The foyer at Glass Mill Leisure Centre was buzzing with red t-shirts as 23 eager runners gathered to do good. We ran out along Lewisham Way - with a few drivers beeping their horns as we passed - and converged at New Cross Learning, to do a spot of Speed Spring Cleaning.

It was brilliant to see so many new faces - some brand spanking new to GoodGym - and to welcome some now familiar faces to our fourth group run in Lewisham. Adele told the group about all things GoodGym, mentioning Coach Running and Missions, gave a mention to the social this Thursday (yes, this Thursday, not last Thursday - sorry!), told everyone all about the task ahead and then persuaded the warmly huddled mass that we really should venture out into the wind.

In the grassy (and crazily windy) area outside the leisure centre, we warmed up with some high-fiving and a very noisy game of shin-tag, before syncing our various devices and heading out onto the streets of Lewisham central. On the way, we regrouped at traffic lights, making sure nobody was left behind and joined in conversations about dream running spots (oddly, not Lewisham Way during rush hour!). On arrival at New Cross Learning, we were greeted by Kathy and Gill and took the opportunity to take a big group shot.

Once inside the library, Gill read a message from our local councillor, Paul Bell, thanking us for helping at a library that is 'very close to his heart'. Kathy then showed everyone what needed doing and where to find the bowls of soapy water and cloths. Before long, the chatter was rising again (no 'shusssshhhhing' in this library!) and piles of books were forming, as shelves were wiped and dried, ready for the books to be placed back (in order, with some taking more interest in this element than others, ahem!). Time flew by and books were quickly replaced, before Gill and Kathy said 'thank you' and sent us on our way, back out into the wind.

We ran steadily towards Deptford Bridge DLR Station, where everyone groaned when Adele pointed out the lovely steps up to the platform (then sighed when she said we would only be running up part-way, phew). Some ankle-stabilising drills were performed and then some thigh-powering jumps, with little jogs back down in-between. After some powerful, deep squats, we skipped our way back to the path, where Adele gave instruction in the next part of the session, some short, sharp fartlek through Brookmill Park. It all got a little bit PE, with a whistle and everything, but the group did some superb hard running to lamp-posts, with some steady jogging back, to re-group.

It's interesting how very quiet it gets at this point...

After an enforced rest at the crossing (yay!), we sprinted our way back in to the foyer for a good stretch and a catch-up on next week's group run (sign up here). With a gradual rumbling of tummies during our quiet stretch, we briefly chatted re-fuel and it seems steak was on the menu for one lucky runner...writes shopping list for next week...

Well done everyone, the library was sparkling when we left, what a team!

A blustery but mild evening saw 16 of us swept along Lewisham High Street and up into Catford, to spruce up a property for Action for Refugees in Lewisham.

We gathered in the foyer of Glass Mill Leisure Centre, all commenting on how much milder it was than last week's launch run (Adele had reduced her layers to just two!). It was great to see some familiar faces from last week and to welcome some newcomers, some of whom were absolute first-timers - yay! After an introduction to all things GoodGym, outlining how runners can be paired with an isolated older person in our borough (and maybe mentioning the upcoming social on Thursday), we were guided through a warm-up to ready ourselves for the wind that swirled around the entrance.

To the task

On our outward run, Adele led the way and Jacqueline made sure nobody was left behind – thank you Jacqueline! We hollered slightly to make ourselves heard above the booming traffic on a rush-hour High Street. Inspired by tonight's task, we aimed to make up a name for a brand new GoodGym Lewisham paint (you know the kind of thing, 'Mouse's Back' – really – 'Elephant's Breath'...). Overheard along the way were: 'Glorious Grey' (nice GG thing there), 'Bemusing Beige' and 'Lewisham Lemon' – good to link in our fabulous local markets ;) Not entirely sure Farrow and Ball will be calling on us for our creative input though!

