Oh what a joy it is to be at GoodGym Southwark! Eight of you awesome people ignored the signs of impending weather carnage and met up with me at Old Spike for another evening of doing good and getting fit in Southwark!

In what was probably my most relaxed intro ever we talked about goodgym, the social (which is today!), the upcoming goodgym olympics, what street furniture to avoid when running (cars (ki-yars), wheely bins, cats...), what day bin day is in Southwark and i'm not even sure what else! I think everyone contributed something and eventually I got out the task we were doing (shifting manure at Grove Park Allotments) and went through the usual health and safety briefing too! If only all intros were so much fun!

We had no first time runners tonight but shouts to Hetty who was running for the first time in Southwark and to Lydia who is still fairly new to GoodGym and Jon who did his 5th good deed - great to have you along!

Is it wheely bad that I don't know when bin day is?

With everything taken care of we headed over the road for a warm-up including what I call forward jumping jacks and Helena calls spotty dogs - the internet tells me we are both right...it also tells me there are way more variants on the simple jumping jack (aka star jump) than you can possibly think of - have a look!

Spotty dogs!

It's not a long run to Grove Park Allotments but it is up a big hill, Helena expertly led us there and we all powered up the hill to get there. We met Liz who outlined our jobs for the evening. The main job was to move a couple of pallets of manure from the gate into the allotment and deliver some to certain plots.

We created a human chain to get things moving quickly and then the group split as some delivered specific bags to various plots and the rest of the group continued to move the bags up to the allotment. It was hard but fun work and occasionally quite smelly too - oops! Thanks to Becky who patiently moved a bag of manure slowly for me to make the gif you can see above!

Man-ure awesome!

Everyone worked really hard and we got the job done, with a little time left before we had to go we decided to go over the holes we had started last week - these will eventually get filled with saplings but some of the holes needed a bit more work on them - it was hard work but we certainly did the job.

With that done it was time for a group photo (thanks to Matt (37 good deeds up!) for additional lighting effects - check out that lens flare!) and then we headed back to Old Spike, had a quick stretch and said our goodbyes and headed home...or to the pub :)

It's always a pleasure to cover in Southwark and you didn't disappoint - thanks to the pun contributors and thanks to all of you for making my evening so fun and easy!

Cheers, Pritesh

Our lucky number today was 13, cos that's how many showed up for the Southbank Centre Winter Festival run and task. We welcomed Silvi, Barbara, Junko, Maggie and Hetty, all of whom were doing their first ever run. And we had a couple of tourists in the form of Gary and Matt all the way from Bristol and still carrying fancy dress outfits from last night's party.

We had a nice briefing and Madeleine from the Centre explained what we were up to today: as part of their Winter Festival, the Southbank Centre are exploring the theme of giving and sharing over the festive period and we were lending a hand by shifting food donated to the Southbank Centre to Oasis Farm ready for Waterloo Foodbank on Monday. Oh, and Simon did a bit of juggling with tins of tuna and sardines. How many GG trainers can do that?!

Noticing that it was a bit chilly outside, we decided a decent warm up was in order and we played a little bit of the ol' "Follow my Leader" and then partook in a spot of "Cups and Cones". First time it's ever been played inside the Southbank Centre. Just think: you were there! I think cups won, but it's all a bit of a blur now.

Feeling very warm, we loaded our backpacks with as many tins, packets and jars as we could and ventured into the chilly December morning. We took the scenic route there and met a load of Santas who were undertaking a charity bike ride. We congratulated each other for doing good things and carried on. Wonderful.

At Oasis Farm we were greeted by Nathan who let us in, and showed us where to dump the food. We said hello to a chick and told him (Nathan, not the chick) we'd be back soon with more goodies. Oh yeah, we only took half the food cos we couldn't fit it all in our bags. Should have mentioned that earlier really. Must work on this narrative business.

Following our second drop off it was competition time and what better way to find out who's the best than with a four-team three-person continuous relay? None, I believe. Team Beth-Matt-Gary won the first round, but then we did my favourite elbow drill and had another attempt. This time prizes would be awarded for the best elbow driver. Lisa shone through and was awarded with a close-up photo, which she was very happy about.

A jog back, a wee stretch, a Mexican wave and we went our separate ways, with Beth, Patrick and Lisa speeding off to do a mission and Simon joining Matt and Gary for a post-run pub lunch before they got the coach back to Bristol.

A great outing for a great cause and it's wonderful knowing that the food we carried today will help Londoners who may be struggling over Christmas.

There's another Southbank run next week. Sign up here,

Simon