Southwark News

• She's been doing good since May 2016, she's a powerhouse and represents everything that is GoodGym. Helena just reached 200 good deeds! Which meant she got the honour of wearing the shiny new GoodGym cape! Give her a cheer here.

• It was Pauline's last run today as she's finished her law studies and is going back to France. We'll miss you Pauline!

• There's a Great Get Together community mission on Saturday to set up the Bankside Open Spaces Trust. The Great Get Together was set up in honour of Jo Cox to fight divisive politics and bring people together. Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week it's a shorter run (3km overall) and we're going back to Cossall Estate to help tidy up and tend to their raised beds. Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Wednesday evening means Old Spike is the place to be. We gathered in the cafe as we always do and had a special briefing to celebrate Helena's 200th good deed. What an incredible milestone! Here's a gif of her in her cape and tiara.

Aloha to Richard, Jared, Sam and Harriet who joined us for the first time last night!

We set off on a steady 3.5km run to Galleywalll Nature Reserve which is a special space in Southwark that's been protected from being built on by the Friends of Galleywall Nature Reserve for over 15 years. There's two ponds (with a new one coming along), allotment plots, a polytunnel, a composting loo and a new water-gathering prototype.

We got to work on several tasks:

• Sawing logs for the fire

• Pulling up nettles and weeds

• Bagging up fully broken down compost

We got so much done in 30 minutes, Christine and Olly were delighted. We said our thank yous, took a group photo and set off just as it started to rain. A perfectly timed rain storm to soothe the nettle stings! Although we did get COMPLETELY soaked on the way home. It had stopped by the time we got back to Old Spike and we did some well-earned stretching.

Great work team! See you next week.

Lucy J

Southwark News

• This Saturday we're doing a parkrun takeover at Dulwich parkrun which means providing all the volunteer positions and some pacers! We're looking good for volunteers but could do with more friendly faces! FInd out more and sign up on the website here.

• Tuesday 4th June is the big GoodGym x Team London run from City Hall. It's an amazing opportunity to get involved in a huge GoodGym event in conjunction with the Mayor's Office. FInd out more and sign up here.

• Next week it's longer run to prep the shutters at a charity shop in Rotherhithe for painting the following week. It's 5km there and an option to get the overground back from Rotherhithe. Or you can meet us there! It's a brand new task, it'll be fab. Find out more and sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night 9 runners ran 2km to Nunhead Library to litter pick and weed the garden. After a briefing five of us started to warm up round the corner when we were joined by Conner, Jameson, Luke and Quinlan who'd come all the way down from a meeting in Kensington to come and join us.

We headed off to Nunhead Library to meet Nell who would show us into the back garden for more litter picking and weeding. Unfortunately she wasn't there but we cracked on anyway. Three full bags of rubbish later and we started to pull up some old weeds - why not make the place look ship shape!

An enormous welcome to Liv, Ellie, Charlotte, Luke, Jameson and Conner who all joined us for the first time today. The first of many good deeds!

Finished at Nunhead Library we went over to Nunhead Green for a game of heads, shoulders, knees and cone with burpees for forfeits. It got down to a pretty tense final. Excellent work everyone, some super reaction times! We then headed back to Peckham Rye where we stopped off for a round of Sally Squats to Flower by Moby. A favourite of Conroy at GoodGym Croydon's apparently - we're in good company!

An awesome first time for 6 new runners, I hope to see you again soon.

Great work team.

Lucy J

22 GoodGym'ers did some school runnings, watching their (Flora) Garden footprint as they ran 3km back to school

Despite tonight’s run following a bank holiday Monday, and the continued thoughts of another ‘so what day of the week is it today?!’, and a certain Liverpool match you may have heard about, it seemed that loads of runners were eager to run and do good in H&F on our first May run of the year.

There were lots of new faces amongst my regulars tonight - a big welcome along to Connor, Elder, Finnegan and Quilan, hope you all enjoyed your first (hopefully of many!) GoodGym group runs. Lovely to have you all along tonight!

