This evening pre-Halloween we made our way to Herne Hill, where part of the group would be meeting the runners.

After dividing ourselves up into 3 teams we went down a number of streets flyering. We gave out the entire stack of GROAD flyers and for bonus points we did our GG flyers! 🙌

Nelly judged the many decorated houses and gave us her verdict! She was impressed (pic included).

We then wrapped up and headed back to the Old Spike for a stretch.

It was great to put up Old Spike Peckham and welcome back Sophie who has been in Australia for the past few months. It was also good to see Lucy who hadn't been around these past few weeks. As Maria, Isaac, Rosalind, Daryl, Paulin came in, they discussed about the precious six inches of top soil that is the life blood of humanity. Some deep stuff and quite fitting as our ice breaker snap poll had to do with Earth Day: if you had to go with one policy: clean the ocean of plastics, stop deforestation or embrace cleaner and sustainable energy, which one would you go for? As it hit 18:45, Sam got on with his usual speech and asked for his ice breaker question, he asked which charity people have run or would run for if they did the London Marathon?

In the snap-poll, most want to embrace cleaner and sustainable energy, a couple said clean the ocean and no one went for deforestation. For the marathon question, we had a variety of charities including GoodGym.

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Bath time

Opting for a warm up in the alleyway due to the route taking us out that way, Sam had to do a quick warm-up as the ice-breaker question took too long. With Maria backmarking, off the group went through the backstreets of Peckham/East Dulwich to arrive at East Dulwich station, through the park and the backroute to get to Sunray Avenue near North Dulwich. They had to push and run up the hill for the final part to make it to Denmark Hill Community Garden. Here they met Rose, her partner, Richard just arrived and shortly afterwards so too did Jo and Phil. After a quick introduction, Rose outlined the two main tasks. Firstly, to move three bathtubs out of the way to make space and room for the second task. The second task was to dig a trench a spade deep and a forearm wide.

We split into teams with the girls diving into moving the bath tubs as a group. Paulin, Sophie, Lucy and Rosalind took on the first bath tub finding it somewhat easier than it looked as these bathtubs were filled with soil. The others soon followed to move tub two and three, but Louise, Maria and Jo picked up the dutch hoe and shovels to make a start on the trench. With limited tools, each person took it in turn to help out dig this trench as we soon realised it would be harder than we thought as we couldn't dig deeper than 20 centimetres before encounting gravel and brick. We realised with 10 minutes left that we could only prepare as much as we could and opted to come back next Wednesday - splitting the group with one half going to Thorlands Gardens in Camberwell and the other coming back here.

All was not lost as we had the first HIIT session with Louise and Jo being the only ones joining in and right at the end, we were treated to fresh mint tea, which was a blessing as the night took a cold turn after such a promising sunny start.

After sipping down a warm cuppa, we ran down the hill down to Old Spike in no time and made it back for 20:30.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Rose was really pleased that we made a start and happy that we can come back next Wednesday to finish the job. Thank you to Maria and Paulin for backmarking.

"I'm late, I'm late, I'm very very late, hello, goodbye", like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, Sam (for the first time in his 2.5 years as Area Activator) was very late for the group run and opening Old Spike Peckham as he was held back at work.

Arriving at 18:47, Sam saw everyone gather outside Old Spike Peckham, but to add to his woes, he found out for the first time too that whoever locked up Old Spike Peckham locked the bottom lock too, which he didn't have. Thinking on the spot, he asked the Georgian Wine Bar next door whether the run group could drop bags and coats in their cupboard room at the back. With some persuasion, the bar manager agreed. That was one less stress to deal with. Amongst all the chaos, Sam managed to introduce Tony who came for his first GoodGym session. Hooray and welcome!

The group were led by Paulin to the alleyway as she is preparing to complete her run leader training and wanted to put a practise in tonight. She did a quick jumping and squatting warm up to get us warm.

Noticing the time was approaching 19:00, Sam skipped the ice-breaker (for now) as he led from the front and Steve volunteered to backmark.

