36 amazing runners, two huge tasks, one great Monday evening.

We started our run last night with a bumper week's worth of news. A big well done to Emma who smashed a hilly and warm Richmond 10k on Sunday, Frances, who ran the Rutland half, and to Helen who racked up a new 10k PB at the Richmond duathlon. What a great weekend of running.

A huge welcome to our lovely new faces, Liv, Kate, Alexandria, Eleanor and Ros. It's great to have you running with us - give 'em a cheer GoodGym!

As mentioned in the intro last night, we have a special buddy-up run happening on Thursday in conjunction within Ideal Flatmate. If you're looking for a new flatshare or the perfect flatmate, then come along to this run to meet others in the same position, and even to get a good deed in at the same time!

We also have a community mission coming up - you don't have to be DBS checked for this one, so if you fancy helping out the lovely Balham and Tooting Community Association put on their Fun Day, helping with jobs like serving tea and coffee and welcoming people, then sign up here - all proceeds from the day go to St George's Hospital, so you'll be doing some real good.

Double the Task, Double the Fun

It was a two tasker last night, and a special night as we celebrated newly qualified Chi leading his first run. Go Chi! So after a warm up, where we got our heart rates up and discussed our favourite sandwich fillings (cheese winning by a massive margin), we split ourselves up into two groups.

The first group was running down to Paul's Cancer Support Centre, a charity which offers support through alternative therapies, counselling and other services to people living with cancer. After a 2k run, we arrived to find two rooms that needed emptying to make room for more services. We got cracking, only to find that it was slightly more complicated than first anticipated. Not to be put off, while a few people played car tetris trying to get all the furniture in, others started dismantling a couple of massive tables that were two big to get through the door. We managed to sweet talk a lovely local bike superstore to take the furniture, saving the charity a trip to the dump, while Clare and Hanna got the tough job of putting the tables back together in their new home. Nice one team!

Meanwhile, Chi was leading the second group on a longer run down to Balham, where Kate, the secretary of the Tooting and Balham Community Association was waiting with 500 (!) leaflets ready for distribution ahead of the Fun Day this weekend. In a huge push, the group managed to cover 8 kms and got rid of all of the flyers. Was it the pumping music? Was it the challenge of getting rid of so many leaflets? Was it because it was Chi's first run as leader? Absolutely amazing work guys.

While group one finished off their shorter run with some gruelling hill sprints and the burpee challenge, group two polished off 8k and we arrived back at the BAC almost simultaneously. GoodGym win! Next week it's another two tasker (fingers crossed), so we need as many of you lovely people as possible - sign up here.

It was one of biggest tasks yet in Wandsworth last night, plus a nice hefty run thrown in for good measure. Nice one, team!

It didn't put you off though, and a huge 38 runners were up for the challenge, including a whole gang of lovely new faces. GoodGym, please give a massive welcome to (deep breath) Nicolette, Gabriella, Alicia, Frankie, Jamie, Laura, Jack and C Bayley! Great to have you along for the run.

There was also a round of applause for all the runners who helped out at the Peckham parkrun takeover at the weekend, and to those of you who went to race in the New Forest. What a busy weekend of running.

Before we started our run, there were highs - happy birthday to our lovely Alyx, hurrah! - and lows - goodbye to Chris who is leaving us for Bristol. Good Luck!

We raced through our warm up last night, finishing off with a rousing rendition of happy birthday while we did jumping jacks, and a quick poll to find out everybody's favourite tree - with 'Christmas tree' topping the list!

We had a 5k run ahead of us, so set off at a steady pace in the direction of Southfields and our task for the evening. With a few squat stops, and a quick break to pose for some photos from a pub window (!), we arrived to find a group of volunteers from Green the Grid, an organisation which aims to plant 200 tree bases in Wandsworth in a bid to encourage wildlife, improve air quality, prevent flooding and improve wellbeing among residents.

Branching off

As well as laying on a selection of healthy snacks and refreshments, the volunteers were also super organised, and we immediately split into four groups complete with tools, buckets and a leader. Our job was to dig over 100 tree bases and remove rubble, which proved to be a pretty great upper body workout. Half an hour of hard work later, we met up again at our starting point, had a quick debate on the best kind of biscuit (inconclusive) and set off back to the BAC. Well done team, that is the osrt of job we can make a huge dent in within a short window of time, but it would have taken a small group of volunteers days to do

Now the route down there was pretty much downhill, so we knew what was ahead of us. Gritting our teeth we attacked the deceptively long hill, and made good time on the way back, finishing off the night with some stretches. We were suitable refreshed after the run with some freebies from Chi who brought us back a whole bag of coconut water courtesy of Pure Lime at Carnival! Thanks Chi, that was the perfect thirst quencher.

