Southwark News

• Big Half community places! Normal price is £46 but we have 15 community spaces eft going for an absolute bargain of a tenner. The route is the first half of the London Marathon... but backwards... It's a great race and our community places close at the end of August so contact me lucyj@goodgym.org for info.

• This Saturday 20th July there's a community mission happening to mulch and water some saplings in Hilly Fields park. It's at 11am so perfect for post-parkrun fun! Find out more and sign up here.

• Sunday 21st July is the London 10k and GoodGym is manning an aid station. Come along to earn yourself some stash and a free place at either Hackney Half, Oxford Half or London 10k next year. Plus it's really fun! Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week I'm away so Dom will be your fearless leader! The run is 6k overall to Camberwell Salvation Army. Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night 12 runners ran 2km to paint the playground at Rye Oak Primary School.

We took a little loop of Peckham Rye to get to the school where we were met by Ruth the headmistress. As with all schools, their budget is ever-shrinking and they needed some help brightening the place up. The playground is already mostly painted with different habitats designed by the children - Savannah, Under the Sea, North & South Poles and more!

Shout out to Constanze and Ben who came on their first GoodGym run last night!

Our tasks: paint a huge concrete bench blue for waves, a concrete object green for a leaf, finish the icebergs on the wall and paint some benches with the school colour - purple!

We got so much done in 45 minutes and the playground looked so much brighter already. I can't wait to hear the children's reaction! Ruth was delighted with our help. On the way home, we stopped for a round of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Cone. Excellently played all around, we've got some seriously sharp reactions! Back to Old Spike and with rain threatening, we switched the planned picnic for a visit to Peckham Levels. Delicious!

Great work everyone, see you in two weeks!

Lucy J

Southwark News

• Big Half community places! Normal price is £46 but we have 30 community spaces going for an absolute bargain of a tenner. The route is the first half of the London Marathon... but backwards... It's a great race and our community places close at the end of August so contact me lucyj@goodgym.org for info.

• THIS SATURDAY the lovely folks at GoodGym Lambeth are doing Clapham Common parkrun followed by a community mission to set up Stockwell Festival - get your weekend fix of good! Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week we're running to Southwark Tigers to spruce up their benches. Find out more and sign up here.

• 21st July GoodGym is manning an aid station at the Asics London 10k. You get some swag, it's a super fun day and you get free entry to either Hackney Half, Oxford Half or the next London 10k for volunteering. Bargain! Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night was a gorgeous evening and after a warm up that featured a cameo from a passing child who wanted to join in, we got running the 3km up through Dulwich Park to Bell House. It's a gorgeous Georgian House that now houses an educational charity. It's got stunning walled gardens and loads of vegetables growing. Sarah split us into three main groups:

• Watering the rose garden.

• Watering the vegetables patches and greenhouse.

• Weeding and de-mossing between the cracks of the patio.

We spent a good 30 minutes there working away - the patio looked fantastic by the time we left and I'm sure all the plants were very grateful for a drink. Before we left, Sarah told us a bit about the charity and the garden - there's a gardening group every Saturday morning at 9.30am right after parkrun at nearby Dulwich park, a perfect morning! We thanked Sarah and headed off back home, stopping en route in Dulwich park for a legendary game of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Cone.

Great work team, see you next week!

Lucy J

On a Special GGxWWF Run 27 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Spitalfields City Farm

Thank you all for coming and I hope you had fun! Welcome to newbies - Sam, Heidi, Grace, Luke, Jack, Jie, Non, Holly and Karolina - great to have you along.

So on a rather warm spring evening GoodGym was partnering with WWF in celebration of Earth Hour. This is a global campaign overseen by the WWF to raise awareness of environmental issues. It takes place this Saturday 30th March at 8:30pm-9:30pm (local time), join millions around the world to turn off the lights and speak up about why nature matters.

We collected together from 5pm and then did some introductions - first Rachel explained all about WWF and Earth Hour. Remember to tell your mum all about it when you call/see her on mother's day!

Then we got moving and grooving with a big dynamic warm up plus some conditioning + running in pairs - nice! Feeling ready to go we headed up and over Tower Bridge, and then onto Aldgate and Whitechapel. Everyone was really agile in the crowds and kept a good pace up between the traffic lights.

Environmental Impact!

Upon our arrival at Spitalfields City Farm we met Emily and her team, she explained the tasks which were as follows:

• Shovelling muck, to be wheelbarrowed away to make way for a toilet or bagged up and sold on.
• Organising an area of planks, wood and materials.
• Shifting tons of logs from one place to another
• Sweeping and tidying up

Over an hour of lifting, shifting, moving, grooving, shovelling and sweeping we made a massive difference to the Farm and helped them to prepare for the Cambridge & Oxford Goat and Sheep Race! There were 27 of us so that's 27 hours of volunteering done for our local community - absolutely huge!

After finishing our tasks we enjoyed seeing the various animals - including a 11 hour old lamb! We collected together and took a group photo before running down hill home - fun!

Thanks for a brilliant evening guys! Sign up for GoodGym Runs near you here.

PB out

The last week of February turned out to be unfathomably warm, which was lucky for us as we had an outside task. Less lucky for the state of the Earth, however. But if global warming leaves you feeling a bit glum, other than getting behind some great campaigns you could also come to GoodGym and feel better that your excess energy is being used to help your community, rather than power the treadmill!

We began with much celebrations as we found out that the lovely Mark G will be leading the good ship Lambeth from the end of March. We also celebrated 50th runs for Emily, Emma and Andrew and also Tom Hunter's200th good deed. Katie also gave out her last ever Shit Prize of the Month to the brilliant John Hunter, who is on a 50 month run streak for his coach runs. What a gem! Party poppers everywhere!

Mark G led the group out for a warm up and we then split in to two groups. We had the Straight There's and the Round the Houses. The Round the Houses set off, led by Tom H, on a 4km trip to Brixton Road Youth Centre, whilst the Straight There's went, well, straight there, led by Mark and Katie. On arrival, lots of leaves that were in black bags mixed with rubbish needed emptying into green sacks for recycling and the rubbish put in different bags. More leaves fallen around the yard also had to be gathered up and put into bags. Our big team set about this with enthusiasm and in no time we had sorted MANY BAGS!

There are so many bags that we have sorted! Said everyone

Team Straight There ran back to base and did some circuits, whilst the Round the Houses stayed to finish off. On return to base we did some stretches and headed home after a lovely evening. Well done Lambeth!