Six GoodGymers from GG Lambeth and Southwark met at St. Faith's Community Centre to assist the GROAD (Get Rid Of And Donate) rough sleepers project.

Many of us came from work or rushed from home after finishing work, so we started slightly later. Yet, within the 45-50 minutes, we packed a dozen or so rough sleeper bags and organised all the other essentials (sleeping bags, duvets, pillows and towels) into bigger bags.

Andrea will pick up the bags in the morning to distribute with GG Westminster on Tuesday night on the Strand.

Tonight was about shifting, wheeling, spreading and weeding but before we get to that we need to know how we got there. 😁

A bumper group of 13 signed up for this evening's run so what better way to welcome some fresh faces as well as some seasoned ones (welcome back Hannah!) than with a game of Top Trumps?? The category was wild animals of Africa and it turns out that TT has changed somewhat 'since I were a lad' in that it is a quiz rather than which animal could eat the others or which weighed more (more's the pity as I drew the Hippo). Anyway we learned that hippos can't swim, warthogs don't live in trees and storks can't really fly!! 🦁

A quick warm up in the Papa's playground saw a few folks mixing up left and right (don't ask our runners for directions) but we made it through and were off for the short 1.5km trip to Loughborough Farm. Michael as ever there to help out as back marker for us tonight. 🏃

We were met by Mohammed and Heather who would each lead a group to the Orchard and Styles Gardens respectively, the former had to shift a huge pile of woodchip and spread it on the paths and do some weed chopping, while the latter were pulling weeds and clearing debris and litter (while playing hop scotch over the slugs)! 🤸

40 minutes later Heather and Mohammed were delighted with our efforts and both areas were looking much improved. Joao got a great arm workout with the wheelbarrows! 💪

A pacey 1.5kms and we were back to base for a cool down and off home.

Keep your eyes on the socials over the next week as we have some great footage from tonight going up - big thanks to Maya for this! 🎥 🎬

Tonight's task was a great one, clearing out the huge planter bed at the top of Brixton Hill so that Lambeth Council can lay down a wildlife protective mesh. It was physical and fun and here's how it went down!

The group gathered as usual at Papa's with a view to getting away early given the size of our task and it was a sizeable group to boot which was great. We also had the pleasure of welcoming Daisy to the group as a new runner in London for just a week and already getting stuck in getting fit by doing good.

The AA selected a seemingly inconspicuous category for the intros tonight which caused mayhem as people desperately tried to remember their favourite movie or tv them song! Shout outs to Eastenders, Crimewatch (!) and Adam's vote of Earthworm Jim.

We set off for the straight shot up Brixton Hill for a nice pacey 2.5kms, led out by Frances who had the afterburners attached to her trainers, a nice run for those wanting to push the pace but also great for those building up their cardio fitness.

Once there we met Jason from Lambeth Council who talked us through the mammoth task and wondered whether it would even be possible to shift that much soil, rubble, stones, litter and tree roots..... Lambethh GG's response: "Yes we CAN!" The group collected green waste bags, shovels, 1 pitchfork and a broom and headed back to shift tonnes of soil (and other debris).

The main highlights of the next 40 mins were the battles for Lucy, Sarah, Emily and Gayle with tree roots (they lost - see pics) and local residents passing by shouting their support and even stopping to ask about GoodGym and how to get involved #winning Thanks to Super Sam for back marking both ways this evening.

This is only part one of the task with us back this evening to move the soil back into place once the work has been carried out, but all round a really satisfying evening's work and well done to everyone !!

Light nights in Lambeth town - it's Tuesday's Group run in Spring time !!

10 runners gathered at Papa's, our base in Brixton, for tonight's task and we were greeted with families and their children playing in the playground! Now that it is still light out it has a completely different feel heading out to evening tasks so we are looking forward to slightly higher temperatures to go with it.

Before the warm up we found out that tonight's group had quite eclectic tastes in cuisine with favourites including East Asian fare from Thailand, Korea & Japan, South Asian from India and environs, African from Ethiopia/Eritrea (an AA fave), Middle Eastern - Kurdish and European in the form of Italian. Sorry France you weren't invited....

It is a short run down to the Grantham Road surgery to meet Jonathan so we arrived early but luckily Maya had invited Liz a newbie GGer who happens to be a physical trainer. 8 agonising minutes later we were questioning our life choices but were certainly a bit fitter after calisthenics in the Car Park! (Thanks Liz!)

Jonathan took us round to Swan Mews where we were greeted by several huge platers and the task was to empty one of its' soil into a one tonne bag (filled + a wheelbarrow extra for good measure) and break apart an older planter to be recycled (challenge gleefully accepted with no tools - and a decent job done). Check out the pics and please note that Shauna did actually have a bit of help ;0)

Back to Papa's with us then and warm down time which saw a couple of local children also join in the fun!

Thanks to all!!