Weekly news not for the weak...

Well done to Matt who got a parkrun PB at the weekend, the highlight being his surprise that I knew...🕵🏽‍, to Tom for his Tough Mudder and to Mo and Jonny for completing the tough burpee-filled Spartan race.

1. GoodGym 'UK-wide' monthly social - this Thursday at Batch Bar in Peckham - join Pritesh & other GG'mers to celebrate heroes of the months, April's IPOTM (International Pun of the Month) and lots of other fun. For all the details, click here.
2. May London Long Run - on Saturday 18th May, led by GoodGym Lamber Trainer, Mark around a number of South London parks (10km & 19km run options available), for all the details, click here.
3. Fulham Palace parkrun GoodGym takeover - Saturday 29th June! - Our friends at Fulham Palace parkrun will celebrate their 300th parkrun event...and the best news is that GoodGym will be helping out with a BIG takeover event! - Sign up here & please fill out the spreadsheet on the sign up page with your preferred volunteer role or pacing time.
4. GoodGym Olympics 2019 - represent H&F on Saturday 3rd August in events from the Egg & Spoon to 5000m! Sign up here.

And good luck to those that are racing on the weekend in Sofia 🇧🇬 and Ealing 🦅 - we look forward to hearing all about them next week!

Gate minds think alike...

Following a quick warm-up which included an amusing/awkward (delete as appropriate!) 'opening the gate' standoff between Catriona and Katie, we headed off on our short 1km run down to Flora Gardens Primary to see one of our favourite honorary GoodGym members, Jeanette. Pausing only briefly for the weekly wall sit it wasn't long before we arrived at the school gates and were buzzed in by Jeanette.

With us all passing the big Flora Gardens sign before we reached the entrance of 'The White House' and with it being wonderfully light, I decided to mix things up and go 'backwards' as I asked the group to gather for the team photo before we got started on the painting 🎨 tonight.

Brush hour...not for the paint-hearted!

Since there wasn’t much appetite to test the "can 22 GoodGym’ers fit in one small room and paint?!" question, so half the group headed inside with Jeanette to paint while the other half stayed outside for some 'fitness fun' which tonight comprised of circuits and the mysterious ‘destiny cards’ game. Everything was ready to go with the painting side of things so the team quickly got kitted up in their oversized L'Oreal t-shirts, armed themselves with paint brushes, and began transforming the white walls to a bright 'gilbert green' and 'heavenly horizon' colour.

No short circuits

While half the group were painting the other half got stuck into a tough circuit session which included: leg raises, frog jumps, jumping jacks, plank tap shoulders and burpees. These were all smashed out by everyone, with extra enthusiasm for the burpees from Jonny and Mo after their Spartan escapades at the weekend, and rumour was that Tom even willingly chose an upper body exercise!

Having met 'scouser Jonny's' (so many Jonny's in H&F!!) lovely friend from Uni, Helen at GoodGym Sheffield on Sunday, I passed on 20 bonus burpees to him which he duly completed, and in true team spirit, everyone joined him for his final 5 burpees. Great work all! 💪

The race of spades ♠️...it was good in hearts ♥️

Now I’m not sure if it was because the group were in a playground but the ‘destiny cards’ game led to a few friendly ‘scuffles’, and one card that magically became two smaller ones not due to being ripped in the midst of battle.... The simple aim of the game was to run out to the middle circle and collect all the cards from the teams chosen suit, obviously there was a catch, the pack of cards were face down! I’m going to declare an honourable draw for both games.

With the painting completed in double-quick time and the fitness session completed, we said our goodbyes and thankyous to Jeanette, and Sarah led the group back to base via the scenic route along the river. Following a quick stretch-off the class were dismissed for another week.

Next week's task is TBC, so please keep an eye on the WhatsApp group and weekly email for all the details. Please sign up here. Most importantly it's the monthly H&F social after the run, there will be drinks, food and friendly chat as always! See you then, have a great week!