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Refreshed walls

Through the backstreets of Peckham, up Chadwick Road (the hill) and down towards Camberwell, we went as we stopped in various places to re-group. We finally made it to Salvation Army Camberwell Corps. in time (19:15) as we met Valentina, Folarin, Phil and Richard who opted to walk / cycle to the task.

After taking a moment to introduce Valentina and what happens at the Salvation Army in Lomond Grove, Valentina gave clear instructions on what needed to be done after learning what we did from the first session. We had to ensure the entrance hall was clear and that there was lining on the floor before any paint could come out. There was enough tools for everyone, so picking up a paint brush or roller and sharing a paint tray, which Lucy had kindly poured out, everyone picked their bit of the wall and concentrated on applying the second coat of paint.

Having missed out on the ice-breaker poll and question earlier, Sam proceeded to ask: Since it was National Pokemon Day on Tuesday, what is your favourite Pokemon from Pikachu, Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur? Plus, he threw in the ice-breaker question which was to do with "Employee Appreciation Day" on Friday: Do you have any cool perks at work that you want to share?

Pikachu won by a few votes, but Squirtle was a close second. Isaac shouted out that his company is doing the 4 day working week (more or less) as he logs off by midday on Friday. Others had flexi-working, which is almost a similar concept, but with a 5 day working week contract.

Once the paint was out and conscious that we had to clean / wash up afterwards, after 30 minutes, we managed to put on a second coat of paint and the team started to head to the kitchen to wash up the water-based paint brushes, rollers and trays.

Valentina was happy with what we had achieved and she will get one or two volunteers to touch up certain parts of the wall that needs to be touched up.

By 20:05, we had to rush off back to Peckham as like a school bus, we said our goodbyes to Adrian, Andrada, Folarin, Isaac and Nelly. After a quick stretch and having reached the Georgian Wine Bar, it was only fair that we brought something from the bar/shop, so Sam and Steve bought a lovely deep red, which was recommended. A great way to end the night!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! It was a bit of a hectic start and we managed to work out a solution to drop off our bags and coats thanks to the Georgian Wine Bar next door. I will ensure Old Spike Peckham does not lock the second lock next Wednesday. Thanks to Steve for backmarking both runs and kudos to everyone for getting stuck in. Another warm welcome to Tony and we hope to see you at another group run or GoodGym session soon. Next Wednesday will be a calm one as we run over to Denmark Hill and Champion Hill to deliver Get Rid Of And Donate (GROAD) flyers to homes and flats around there and on top of that, we have our monthly social, so why don't you join us?

Despite it being the end of the January Challenge, we still had plenty of GoodGymers keen to run on a Wednesday night and do good in their local area! Sam opened up Old Spike to meet the friendly faces of Daryl, David, Isaac, Lucy, Maria, Nelly, Roberta, Steve and Tim.

Sam went through his usual GG intro speech and tonight, he only had an ice-breaker snap-poll, which was to do with National (deep-pan) Pizza Day (in the US) and Lunar New Year happening on Saturday. He asked which one you would order when having an food app up: deep pan or Chinese?

Winning by a few votes was Chinese!

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Brushing up on our painting skills

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group out back onto Rye Lane with Lindy backmarking as she was carrying her work items with her (as she wanted to make her way back home after the task). Speedy Sam rushed down Rye Lane, Surrey Canal Walk and into Burgess Park (with a slight diversion) before 500 metres later arriving at St. Mary Newington Close to find James, Paulin and Phil already tucking into a tub of pink paint and applying it onto a wooden bench. Yes, we came over to Southwark Communities to apply another lick of paint on the donated garden furniture as Spring is just around the corner and the residents will be out and about enjoying the garden. At the task, we met Lottie (task owner), Folarin and eventually, after taking the bus over, Louise.

With loads of paint tins and paint brushes, Sam split the team:

• As mentioned, James, Paulin and Phil applied pink paint to a bench and had to quickly sand a mossy chair before quickly putting pink paint on it.
• Daryl, Isaac and Lindy painted two wooden chairs pink.
• Folarin, Lucy and Steve initially had to sand a bench before applying a grey-ish green paint.
• Louise, Maria and Tim concentrated on one wooden bench and painted it blue.
• David, Nelly and Roberta applied blue paint on two wooden chairs.

