For this week's Saturday starter session sixteen super sprinters tackled 3km, a tangle of brambles and a mountain of junk at the Wildcat Wilderness.

We had a lovely mixture of regulars, visitors and new-comers today. Welcome to our tourists Gosia (she of the 'I've visited every area in London' fame), Rafal, who has also visited a few areas now and Dom, who usually frequents GoodGym Croydon. Our absolute first-timers were Elizabeth, Kaamilah, Kate and Linda - big Lewisham Love to you! We also welcomed back Jacqui, who joined us last year for a starter session and Nadine, who came along to the Crofton Park Station Garden recently.

Some of our runners had already been to parkrun this morning and some had run to meet us (with some - Monica - also heading off to missions), but we still needed to warm up. Finding a suitable spot, away from the craziness of the Saturday Wickes/Halfords carpark, we played a bit of shoulder-tap and a quick game of 'Everyone is It!' I could hear that everyone was getting warmer, with breathing getting heavier and cheeks rosy. Our task wasn't far, just along the next road, so off we went, with Amber kindly being back-marker, making sure nobody was left behind.

Don't be bashful!

We were met by Caz, who quickly introduced us to the tasks, with two teams working in different areas, one bashing back the brambles to free the trees and another clearing away the mound of junk that has been uncovered in the food growing area. I moved between the two, making sure everyone was working safely, taking action shots and keeping an eye on the time. I was surprised how quiet our weed-bashers were as I approached, just the swing and thwack of tools and very little chatter (this is unusual!). As I watched I could see that everyone was completely engrossed in the task, focussing on getting the job done (and quite possibly getting rid of some pent up tension!). And wow, what a great job they did! Stepping back at the end, they could see just how far they had gone, clearing not just brambles, but a big metal drum, which Clare used for an additional workout!

Rust a minute!

In the food growing area, our team were filling wheelbarrows with an immense amount of rusted metal, lumps of rotting wood, an old lawnmower, a shopping trolley (which Eva pointed out 'still has its wheels!') and even a wheelbarrow (minus wheel). These finds were transported along the path to the gate, where we may well be returning to move them into a skip at some point. As the area cleared, Dom pointed out where the junk had been before, revealing a vast area that had been previously inaccessible! It turns out this will be the home of the new polytunnel, allowing other foods to be grown in this space - fantastic work everyone!

An arm-y of volunteers!

Gathering our tools and gloves, we admired the handiwork done in around 45 minutes and jogged out along the path. We love our visits to the Wildcat Wilderness, which you can do outside of our group runs, by joining in a volunteer session with Maria or Caz (which Vic does regularly, she loves a bit of weed-bashing!). Following the Waterlink Way, we ran alongside the river and took some time to think about our technique, in particular the way we move our arms. It's easy to allow our arms to cross in front of our body, especially when we get tired, but this wastes to much energy! We partnered up to look at this, then did some drills and got into line for some good, hard chain running. Emma pointed out how helpful it was to watch each other run past and see how well we were using our arms and picking up our knees, smashing!

As we stretched, we talked about other starter sessions happening in Lewisham, we have one on January 27th, at Crofton Park Station Garden and another on February 10th, wading in the river at Manor Park. Why not sign up?! If you want to join us on our weekly group run, we meet at Glass Mill at 6.45pm on a Monday, with this week involving a bit of tree running...:)

Throughout the run report, you will notice people's names are highlighted, you can click these and give them a big old cheer.

17 GG Brenters, took on 2 storage rooms for Ashford place homeless shelter. Dashed off 5k. Killed 20minutes of plyometrics, sprints, walking lunges and killer squat combos and got home in time for sexy stretch time. All in an evenings work! Pow Pow!

The Queensbury Pub on Walm Lane was bursting at the seams with another full squad on deck at GG Brent. Joining the ranks of the fabulous familiar faces were 2 newbies in the mix this eve- Thais and Bharian YAY. I was also dizzy with excitement when old school original, none other than Sadhana rocked up with her signature sexy socks and beaming grin under cap!! This boost, got me hyper beyond belief and ready to roll out with my crew, fresh with spring in step.

No further than 0.6 miles to go, we cruised down to Ashford Place where the awesome Alan welcomed us in for the task at hand - clearing and sorting 2 donations rooms. Ashford Place is a firm friend of GG Brent and we are always delighted to volunteer our time there, to support their tireless work in the community. All year round they offer 30 long stay hostel rooms to local people who had been living on the street and work towards finding them permanent residence in the future. They also work to make services better for homeless people in Brent, campaign for policy change that will help end homelessness and innovate and develop tools to help their patrons work their way out of homelessness indefinitely. An absolutely incredible organisation and one that deserves all of Goodgym's support.

So stepping our best feet forwards, we jumped into the task quick smart. But because our crew was so large and epic this eve, it didn't take long before the jobs were done and rooms were packed and sorted. So taking advantage of the gifted time, the team wasted none and ran the infamous Ashford Place stairs, 4 flights, top to bottom, not once, not twice but thrice times over!!! AMAZING!!

After the stair-runs and standard photo shoot (Ovs!) It was back on the streets to keep the running mojo cooking. Gradual tempo runs led us down to Gladstone Park where more fitness fun was the order for the night.

The teams split into 4 and worked their way through a medley of sprints, squat jumps, tuck jumps and walking lunges and if that wasn't enough there was just enough time for a combined group hammer of the circuit for one more round.

Cheered on by nominated ambassadors - Enrique, Claire, Samuel and Mouse, the shouting and encouragement echoed through the park like thunder, with fellow runners stopping in their tracks to check the commotion and admire the efforts!

After a swift recovery (that's huffing, puffing, panting and sweating to you) the crew were back on the road for the last cool down mile back to base and it wasn't long before the lights of high road twinkled in our sights and lit the path home.

One last thing before we depart - Delicious stretching and a massive applause

Determination, motivation, good vibes and good deeds, sprinkled with the always raucous laughter and weird and wonderful chats, this is a crew that never fails to turn Monday from manic to marvellous!

See you next time!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

18 hardy souls ran 7 km to tidy up the Northern Slopes

What better way to start the weekend! Another really good Saturday morning turnout with many choosing to incorporate a GoodGym session into their weekend long run, whereas for others it was just a great excuse to get out and do some more good with some friendly faces.

Hot footing it from our base at Roll For The Soul with the sun on our faces we enjoyed a steady run along the Malago Greenway to the Northern Slopes on Novers Hill, ending with a dash up the Novers Hill steps like a scene from Rocky (even humming the tune as we went) like true champions!

With much punching of the air, we were greeted by our wonderful host, Julia, who explained today's task whilst arming us with a treasure trove of equipment from loppers, shears, saws, slashers, scythes, pitchforks to litter pickers.

Splitting into two groups, one group set about clearing a huge amount of litter of all shapes and sizes - beer cans were the standard fare, with the odd wheel, exhaust pipe and general detritus thrown (quite litter-ally) in for bad measure.

The other group armed themselves with bush and bramble clearing equipment and got stuck in to cutting back some of the more destructive foliage which has threatened to over-run the hillside. Getting "stuck in" particularly were Alice, who became rather attached to a piece of bramble and Rich who decided to go three rounds with a brute of a bramble and lost by a bloody nose!

After a hard hour's graft and a ten minute cold rain shower, we were rewarded with well earned hot drinks, cakes and biscuits before lugging our haul of bags of litter and equipment down the hill and set off on our way back to base.

Big thanks to Chris for backmarking today and to Matt for leading the warm down and stretches, whilst I headed off to the afternoon mission.

You guys totally smashed it today! Big love to you all!

Dave