Last night 21 GoodGymers ran 4k to weed at Grove Park Allotments

A whopping three times more people than last week gathered at Old Spike Roastery last night to spend their Wednesday night getting fit and doing some good.

Big shout out and a cheer for Annemie and Simran who made this their first ever GoodGym run!

We headed off 2km down an unfamiliar route to meet Liz at Grove Park Allotments. On the way we stopped twice - once to sit in a primal squat (try it when you're brushing your teeth) and once to set against the wall (see photo) - building stronger legs for all that running! GoodGym Southwark has visited Grove Park many times over the years and is particularly fond of their beekeeper Gian Franco who is as passionate about his bees as he is about sustainability. We look forward to seeing him in the coming months! Liz let us loose on her tools and showed us the path that needed weeding and an empty lot that needed clearing of rubbish. There was also an opportunity to strim but sadly the spool wasn't quite right and in spite of valiant efforts to fix it, there was no strimming to be had.

Whilst everyone was weeding and strimming, Liz took Helena round to search out pinhole cameras she'd set up in various places to keep an eye on the wildlife. Remembering where they had been placed in the dark was harder than expected! The weeds were swept up into biodegradable bags and after 30 mins of hard work we'd filled quite a few!

We waved goodbye to Liz and set off back down the hill to base.

A great task and a great way to spend your Wednesday evening. Well done team!

Keep running happy, Lucy J

13 Goodgymers braved the icey night to run 7.6km and help out in nature.

We started the evening off with an update on the latest news and events. The biggest news being the long-time Goodgym Lucy had been selected as Southwark’s new trainer. Hooray!

After the task briefing, we headed over to the grass opposite to warm-up. We certainly needed it as it was already pretty chilly. After lunges and clambering over gates in the imaginary countryside we headed off on the 3.8k run to the task. The run included a couple of fitness exercises dropped in along the way.

We had been asked to visit Galleywall Nature Reserve - a lovely slice of nature slotted in-between the high rise buildings. Alan and Ollie asked us to help spread wood chip on flower beds around the pond. Plus, create a seating area out of logs, then stack up the remaining logs to make a bug house and the replenish the fire wood pile.

After 25 minutes the logs were sorted and the flower beds cover, so we had a quick biscuit break and a group photo. It was then time to head back to base and off to the pub for some!

The key-shaped trainer baton has been passed to Lucy now. Watch this space to see where the first task with her will be.

Happy running!

It stopped...the rain stopped!

And nine lovely runners believed me and came along for a top night in Southwark.

A big GoodGym welcome to Carole, Jessamy and Becky who joined for the first time.

After a rather long intro speech (sorry!) we got going with Michael kindly backmarking and myself leading the way. We took a slightly longer route to avoid the hordes on Peckham Rye before cutting down the old Surrey Canal and making our way to Burgess Park, the home of the Southwark Tigers junior rugby club. There we were met by Vernon who outlined the tasks at hand.

This week we were building some shelves, landscaping some potholes and moving some equipment between the storage containers. Vernon described the storage containers as the hub of the club as the equipment is so important to what they do. The problem is that with all that equipment going in and out things had got a bit messy - enter GoodGym Southwark.

We split into three teams and under the headlights of the club minibus we got started! We had a good 40 mins of working time and in that time we cleared the area around the containers, moved some rugby equipment, flattened out the potholes and with a big team effort got two sets of shelves built, connected together and moved into the container. We stopped for a group pic (arms please!) and then headed off for a slightly shorter run back to Old Spike (thanks for backmarking Stuart).

Thanks so much for having me everyone and I hope to see you all again soon!

Top work GGS!

Pritesh