Next week we've got two massive tasks to do - half of us will be going on a short run to a cancer support centre in Battersea, while the other half will be going to help with preparation for a community festival in Tooting. It's going to be a busy one, sign up here!

It's always brilliant to see so many lovely runners meeting up on a Monday ready to devote their evening to making Wandsworth a better place to live, and last night 37 excellent faces were eager to run 5k and lend a hand at two community spaces. And please give a special cheer to Claire and to Alice who came along for their first GoodGym experience last night - welcome to the gang!

A big well done to James and to Hanna who took on the Hampstead Heath Duathlon on Sunday, swimming all the ponds and pool, and running over 5k between each swim. Amazing stuff!

If you want to hear more of the incredible good deeds racing that the GoodGym crew across all areas has been up to in the last month, then come along to the social on Thursday. This month it is going to be in Hammersmith at the Rutland Arms pub. Everybody welcome!

Fitness First

We turned our session on its head last night - our task owner couldn't make it to meet us until later, so it was fitness first, doing good second as a one off. So after a warm up where we found out all the nice things that had happened to us over the weekend - booking wedding venues, dancing, lots of great meals, racing and puppies, puppies puppies - we set off for Battersea Park. A short run later, we kicked off the session with a couple of technical points. Important things to remember are:

Run as though you are falling forward slightly and by bringing your legs through quickly stops that

Your legs should mimic the movement of a cyclist

Your arms drive your cadence, not your legs

Next we moved on to a tough fitness session which saw us alternate between sprints and conditioning exercises such as planks, diamond press ups, sump squats and supermans. Is anybody feeling it today? ;)

Finishing up in the park we took a gentle run over to a local garden where we got stuck straight into the first task of shifting compost into raised beds, while the second group went over to the Venue - a community centre for local people that feeds the homeless and manages an amazing zero food wastage program. After half an hour cleaning windows, the kitchen and bathrooms, it was time to hit the hill on the way back to the BAC and to stretch it out.

Most of you will remember the huge fire that ravaged the grand hall of our beautiful meeting place, the BAC, in 2015. Well, the amazing news is that the Grand Hall is about to reopen and will be celebrating next Thursday. More details to come, but let's support and celebrate this wonderful place that is our home every week and allows us to go out and do our thing!

Next week we have a big run and a massive task. A local community association has asked us to come and help them plant 100 trees. It's a longer run - don't let that put you off because it's only half way in one go, and the good news is that there will be no fitness session! Sign up here to start your week off by making a huge difference in the local area.

Last night 17 community heroes gave up their bank holiday to do some good in Wandsworth

Four of these lovely runners were even there for their very first group run. People of GoodGym, please give a massive cheer for Andrew, Lizzie, Sian and Debi - welcome to the gang!

Quick bit of news - we're starting to do more community missions. These are one-off runs to community projects that you don't have to be DBS checked for, so keep checking the website for missions like this!

There is also a long run coming up on 22nd September. It will be 18k in total and there will be a couple of different pace groups finishing up with the pub! Sign up here for a lovely route along the Wandle Path.

We kicked off our night outside a very closed BAC (sorry about that - normal service will resume next week!) with a warm up which got our hearts pumping and our muscles firing, before discussing our fav desserts. Ice cream, brownies and crumble were all top of the list for us until a late flurry of sticky toffee pudding votes took top spot. But before we indulged, we had a job to do.

We set off for Doddington & Rollo community Garden on a nice downhill route, and just over a mile later we arrived to find Hilaire waiting for us with a huge pile of bags of compost, spades and gloves. We split into several groups to tackle to soil shifting (great upper body workout!), weeding and composting. We also tackled the overgrown buddleia and did a big clear up - well done for all the work you did team, this much-loved garden is run by volunteers who rely on help to keep it open to the residents who don't have access to outside space.

Job done, we popped to the square outside the garden and got ourselves warmed up again with a game of squat stuck in the mud, before running halfway back and stopping briefly for a core triathlon blast. With some encouragement from a nearby spectator, we ran the last leg of the route home - but not before stopping to smash out some hill sprints. The fun never ends! Hill sprints are actually really effective and building endurance and strength and vital if you plan to do any races that are described as 'undulating'!

Well done for a great effort last night everybody. Next week we'll be back at our usual starting spot inside the BAC. Sign up here for some more Monday fun and fitness.