A swift stride up the hill and we were at our task. Iolande from Action for Refugees in Lewisham unpacked the tools and we set to, trying to get the paint on as many surfaces in the three rooms as possible. Everyone got stuck in and did fantastically with what we had – some covering swathes of wall with a slightly limited supply of rollers, others getting into corners, with the help of tiny brushes and some getting busy with the masking tape, making sure we could do a neat job. A bit of furniture moving and removal took place and we all stood back to admire Darren in his rather forensic-looking attire.

It wasn't long before the countdown began and trays and brushes were wrapped neatly for our return on Friday, where we will aim to complete the task and do a bit of garden-tidying as well. Iolande said thank you and waved us off down the street, as we headed over to Ladywell Fields to do some serious hill-training.

When we arrived at the park, people were given the option of adding in a slightly longer loop and we all converged at the cafe area to set to with the next part of the session. It was great looking across the grass, to see quite a large group taking the longer route, with David's glowing light guiding the way. Here, Adele talked about the importance of hill training in our running week and, after a few dynamics to get us really warm, everyone powered up the hill, using a strong backward arm-drive, then jogged a bit and then sprinted back around to the start. All that could be heard at this point was the deep panting of some really hard-working runners. It was decided that there was enough energy left to repeat this hill sprint before we jogged back towards Glass Mill.

It's funny how quickly time goes while you're chatting away and we were surprised to find ourselves at Cornmill Gardens, ready to sprint our way back in. After all that effort, we stretched well and recapped on what we had achieved, how far we had run and who might be off to the social on Thursday.

Don't forget our Starter Session this Friday at 6.45, we look forward to seeing you soon!

What an excellent start for GoodGym Lewisham! A very enthusiastic 32 athletes limbered up to take on some heavy-duty book-shifting at New Cross Learning and even had enough time to do some Cardio Box Crushing (yes, it's now 'a thing') before jogging off to the recycling centre, cardboard in tow.

Speech!

Before we ran off into the darkness, we gathered in the foyer of Glass Mill Leisure Centre, where Councillor Obajimi Adefiranye made a short speech, welcoming GoodGym to the borough and highlighting the work we do with isolated older people in the community. We were also joined by Councillors Stella Jeffrey, Joan Millbank and Damien Egan (who has promised to join us on one of our group runs soon!).

Enjoying the warmth of the leisure centre, we realised we would eventually need to brave the cold and go outside. It wasn't long before we felt warm again after a head-count and brief burst of high-knees/fast arms and a swift jog up Lewisham Way. Adele led the group, with Beth kindly offering to take the position of back-marker. En route to the community library, we also spotted the fabulous phone-box library, adopted by the people of Lewisham after it went into retirement. We kept a steady pace and, with Lewisham Way being a busy, fast-paced kind of road, we got in some short sprints as we crossed side streets.

The Task

Before long, we were outside New Cross Learning and being ushered around the back by Kathy, to avoid wading in through a public meeting. Gill introduced herself and also told us about the task, telling us how long this job would take them without our help. With a group this large, we soon had everyone in their positions: a team in the downstairs space, transferring books from boxes into bags, a chain of workers on the stairs, passing the bags along and up, a group in the upstairs room, decanting books and freeing up the bags and an intrepid bunch of recyclers, crushing and transporting the boxes to the nearby recycling centre.

Working at pace and with great determination, the group soon had all the books moved from the downstairs room (ready for a future task!) and we made our way outside, where we did some squats to keep warm, while Gill thanked everyone for their hard work.

Our Return

We now ran back towards our start point, with Conroy showing us a more scenic route than the one along the main road. Gathering near Deptford Bridge station, Adele suggested that anyone who might want to push a bit harder could do so along this stretch, with a large group choosing to go fast and hard, then turn to rejoin the rest of the group, before heading back together with a sprint finish into Glass Mill.

There was a buzz of chatter while we stretched and heard about next week's task, with many nodding heads and calls of 'See you next week!'.

Same time, same place then!

Brrr. The early arrivals were a little concerned that numbers might be down this evening thanks to a dip in temperatures, but it turned out that the best way of staying warm this winter is to get out and do some good deeds.

