Last night was full to the brim with bank holiday heroes spending their evening doing good in the local community and getting themselves a nice old workout in the process!

• Welcome to Paul and James who both came along for their first run last - give them a cheer!

• A huge well done to all of you that got out there running this weekend. Especially to Sam who did his 50th parkrun, Stephen and Oliver who incredibly raced at lunchtime in the Vitality 10k, John who smashed the Vitality Westminster Mile on Sunday and Matthew who did a half marathon lap race.

It was brilliant to see so many of you last night given that it was a day off for most of us. We kicked off proceedings with a warm up that featured a range of dynamic movements, and an equally important discussion about our fave ice creams. In this very official poll, it was - drum roll - Solero that came out top. A true classic!

Our job last night was at Paradise Cooperative garden, a charity that was set up to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening. They combine participation, education and celebration in cultivating under-used land in Wandsworth. It was a 2.5km run away, so we set off in the last of the evening sunshine at a good pace.

We soon arrived (after a few squats and planks along the way) to find trustee Brendan there waiting for us with a list of jobs. It was great to see the place in the light as we have often had to rely on our headtorches, and discover all the beautiful things that the team there have been busy with. Most noticeably is the new pond, which we were tasked with raking around, and all the gorgeous plants coming into fruit and flower (noticeably some quite delicious strawberries that miraculously survived our visit!). We also got stuck into moving huge logs, creating new seating areas, weeding. moving railway sleepers and having a go on the rope swing. Hard work, but a lot of fun, too!

Before we left Brenda thanked us, and let us know that the work we did tonight would have taken two regular volunteers a week to complete. What a brilliant way to spend a bank holiday -well done gang!

Next up was a quick fitness session in Wandsworth Common, starting with a game to get our heart rates up, then moving on to some tough clock sprint circuits where some teams were kinder to others when it came to keeping time! With squat holds, planks, press ups and mountain climbers, this was a good all over body workout, so well done team.

A quick run home was all that was left of our bank holiday GoodGym fix. Nice running everyone. Next week we have our final visit to the community garden in Battersea that we have been helping transform into a safe and welcoming place so it can be opened to the local residents. Sign up here to see all the details. Until then, have a great week GoodGymers!

With a backdrop of pretty colours in the sky and the smell of bonfires in the air, it was a cracking good group run in Wandsworth last night.

News, lovely news

So much good stuff to report on before our run! Here's a little roundup:

It was our very own Mr Christopher O'Driscoll's 50th good deed last night. That is a massive lot of gardening for elderly people, painting, shifting and lifting for community projects, and who knows how many miles covered! Give him a cheer next time you see him in his spanking new black tshirt for he is a GoodGym star.

Don't forget our Tooting parkrun takeover on the 17th November. We need as many eager beaver helpers as possible! There are a range of jobs to do and I'll be putting out the spreadsheet soon - sign up using the link above in the meantime.

Alyx told us about a great run she is leading soon from King's College. This women only run will be to the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, to sort and pack sanitary products, to be distributed to women via a charity that tackles period poverty. Sign up here

Don't forget it is the monthly social on Thursday - sign up here for more fun, puns and all things GoodGym!

Please give Peter, Alex and Andy a huge cheer - they came for their first group run last night! A huge welcome to the group.

After that bumper crop of news we headed outside to do our warm up, before running the 3k to our amazing task for the evening. But first, we did a poll on all things Bonfire Night - top of the pops came fireworks in our list of fav things about the night, then came bonfires (handily), all the goof food and hot alcohol, sparklers, hot baths and friends. Aaah.

After a nice steady run over to our task, accompanied by the whistle and pops of Wandsworth fireworks, we arrived at the Oasis Adventure playground charity. This is an amazing organisation that supports local kids, many of whom have disabilities. Oasis Play provides innovative and inclusive outdoor play and learning opportunities that enable disabled and non-disabled children and young people to lead happy, fulfilled lives and play positive roles in the community. It also has one of the areas most bonkers and brilliant play areas, and we had to stop ourselves getting stuck in for a good old clamber over all the fun stuff there.

We were met by David, who gave us a little background on the organisation and its history (and is well placed to do so after over 20 years at the charity!), and who had prepared tools ready for our big job that evening. Our task was to dig out a big area ready for swings and other play equipment. It was hard work - and a great upper body workout - but after just 40 minutes of work, the difference was huge. Check out the photos to see the massive hole we dug!

After all that digging we didn't have a huge amount of time left, but just enough to stop for a few minutes on the way home and knock out a quick but verrry intense tabata session. Nice frogging everyone.

Sweaty but happy we arrived back at the BAC for stretching - next week we're back to Leonard Cheshire disability charity to give them a hand with various jobs (including a wash down of those mobility buses, so wrap up warm!) . Sign up here for more Monday fun, good deeds and fitness.