It was such a therapeutic task and we had plenty of time (40 minutes) to apply a good coat of paint. Once it came to time, we took back the paint and paint brushes to the kitchen to wash up before taking our mandatory group photo.

On the way back, we said goodbye to a couple of runners as they peeled off home, but those who stayed until the end got a lovely stretch!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! It was a chilly night, but hopefully running faster than usual helped with warming the core. Thank you to Daryl and Lindy for backmarking on the run. We're off to Salvation Army Camberwell Corps next Wednesday for more painting on Valentine's Day!

We came into this last group run of January knowing that we needed 12 more good deeds to reach our our January Challenge! Sam was keeping his fingers crossed for at least 12 Southwark members. With 21 sign ups, it was looking hopeful. Slowly, but surely, people started to stream into Old Spike. By 18:45, he looked up at everyone and gave a silent count. 14 faces, but 11 Southwark members... but just as he was about to start his speech, David entered the door. We did it, 200 good deeds in January! Hit both targets having already hit our distance target of 2,000km.

There was a lot to get through tonight, but we started by welcoming Chalomi and Jack from Central Team as well as David and Roberta who came for their second GoodGym session. Yet, tonight was special as not only we were celebrating hitting our targets and GG Southwark's 8th birthday, but Maria after four months and a half from her first good deed hit her 100th! Claiming her wings (and a cake) in the process. Kudos and well done Maria!

Sam went through his usual GG intro speech and his ice-breaker snap-poll and question tonight was about National Croissant Day and National Hot Chocolate Day, which fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. He asked which one is more preferable: croissant or hot chocolate? He also asked, if anyone wanted to share about their January highlights.

For the snap poll and winning by one vote....croissant! People's January highlights included going on holiday, birthdays, raves and learning new skills.

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"Is Stormzy from Southwark?"

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group out of Old Spike with Maria backmarked (both ways). The idea was to do a loop around Peckham Rye Park but speedy Sam realised parts of the group were behind, so he decided to change it up last minute and do an "out and back" course. It was a busy night in the park with other runners and Peckham Pacers. Yet, after our just under 4k run, we made it back to Old Spike to take a breather and a sip of Athletic Brewing IPAs.

With litter pickers and black bin bags at the ready, we had to split the group into four teams to cover 4 different areas:

• Team Laura who had Alex, Isaac, Louise and Steve covered East Dulwich.
• Team Katy who had just Daryl covered Nunhead.
• Team Paulin who had Andrada, Folarin, Maria, Nathan covered Peckham.
• Team Emma who had Chalomi, David, Lucy, Jack and Roberta covered Queen's Road Peckham.

The rules were simple. Tick off as many items on the litter bingo card in 30 minutes and cover as much distance as the winning team would be determined by items x by distance (in kilometres) = points.

After 30 minutes, each team came back with two bags worth of litter and ticked off their items (out of 25). The results were as following:

• 4th place: Team Peckham = 22 items x 1.75km (38.5 points)
• 3rd place: Team Nunhead = 21 items x 2.75km (57.75 points)
• 2nd place: Team East Dulwich = 23 items x 2.95k (67.85 points)
• 1st place: Team Queen's Road Peckham = 23 items x 3km (69 points)

The winning team took home small body gels from Body Shop. There were awards for those in Southwark that did more than 5 good deeds and covered more than 25 kilometres plus we had cake to celebrate GG Southwark's 8th birthday and Maria's 100th good deed milestone before most of us headed to The Old Nun's Head for a few drinks and pizza!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! I did go off on a faster pace than usual as I was conscious of time. It was a long run, but we managed to squeeze in the 4k run and a litter pick after my longer than usual speech and ice-breaker. Thank you to Maria for backmarking, Paulin, Emma, Katy and Laura for being sub-team leaders for the litter pick bingo. Finally, thank you to all for coming to these group runs in January, we managed to reach our targets!