No first timers this evening, but on their first visit to Islington were Kevin and Rachel. Rachel was so keen that despite two broken ribs and being unable to run she met us at the pool then travelled to the task and back vehicularly.

After a quick warm up and cheering Paul for recently completing 100 good deeds and John for doing his first coach run we split into three groups - fast, medium and philosophers - and travelled the 3.2k northbound to Caxton House Community Centre

On our journey to the centre we discussed how you should pronounce "scone". Is it scone or scone? Ameachi believed that those born north of the river would opt for scone and those south of it would go for scone, but Meg - hailing form Cambridge, which is well north - put shame to this theory by explaining that she opted for scone. Evie, with English as a second language, preferred scone which suggests that this is the better pronunciation (otherwise why would they teach it that way?). Besides, scone is better for puns and scone just sounds too posh. A vote at the end of the evening decided matters for us with scone the clear winner***

The job for the evening was to give Caxton House a bit of a clean. Steve and Graham grabbed feather dusters and set about de-cobwebbing ceilings and beams, those who preferred the "scone" pronunciation nipped outside to give windows and grills a good old clean and those who felt that "scone" rolled off the tongue more naturally grabbed buckets of soapy water and scrubbing brushes and did their best to remove various obscenities (possibly scribbled by Debbie and her dodgy mates - see photo evidence) from the stairwell walls. A massive thanks to Sue for being such a wonderful host as always.

Twenty odd minute later things were sparkling so we blew Sue some kisses and headed down to Emirates for our TIME TRIAL. It was a bit breezy, so hopes for PBS were not high.

First finisher from last month, Paul, repeated his performance (with a little help from Richard, who jumped out of the letter "A") with a time of 2:11 and was closely followed by Islington first-timer Kevin. First lady over the line was Alex in 2:45, with Lucy on her heels. Frances put an immense sprint finish to beat Steve over the line. Great performances from everybody, and we can knock off 15 seconds for the new barrier we had to navigate, another 10 seconds because of the wind, and probably another 10 seconds or so because we were tired from working so hard. Basically, everybody is a world record holder.

We congratulated ourselves with the tiny chocolate-filled Korean biscuits "Kancho" before jogging back home.

We are double tasking next week.

See you there,

Simon

**Please purchase a copy of the audio transcript of this run report "Scone, scone, scone"* (thank you Richard) so that this paragraph makes some sense.

GG Brent really (James)Bond-ed together in the laundry room this week!!

On one of the coldest of the year so far, there was a meet a greet and a hot feet out the door! Feeling like a special agents task force, GG Brent wasted no time heading off to the task this week: Ashford Place homeless shelter in Cricklewood, where the awesome Danny awaited with Odd-Jobs a plenty.

Like a bullet flying through the night Skyfall the team sped along together in formation, ducking and weaving past overhanging trees and leaping over cracked pavements.

The 1.6 mile route was achieved in 15mins flat..... We are getting faster me thinks!! We hurried through the corridors of the centre to reach the centre point - The laundry room!!!!! Da da daaaaaa

As Laura and Hannah cracked on with washing the walls (in prep for next weeks GG paint job) the rest of the team hit the - Temple of Doom.......(oh wait no that's Indiana Jones)

The mess was indescribable and the mountains of donated clobber were strewed all over the place and quite reminiscent of one or two of the teams university halls. Unperturbed the team got stuck straight in, folding, piling, sweeping, clearing, stacking.

To a soundtrack of girl rock.....Sorry Dan, the shapes being thrown would not have gone a miss on the floors of strictly. When we yelled Shake your ass to Beyonce, Sadhana thought we said pants, as she held up the most outworn "vintage" pair of corduroy Y Fronts known to man..........Sexy.

Before we knew it, Ellie's Goldeneye had spyed the time and we were out of it. As quick as we'd arrived we were out the door.

The pace was quick on the journey back and in formation once more we tackled the hill climb and sprinted back to base in a time of 15mins once more!!! Props to Holly for doing soooooo well, first session and she smashed it; I Ex-Spectre she's done this running thing before.

Until next week, won't you join us.... to Try another day

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE.