27 absolute champs met up this evening for some fine running, efficient tasking and a whole lot of cake.

We first welcomed Jessica and William to the crew 👏 and heard about all the fun things going on in and around GoodGym Lambeth.

And then we split; half taking the 9k run option to the Portico Gallery and half opting for a more chilled 3k run to a couple of tasks near Loughborough Junction.

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Beth and Samantha took the lead on the shorter run and had this to say:

As we approached Loughborough Junction farm we spotted Karen heading round the corner with a wheelbarrow to Styles Gardens so headed there to meet her and three stayed there to do some digging. The bulk of the work though was at Loughborough farm so the majority of the group were based there and tasked with moving soil from a couple of large bags to a couple of other large bags. It sounds simple enough but add in limited light and wheelbarrows with some tricky turns to negotiate and it all became quite the challenge. After half an hour we’d made a decent dent in the original bags and headed back to Papa’s wondering how much cake we could get through before the portico group got back.

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The rest of us headed off to the weird and wonderful Portico Gallery in West Norwood. They've long been at the core of the WN Feast which happens on the first Sunday of the month, storing all the gear used for the stalls.

John gave us a run down of our task, with some company from a much slimmer looking (in a good way) Methuselah the cat, and we got to work.

The Lighthouse Family

With some expert light shining from Alice and John, we split the gazebo weights into categories based on whether their straps had velcro, clips or needed attention. Once sorted, we neatly put the clipped bags back on the pallets so that John's team could sort fix up the rest.

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On our return we were all treated to an UNBELIEVABLE array of bakes;

🍰 Matt invented a lovely moist Mojito Cake (& it was vegan 🤩)

🍰 GoodGym Olympics star baker Issy cooked a delicious Dorset Apple Cake 🍏

🍰 On a 1920's theme Beth brought a yummy banana cake with rum-soaked cherries in 🍒

🍰 And not convinced there was going to be enough cake (lol), Sarah brought a sumptious coffee cake AND some Mars chocolate crispy cake 😋

And Valcie from Papa's Park left us some sweets for our community mission work at the weekend!

Same again next week please everyone! 👅

30 runners with some serious weather predicting skills just knew that the clouds would clear for a lovely evening's running and do-gooding.

First up we welcomed newcomer Will (turns out he's a dab-hand with a saw - see below👇) and we then dished out our SPOTM to none other than Tom Benson - As well as having done a load of good deeds, he organised our trip to Wales to Race the Horse, the GoodGym Olympics and last weekend's #GGSUPERSATURDAY. He's an absolute legend and we're so proud that he's still a regular Lambeth runner. And he even lead the run to one of our tasks this week!

A brand new (but deflated football), electrolytes, a handy card protector and the return of the FED SHREDZ had a worthy winner.

👏👏👏

And then we split.

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18 of us ran to Moorlands Gardens which is an awesome community allotment, buried in a little housing estate near to Brixton station. We met Grant who set us a bunch of tasks:

• Turning and forking over a few vegetable patches
• Lopping and sawing down the buddleia
  
• Pulling up the weeds around the bottom of the fruit trees so they can be mulched
• and a bonus task of moving some massive railway sleepers to be used for allotment boundaries

Of course GoodGym Lambeth blitzed the tasks with ease and got an extra arm/back workout from the sleeper lifting and some entertainment from plenty of frogs who seemed intent on joining the gang.

We ran back with some wallsits, tricep dips and squats en route.

ABSOLUTELY RIBBITING

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Tom led the remaining on a longer run and had this to say:

So me and a merry gang of 12 of us, took a steady jog to St Michael's Fellowship, a residential home in Herne Hill. Although I studied the map before I left I managed to give the team a bit of a detour but all good we made it where we were welcomed with biscuits and water. So after being handed our tools it was head torches on and it was operation tidy the front and back gardens. Jobs included raking up loads of leaves, pulling up leaves and getting everything ship shape. So we got down to it, and results were very impressive, within 20 minutes we had three full sacs and all felt very pleased. I even managed to get my anecdotes about why we see snails after its been raining and Issy gave us a debrief on plastics. It was very good all round. All that was left was to peg it back to papas.

Well done team!

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We were then treated to some delicious cookies and biscuits from Carol and Victoria! 😋

What a banging evening of running and doing good from the rockstars of GoodGym Lambeth!

We kicked off by welcoming Tasha, Jon, Saoirse and Georgia to their first run with us - give them a cheer!

FUN FACT: Loads of Lambeth buildings are named after prominent Afro-Caribbean figures. Max Roach was a Jazz drummer from NYC 🥁

This week’s task was a new one for us - Loughborough Community Centre at Max Roach. It is an awesome place for children in the local area - they host a whole range of clubs and activities. Over the school holidays they had about 200 children who came to play together and have a meal every day.

We split into a few groups to get there (walking, chill run, long run) and met Candice who gave us a bunch of jobs:

👉Barrowing wood chip from outside the sheds to the One O’Clock Club’s vegetable garden.

👉Rearranging the logs into seating areas

👉Sweeping the entrance and concrete areas

👉Dismantling planters

👉Weeding in the vegetable patches and ‘mud pits’

👉Getting rid of the bindweed in the compost area

👉Watering the plants in the poly tunnel and vegetable patch

I’m getting tired just listing them!

So our wondrous team of GoodGymers got to work shovelling and pulling and transporting and clearing. It was a sight to behold.

And after half an hour we’d blitzed the place. Props to Lauren to finishing that mud pit!!

We then headed back for a biscuit 🍪

Top work everyone!

NEXT WEEK is a big one - GoodGym’s 10th Birthday! Our no.1 task is to get a photo in front of Lambeth’s best known landmark (after the London Eye…) but then we’ll have a couple of task options:

• A bunch of jobs at Hillside Gardens

• Clearing some weeds at Papa’s Park

And then the real party begins…AT THE PUB. 🍻 Click here to sign up!

Last night Lambeth got done not one, not two, but THREE TASKS! And all in the heat - woah. 😅

We were 33 strong including superheroes Sophie, Bethany, Lauren and Rachel who joined us for the first time 👏👏 And our SPOTM winner was none other than the fabulous Phil Woodall, who smashed out 50k at the Bath Two Tunnels a couple of weeks ago. He’s also done 82 good deeds and is on a 20 month group run streak! A University of Surrey sports bottle, garlic crusher, blue piggy bank and toy car that we found in a trolley at Myatt’s Field well deserved.

The three tasks:

1️⃣ Sticking around at PAPA’s Park to paint the bench and do some weeding.

2️⃣ Spreading mulch, chucking out wood and making netting structures at the ‘Children’s Garden’ with Urban Growth.

3️⃣ Flyering for the awesome Brixton People’s Kitchen near Oval

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Beth was on paint organising duty with those who didn’t fancy a run - Some ace press ups and tricep dips from Steve though (see pics). Lucy (sadly departing next week - but we’re having a CEILIDH) left her mark on the bench - don’t worry, we covered it up - and Rebecca and Steve got to work on the weeding. In less than an hour the painting was done and the only remaining challenge was to stop the kids in the park from jumping on it…

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Most of us ran to the Tulse Hill estate to meet Flora and Orsetta from Urban Growth. Lauren, Steven and Issy were on the barrow run, filling up with mulch and delivering it to the path. Everyone else was split between weeding the path (pre-mulching) and moving some old planter wood & creating structures from canes for netting to go over.

It was all done in no time! We finished with a final stamping of the mulch (lol - see gifs) and headed back to base at a seriously good pace.

Awesome stuff.

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And as for Team 3, Nicky gave us this rundown:

10 runners braved the heat to run beyond Oval to deliver some flyers for the Brixton People's Kitchen. We split into three teams and had a list of roads each to cover. After about 20 minutes, with leaflets delivered to a good few flats (and to some people on the street who requested them!), we ran back to Papa's.

And they even did (the) Lambeth Walk!

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Good work team!

See you next week for a trip to Kennington Gardens - Sign up here! and also THE FIRST BAKES OF THE LAMBETH SWEET-STAKES. 🧁🥖🥮