) who had donated 10+ years' worth of books to GROAD which we had to sort into neat boxes. 🌂 💾

There were books on just about every topic you could imagine but with a strong focus on politics, diplomacy and lots of interesting looking briefing papers.... (James is that you?) 💀

The group packed and stacked furiously all while checking the various covers and sharing thoughts on the topic or the person who might want to read about it. 20 or so boxes later and time was up but with literally thousands of books to get through this task will have to Continue Another Day (😉)

We were out of Access like a shot just after 8pm and speeding our way up the short hill, down the long one and home to base.

Special mention to Sarah and to Tilly who stayed to keep me company and chat at the back until we reached Papa's!

Pun credited to: Michael

This wasn't your usual GoodGym Lambeth group run. For starters, we had it lucky tonight with a two for Tuesday's in terms of tasks. Both Slade Adventure Playground and The Remakery needed our help tonight, but more on that later. Yet, the other unusual observation was the Group Run leader tonight looked different. Firstly, Yianny had a cast on his lower right leg, but that wasn't it. Related to that fact, Sam, the Area Activator from GoodGym Southwark was here to lead! (Wait for applause and cheering). It seems like the borough border control lets anyone through on a Tuesday night.... 🙄

Yianny was there for the start of the Group Run to deliver the introductions as 12 GoodGymers (which was a great split in terms of numbers) came out in full force. After a bitterly cold week last week, it was a pleasant change to have mild winds in our favour. However, most of us didn't get the memo and wrapped up to be warmer than a Polar Bear in the Caribbean. After a quick warm up and the ice-breaker question of - Tomorrow is the 1st of December, if you were to have any type of advent calendar, what would yours consist of?

Amongst the 12 answers, we had chilli sauces, sweets (Moams), biscuits, cheeses, coffee, tea bags and save the best for last, a different song every day....songs can last more than a day,!

---

Short Run or Long Run

Since we had two tasks that were fairly close to each other and both within less than 2k away, Sam decided to ensure the run to Slade Adventure Playground would have a massive detour and end up being 2.4k each way against a straight route Aislin was going to take to The Remakery, which was 1.6k away. Everyone had to make their choice and in the end, in turned out that all of the women - Aislin, Rebecca, Shauna, Gayle and Katy (and Michael) wanted to take the shorter run to The Remarkery whilst the guys - Sam, George, Michael, Chris, Nathan and Joao took the loopy route via Clapham North station (an out and back detour) to Slade Adventure Playground at a fast pace! 🏃

---

Such a sh*tty job

Actually, the task was quite lovely! The guys arrived at Slade Adventure Playground just after 19:25 to meet Jamie and we went straight into the task. He kindly turned on the floodlights so that we could see what we were doing, yet the portable floodlights we had came in handy for the final destination. But what were we transporting to the final destination?

It comes from Lansdowne Way, which is nearby - Jamie

Jamie said that to Sam when he asked about what we were dealing with tonight and thought there's no City Farm near here....where did this truck load of 💩 come from?

There's a local horse stables on Lansdowne Way - Jamie

Great to know that it wasn't the 💩 of the residents of Lansdowne Way....yet, we had the task of moving under a tonne worth of manure from the middle of the playground nearer to the community garden and the beds. Armed with four wheelbarrows and four shovels, we all got into a rhyme and a system of filling the wheelbarrows, walking/jogging over to the destination to pour the steamy 💩.

Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow, we saw the pile of 💩 get smaller and smaller. It was a full body workout - core and definitely, the upper body (shoulders and back).

We're running out of steam - Chris

Yes, Chris, as the steam came out of the warm 💩, we were feeling the strain on our bodies. Before we knew it, the time was approaching 20:00. Yet, after scooping the last bit of powdery 💩, Sam transported the last wheelbarrow to be dumped on the new pile we had created. There was no time for the top soil to be moved, however, Jamie said it would be a task for his volunteers (60+ age group) on Saturday. We wish them well!

---

Wood I?

I certainly would 😉 Don't know what I am talking about here, but most things in life, I would. Anyway, Aislin, Rebecca, Shauna, Gayle and Katy (and Michael) arrived at The Remakery to be given the task of moving woodchip. Another strength and conditioning task that required them to shovel woodchip into wheelbarrows and transport/spreading them onto the beds that were in The Remakery's garden. They did remind the group that on Thursday night, they need our assitance with setting up their Art Studio. You can find and sign up to the task here.

Thank You Slade Adventure Playground and The Remakery

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owners and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Slade Adventure Playground and The Remakery for agreeing to stay later than usual and for hosting us. They will have GoodGym Lambeth back to help them!

Six brave GoodGymers braced the bitterly cold winds coming from the North Pole (it seemed).

Simon and the Thorlands gang began the session announcing that they had won "Best Resident Garden 2021" in the latest Edible Rotherhithe Awards. The £150 that comes with the prize will go a long way in developing the garden further.

We were back at the Forest and Kitchen garden to do more clearing. It is the time of the year where leaves natural fall, so everyone had the task to rake some leaves whether it was with a rake, shovel or with their hands. The leaf and green pile is growing to create a mulch in the future.

Yet, we all had individual tasks:

Chris had the privilege to use the bow saw to take down the stump by the fence....to make it into a trip hazard 😂 before moving his expertise to raking and clearing in the Kitchen garden.

Nathan loves his hoe...the tool...as he continued to tackle the roots in the Forest garden.

Lucie was the main rake-ist, but towards the end of the session she helped Lindy with chopping up the brambles.

Lindy helped with a variety of tasks - raking with her hands, clearing the roots near the kitchen garden and chopping up the brambles in the forest garden.

Claire coming back for her second good deed in a row! Well done and welcome back! She concentrated on clearing the kitchen garden area to prepare it for the cupboard, straw and woodchip setup we had done weeks ago for the mushroom workshop.

Sam started off with harvesting another row of the Jerusalem artichokes (fartichokes) before helping with some raking and chopping up some brambles...yet, he had to leave early for another task.

There's still plenty to be done, but Simon will always find tasks for us to do to ensure the Thorlands Garden vision remains in good stead.

Thank you all for coming out today and embracing the cold weather we had! You're all troopers and I hope you have an awesome weekend! You deserve it!