Another winter run, another sudden burst of water from the sky right when we were about to start running. SIGH. Never mind as it tailed off quickly and we were ready to get on with our task of helping the good people of Age UK, who have got a new 'Food 2 You' programme. This volunteer-led programme will help older people to do their weekly shop across Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. A great idea and very aligned with GoodGym's mission. We were helping to spread the word about this new service by putting up posters in local libraries and shops.

We split into four teams, one walking, one covering 3km, one 4km and one 5km. Each team also had some nice fitness challenges to carry out along the way. After an extended warm up we were off, spreading the word around Brixton, Clapham High Street and Stockwell. After some nice stretches on return, we finished off and went home happy.

Last night we had a round 50 superstar runners to help Lambeth celebrate FIVE YEARS of running to community groups and supporting isolated older people across the borough. We've had a cracking time of it and achieved so much, so a massive THANK YOU to every single person who has been part of our half decade!

John H led a lovely warm up, including the DANGER GAME where 50 people run at random around a dark space then say Hello to new people. It's quite the health and safety risk but surely worth if for all the nice new people we meet along the way.

We had options coming out of our ears this evening - some people chose to walk 1km to the Remakery led by Tom Benson; others chose to run that distance with Katie; some ran as far as Loughborough Farm with Steve, where they did a solid job of spreading woodchip across all the paths; yet more still went on a 4.5km long way round run to the Remakery led by George. Something for everyone, I think you would agree!

Massive thanks to GoodGym for record time scattering woodchip at Loughborough Farm! Said Karen

On arrival at the Remakery, Miguel had lots of moving and sorting for us to do. This fantastic space rescues stuff that would otherwise go to landfill and provides tools and training for people to make wonderful new bits of furniture and other useful things. We've been helping them for a few months as they have a bit of a spring clean and this evening was no different. The woodwork room got a big sweep and hoover, lots of big bits of furniture got taken out of the way and we moved the tool cupboard from A to B and filled it up with tools again. What a great job!

Back at the farm, Steve was leading a crack team of woodchip spreaders, who were also taking the time to pose for a Birthday Shoot on the woodchip pile - we think you'll agree Andy and David look wonderful.

And with that we were all back to base for a bit of fitness and some stretches then the main event: CAKE! Nicky and Phil are fundraising for their London marathon efforts and they had baked a lot of delicious things, as had Beth. We gave our pennies and our pounds and stocked up on delicious stuff. Everyone was a winner and it was a truly celebratory way to finish the evening. You too can sponsor the running duo by visiting their fundraising pages. Sponsor Nicky and Phil as a birthday present to Lambeth!

Here's to the next 5 years!

Our first run of the year was a total blinder, with loads of fabby new people, some fabby old people and a new trainer - the very lovely Esther who is going to be starting up with Poole very soon.

Trainer Katie waffled on for ages introducing her task force and telling everyone about our jaunt to Liverpool - coming up soon in early March. Do come along!

I've got Tate membership and there is a Tate in Liverpool! Said Tim, giving us yet one more reason to go there in March

We did a nice warm up outside and then Katie led one group 1.5km to the Grove Adventure Playground, with Nicky leading a walking contingent and George and Jim heading off on a longer run towards Clapham Common to pick up any pesky Christmas trees that had been left out and about.

On arrival at the Grove, we got about scraping the paint from around the windows so that they were nice and neat, whilst others did some great sweeping and mopping. We did some ankle conditioning with some simple but actually quite tricky heel lifts.

George and Jim set off to fetch some trees and Phil grabbed one straight away and dragged it to the common as part of some sort of personal resistance training. Once a bit closer to the common, the rest of the group collected up more trees - 15 to be precise - and took them to the recycling depot on the common. As it was Clapham, the sight of 20 runners carrying trees received no less than a Macbeth quote:

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane...

According to George this means that "everyone carring the trees looked like the army carrying trees as they moved forward to attack Macbeth (the witches said Macbeth would be king until the wood reached Dunsinane)." So there we go lads, a bit of Shakespeare for you. As well as running, George led a fitness session and an 'extra special extra run after a dubious people’s vote'.

It's what the people wanted! Said George

Not the first time we have heard that in recent history.

On return to base we all did some nice stretches and headed off home. Thanks for a lovely evening, we got loads done!