Covering 5km of running, 28 awesome athletes helped out at Ladywell Children's Centre

We had a few people returning after a little break this week, so it was lovely to welcome back some familiar faces!

So much news!

• Lots of our runners were out in volunteering force at the weekend, with some over at the GoodGym Southwark volunteer takeover at Dulwich parkrun and lots at our regular, Hilly Fields, with some pacing runners to a new PB - great work (there were 40 PBs on Saturday!). This Sunday, June 9th, we will be taking over the volunteering at Hilly Fields junior parkrun. You don't need to have done this before, you just need a good high-fiving technique and the ability to cheer little(er) ones around their 2km course - sign up here (and if you have signed up, please email the parkrun inbox to be added to the roster)!

• This week is Volunteer Week and, to celebrate, we will be having our now annual 'Biggest Group Run Ever', which meets at 9.30am tomorrow, at City Hall. It's really amazing to be involved and you get to explore a different area of London - details here.

• It's that time of year, when we head into the (Wildcat) Wilderness, not to work hard, but to relax and enjoy our summer social. Everyone is welcome and you just need to bring food and drink to share, Maria puts on a BBQ and campfire and it's just wonderful. Sign up here.

Our task this week was a brand new one for us, how exciting! Over to Ladywell and the Children's Centre, to tackle their overgrown outdoor space. As always, we had superb teamwork from Kim, who led the way and Clare, who kept us together at the back (on tired legs too, after what looked like an incredibly tough half-marathon in yesterday's heat!), with Marta taking on the back-marking on our return leg.

It's a fairly short run to Ladywell, so we were there promptly, with plenty of time to tackle those overgrown weeds. We were met by Jo, who told us about the many parents and children that are supported by the centre (I came here myself with my son when he was little) and also told us that the council are no longer able to take care of the outside space, which meant we were greeted by piles of leaves left over from the autumn and overgrown weeds and shrubs that made the entrance look quite scruffy.

We were given an array of lovely new gloves and tools and there were even some fancy, serious tools that were snapped up by Emily, who seemed keen to wield something a bit more powerful. We quickly realised that the leaf-blower and strimmer were simply creating a pollen-dense dust cloud, so put them to one side! Meanwhile, all around the building were groups of people working hard to rake, pull, snip, sweep and scoop. Quite quickly, we could see the space transforming before our eyes, with leaves being tipped into bin bags, moss being dug from between slabs, spiky plants being trimmed away from toddler eye-level and weeds being eradicated from around the buggy/bike/scooter shelter.

Four teabags?

As the bags were being moved to the bin area, I did a quick count. Well, not that quick, because we had filled 40 bags! Yes, 40! This prompted a moment of 'Four tea bags?' or 'Forty bags?' (think Four Candles...). Stepping back, we could see just what a difference we had made and hope that the families enjoy their newly-cleared space in coming days.

As we were so close to Ladywell Fields, we took advantage of what I affectionately call 'Lamp Post Hill' (yes, I have names for all the local hills). In pairs (and a three), we took it in turns to run repeats of this lovely hill, encourgaing each other as we went. Don't forget that this is the perfect spot for a good, hard hill repeat session, which is much more fun with friends (or a thumping soundtrack, if flying solo).

Next week is Wildcat Wilderness week, so a run of around 7k in total and a no doubt very physically rewarding task. All details are here, so sing up!

See you soon!

Feeling full of the joys of spring, 33 runners took on 7km of running, cleared rubbish, scrap metal and brambles and levelled the ground at the Wildcat Wilderness.

What a night!

I was already feeling slightly delirious after being exposed to a bit of sunshine, after what feels like forever; it's been a tough old winter. I didn't think it would be possible to top this and the fact that the evenings are getting lighter, then in strolled our very own World Record Breaker, Sean! We haven't seen Sean since last November, when he headed off around the world, his 50 t-shirt tucked under his arm. Updates have been in the form of far-flung parkruns viewed on Strava, so to see him here, wearing the black tee, was a real treat. Welcome back Gingerbread Man!

We also welcomed a visitor from the slightly less distant GoodGym Wansworth - hello Jordan - and an absolute first-timer, Matt, Lewisham Love to you both.

Under starter's orders

It's been an amazing week for missions, with many runners heading out to help an older person in their home, fixing up overgrown gardens, hanging curtains, changing lightbulbs, that kind of thing. It was also a pretty racy weekend, well done to:

• Nykolette at the Colchester Half-Marathon (alongside lots of other GoodGym runners)...thank you also for back-marking this week.

• Sarah at the new Landmarks Half-Marathon (lovely medal!)

• Juliet at a tough 15km race, where she made the podium as third lady, impressive running!

As if all this wasn't enough, we were also celebrating Amber's 50th good deed. Amber has been with us for just over a year and, in that time, she has built up her running, taking on 10k races, half-marathons and is now just four weeks away from her first marathon, in London. At the moment she comes in on a Monday, telling us about her latest 'longest run ever', with her training going really well (whilst also being a Personal Trainer, leading numerous classes each week, she's a machine!). Well done Amber.

To the task!

We might have been a little giddy to be running over to one of our favourite organisations, Wildcat Wilderness, so we whipped ourselves up just a tiny bit more with some warm-up fun, before running through Ladywell Fields and Catford. We were greeted by Maria, who quickly told any newcomers about the wonderful work that goes on here, with a little nod to Vic, who comes along outside our own sessions and, just this weekend, uncovered a tree that she has been bashing her way towards for a while. To mark this, she will be honoured with a path named after her. Really!

Shed-loads of experience!

Once everyone had been briefed on the various tasks, had grabbed gloves and any tools they might need, the different teams set-to before the light started to fall. We had a number of areas being worked on:

• A large team worked steadily along the path between the WIlderness and the entrance, filling wheelbarrows with rubbish, carrying rusted metal and passing this on to Stephen and Chris, who were in charge of putting everything in the skip.

• Another team worked along the edges of this path, to clear away all the dumped waste, using a handy shopping trolley (there's always a shopping trolley) as transport.

• Inside the garden area, another group worked thoughtfully to lift the shed base, so they could continue levelling the surface, ready for the brand new shed to go up (a lot of 'to me, to you' went on here).

• Deep inside the wilderness were Sean and Rosemary, weed-bashers in hand, clearing yet more brambles to create new paths to link the different areas (it took me quite some time to find them!).

When our time was up and everyone stood back to survey the results of their efforts, it was clear that all our energy had make quite a difference. Particularly impressive was the pile of metal that had now disappeared, having filled a substantial area when we arrived, excellent work!

We will return to the Wilderness soon and, now we have light, there will be many opportunities to explore in the coming months. Our run back to Glass Mill was a chatty one, I'm pretty sure people must be drawn to look out of their windows to see what all the noise is about, sorry! As we stretched, we talked about our next run, on Easter Monday (yes, we do run on Bank Holidays!), when we will pop over to Goldsmiths Community Centre - sign up here to join in (there may be treats). Post-run, a few of us enjoyed a pizza-social at the newly-opened Mamma Dough in Ladywell, rounding off the evening with a rousing 'Happy Birthday' to Lucy.

Before I see you next, don't forget to enjoy your hot cross buns, find all the eggs and share the love :)