It was the first run of Summer last night for GG Wandsworth, and we sure made the most of it. Not only that, but we are now set to become the stars of the silver screen that we all knew we were destined to become, as we had guests Ben and Holly there to film us throughout the evening. Action!

We had some new athletes to welcome to our merry band tonight- hello Jamie, Holly, Baz and James! Alos, welcome to your first Wandsworth run, [Alex] (https://www.goodgym.org/runners/alex-brown-accbd6d9-5534-4f50-85ad-7dab12ff159c] - give them all a cheer, why don’t you, they’re pretty awesome.

Well done to Jamie and Matthew for doing park runs, you superstars. If you haven’t done a park run yet, then you need to get on that. They are weekly 5k timed runs across London which are free, sociable and brilliant for charting your inevitable progress. The closest ones to us in Wandsworth are Tooting, Fulham Palace (although that is cancelled this week), Brockwell, Wimbledon, Richmond….you have so many to choose from. Why not try a little bit of park run tourism?

HEROES this week. Ooh, you are an amazing lot. Hat tip to Matthew for both giving and receiving the most cheers along with Jack. Running machine Sarah clocked up most miles as she continues to smash her marathon training, while David topped the table for good deeds done.

It was still light when we set off, which we all agreed was pretty marvellous. All the better for the camera to catch our moves on the tarmac – although camera man Ben did show us up by running pretty easily not only with his equipment but in jeans. Someone get that man a red tshirt, quick. With almost two miles under our belt we arrive at Balham Baptist Church where we were met by Pastor Jim, ready with a van to load up with junk from the basement. We pulled our favourite GG Wandsworth move, and formed a HUMAN CHAIN through the community hall from basement to van and off we went. Last time we did this we uncovered some incredible stuff. This time we did not find any mannequins or kitchen sinks, but a few pairs of oars and a radiator did make their way along the chain.

Van loaded, we waved goodbye to Jim with promises that we’ll be back to finish the job soon, and weaved our way to Clapham Common, trying to make friends with the other running groups on their evening run. We got some waves back, but have come to conclusion that GG is the most friendly bunch of runners you’d hope to meet. Keep spreading that GG word! Parking ourselves on the common in the dying light of day, we set about our fitness session. The group split itself into five lots of seven people, each doing either a squat hold, plank, lunges or mountain climbers in the time it took for one group to run across the common and back. It was tough going but as usual team Wandsworth rinsed those drills. Great job everyone.

We divided into two teams to run the last short stretch back to the BAC – speedy and sexy. Of course, we’re all simultaneously both of those things, but for the purposes of the run, we had to choose just one. Team speedy pipped it to the post on this occasion – possibly because team sexy were taken on a slightly longer route. Soz. Stretching it out, there were quite a few of you who solved this week’s CoRUNdrum (courtesy of lovely Vicki) knowing that Europe’s largest Chicken Cottage is indeed in Tooting – but the crown falls to Roshan who cracked it first. If you’ve got a good old head scratcher that you want to put to the group as our weekly CoRUNdrum, just come and let me know!

Next week we’ve (fingers crossed) got a great new project. We’re helping local group Food For All distribute free food to those in Wandsworth who need it most. Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/distributing-food-to-the-isolated

ps as soon as I receive our cinematic debut, I’ll send it over. Maybe we should have a red carpet premiere at the BAC?

27 runners ran 5km or 10km to sort materials at the Work and Play Scrapstore

'Monday runny Monday' as a famous Irish band once did not sing. 27 runners gathered at Battersea Arts Centre for a run, some fun, and probably at least one pun at 18.30 last night. After a briefing we set off into the Wandsworth night with our trusted front and back markers keeping the group safe and together.

5km is a long way and we arrived at the Work and Play Scrapstore sweaty but smiley and were put to work by Rachel. GoodGym Wandsworth has visited the Scrapstore before and it's a treasure trove of materials that have been saved from landfill to be re-used and re-purposed by all kinds of groups within the community.

'There's no right or wrong - make things look pretty!' Rachel

We split into groups taking on different tasks to help Rachel out:

*Tidying the overflowing fabric section

*Bagging up glitter and removing fabric samples from their boards

*Sorting tiles

*Measuring and wrapping fabrics

*Cutting wire into measured lengths

*Flattening boxes for recycling

It was like some kind of Apprentice task! Whilst the fabric-measurers were busy perfecting their methodology and dubbing themselves 'master tailors'; the tile-team were showing off their knowledge of shapes using their previous experience sorting carpet tiles. Everybody got sew into their tasks that there was some surprise when suddenly there was only five minutes to go. Last night team GoodGym Wandsworth weren't so much fabric conditioners as fabric high-commisioners but unfortunately these material girls (and boys) had to leave their material world to get back to base.

Some runners headed directly home from the Scrapstore, some ran to Earlsfield station to get the train back to Battersea Arts Centre and the rest of us went boldly into the night to nail the 5km home. A brave choice by all accounts! As the front runners disappeared at alarming speeds, we settled into the run home. You know those deceptive inclines where everything feels really hard and you're not sure why because it doesn't look like a hill? That was about half of our run home. Not to be daunted, GoodGym Wandsworth fought bravely on and there were many congratulations when we arrived back at base. What did we find back at Battersea Arts Centre? The front runners had actually beat the public-transporters home! Maybe you guys should think about racing another train in August... You know what they say - no train, no gain!

Everyone deserves a huge congratulations on a brilliant, bold run - whatever distance you chose - and another excellent task.

Join Ana next week for a shorter run to St Barnabus Church for a spot of maintenance work. It'll be another corker and there may or may not be burpees...

Lucy J