13 runners ran 7km to spread love in Southwark last night

A big hello to our new runners last night Tom, Marie and Alex ! On Tuesday eve we heard the news that Cossall had a flood over the weekend so our plan to clear up the hall was postponed!

Thinking caps on, Helena helped me design a scavenger hunt. She also led a great warm up because I’m still a little broken from Paris marathon. We had many challenges with different point values that included handing out GoodGym leaflets, picking litter and exercises. The teams had 45 minutes to get back to base to tot up the scores.

Challenges: Photos of a good dog Litter picking (points per bag) Longest plank 20 burpees 20 squats Train stations GG leaflets handed out

Bonus: Pubs with P in them Interpretative team photo Best pun

Scores on the doors

• 4th place – The rebellion 63 points but with the LONGEST PLANK 07.08 - big cheer for Helena

• 3rd Place – 3 stars 104 points and the winner of the interpretation bonus for 'Two Star Tandoori' - see photo above!

• 2nd Place – Off Piste in Peckham 132 points and the pun winner or their team name

• 1st Place – Dogspotters 146 points and the most pubs (7!)

Each participant received a medal and a mystery red-themed prize. Solid work team, we spread some love around Peckham and had a blast doing it. Next week we’re going to the Salvation Army to help with their baby bank. I look forward to seeing you there!

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Oh what a joy it is to be at GoodGym Southwark! Eight of you awesome people ignored the signs of impending weather carnage and met up with me at Old Spike for another evening of doing good and getting fit in Southwark!

In what was probably my most relaxed intro ever we talked about goodgym, the social (which is today!), the upcoming goodgym olympics, what street furniture to avoid when running (cars (ki-yars), wheely bins, cats...), what day bin day is in Southwark and i'm not even sure what else! I think everyone contributed something and eventually I got out the task we were doing (shifting manure at Grove Park Allotments) and went through the usual health and safety briefing too! If only all intros were so much fun!

We had no first time runners tonight but shouts to Hetty who was running for the first time in Southwark and to Lydia who is still fairly new to GoodGym and Jon who did his 5th good deed - great to have you along!

Is it wheely bad that I don't know when bin day is?

With everything taken care of we headed over the road for a warm-up including what I call forward jumping jacks and Helena calls spotty dogs - the internet tells me we are both right...it also tells me there are way more variants on the simple jumping jack (aka star jump) than you can possibly think of - have a look!

Spotty dogs!

It's not a long run to Grove Park Allotments but it is up a big hill, Helena expertly led us there and we all powered up the hill to get there. We met Liz who outlined our jobs for the evening. The main job was to move a couple of pallets of manure from the gate into the allotment and deliver some to certain plots.

We created a human chain to get things moving quickly and then the group split as some delivered specific bags to various plots and the rest of the group continued to move the bags up to the allotment. It was hard but fun work and occasionally quite smelly too - oops! Thanks to Becky who patiently moved a bag of manure slowly for me to make the gif you can see above!

Man-ure awesome!

Everyone worked really hard and we got the job done, with a little time left before we had to go we decided to go over the holes we had started last week - these will eventually get filled with saplings but some of the holes needed a bit more work on them - it was hard work but we certainly did the job.

With that done it was time for a group photo (thanks to Matt (37 good deeds up!) for additional lighting effects - check out that lens flare!) and then we headed back to Old Spike, had a quick stretch and said our goodbyes and headed home...or to the pub :)

It's always a pleasure to cover in Southwark and you didn't disappoint - thanks to the pun contributors and thanks to all of you for making my evening so fun and easy!

Cheers, Pritesh

We started the night off with two big bits of news. Southwark had hit their good deeds and distance January Challenge targets - Yeah! Plus, Beth Hoskins has been recognised by the Prime Minster for reaching 500 good deeds by reaching the ‘Points of Light award’ - give her a cheer.

For this week’s task we were off to Bee Urban, a social enterprise that offers free bike maintenance sessions on a Saturday to the local community. They also care for some very urban bees too.

To avoid the busy high streets on the way there we took a loopy diversion up and across Burgess Park with exercise intermissions to tire out the speedy runners at the front.

Once we found Bee Urban, camouflaged amongst estate garages Barnaby was there to greet us and give the group a brief run down of what they do there. Then asked 4 people to brave the cold and clear leaves from the planters and drive outside. And the rest of the group were split into: checking inner tubes, sorting bike wheels, wheel locks and sweeping. Then all too quickly it was time for a quick group photo and to head off again a nice direct route back to base.

Well done for getting out and running January Southwark.

Last night in Hounslow started with party rings, marshmallow cakes and by welcoming lovely new runners Audrey and Saule to the group. Give them a cheer, Hounslow!

After a run down of the week's news, a reminder that the Christmas party is going to be on the 8th December at the Battersea Arts Centre and a quick talk about the task, we moved outside to brave the cold and do some dynamic warm ups. And also to find out what everybody's favourite crisps are. All the important stuff.

With our heart rates up, and having discovered that we love skips, kettle crisps, vegetable crisps for the health conscious, and tortilla chips, we were ready for the off. Tonight's task was just over 2.5 k away, and we took the outward leg nice and steady, just stopping for a few wall sits and quick jumping jacks.

We made it to Ealing Road Baptist Church, which also acts as a food bank and homeless shelter, in no time at all, and were greeted by one of the men who uses the shelter. With Jeremy and Saule taking on the toughest job in the very dusty cellar, Andy, Natasha, Will and Audrey started on the various tasks in the food bank. Jo (whose high point of the night was discovering a chocolate unicorn - did anyone actually see where that went?), Jennifer, Remy and Alex tackled the cleaning jobs in the kitchen, hall and bathroom. There was also clothes to sort for the community, including a rather nice cape (we think) and lots of other little jobs that the team smashed through super quickly.

Which meant more time for the core blast. Hurrah! We were lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the lovely warm room to do our fitness session tonight, rather than yomping about in the mud outside. So we thought we better make it count. With two sets of five exercises aimed at working our abs - essential for efficient running and helping to prevent injuries - we spent 15 minutes doing planks, crunches, reverse crunches, Russian twists, bicycles and much more. Who is feeling it today?

With another 2.5k run in front of us, we hit the road and used the long straight section to the half way point to do some fartlek. This speed work is tough, but great training. We ran the last section as a team to finish off the night with some stretches and a well-earned pat on the back.

Next week we're tackling some tasks at a charity which supports people with long term mental health issues, Friends of Cathja. Sign up here to lend a hand.

We had a Hounslow first to kick off the night yesterday evening - a massive congratulations to [Andy] who is the first of the group to reach that 50 good deed milestone! Give him a huge cheer for this achievement. To celebrate there was cake, lots and lots of cake. We were also treated to a fabulous honey cake made by Remy (who had also run a barnstorming half marathon at the weekend) to mark Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tova everyone!

We were also given our cards by Dave for our team to take part in Hounslow's Beat the Street, welcomed lovely GG ers Alex from Ealing, and Helen and Jordan from Wandsworth, and were very happy to have Jennifer back in the group.

We will rock you

With our task waiting for us just across the road, we had a quick topical chat about our favourite celebrations - Christmas, Passover, St Patrick's day, Norwegian national day and, erm, pancake day all topped the list - and then hopped over to Turnham Green to find Jan waiting for us with tools, bulbs, plants and gloves ready to get stuck in.

Apparently we have had lots of compliments about our previous job on the green where we cleared a huge meadow of thistles, so it was great to move onto the next stage of the job. With Alex and Jennifer tackling the central area planting some beautiful pots, two other teams spread out over the different areas to get to grips with the weeds. The light was fading quickly, but with some headtorches and sheer grit we cleared the rockeries and planted packs of tulip bulbs which we will admire next spring as we do our sprints.

Tulips, two legs

Job done, we moved on to our fitness session, kicking off with some Indian file round the park to get our heart rates up. We then had a quick game of 'grab the light' (the name needs some work) before moving on to the real session, which was a tough one. We concentrated on three areas - core, glutes and arms. Starting with glutes we did six exercises for 45 seconds, including lunges, squats, power skips and hip thrusts before moving onto abs. For that we used the benches to smash out planks, holds, plank jumps and side planks as well as, of course, dead bugs. Finally we tackled those difficult upper body drills with press ups, tricep dips and even an arm wrestle.

After all that, all that was left was to do a good stretching session and to eat cake. Ever run should end with some. Sign up for next week's run, where we will put those beat the street cards to good use.