Rushing from work via home to collect the portable lights, Sam thought he was going to be late meeting everyone at Old Spike Roastery and leave them out in the rain. Yet, he made it on time and luckily, the rain had stopped too. The next worry on his mind was that the weather would deter a few members and knowing that the task was going to be a big one, he kept on refreshing the website to see if anyone had dropped out....

One by one, members started to show up...Paulin, Emma, Benjamin and then Sophie showed up as we knew Emma had signposted on the website that she would meet us at the task. We waited for Ayub and Frankie, but once it turned 18:45, Sam went through the shorten GoodGym speech just giving updates of what is happening over the weekend and next week!

Knowing we had to run 3k in 20 minutes, we had a quick-ish warm-up before answering our ice-breaker question, which was: Since it's Random Act of Kindness Day tomorrow, what random act of kindness would you do?

We had offering a hot beverage or baked treat to a colleague, giving away fancy scones to a friend, being more empathetic when having a 1-2-1 chat with a friend and just being nice.

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TONNES of fun

With five runners, we ran pretty much as a group with Paulin back-marking just in case someone wanted to go at a slower pace. We ran down Peckham High Street into Surrey Canal Walkway before arriving at Burgess Park, which we cut through to get to Surrey Square Primary School. Sam told Peter he would be there by 19:15 (latest) and the group arrived right on time. At the school, Emma was there, but also Ayub and Frankie (mistaken for "Katie"...)! Hooorrrrayyyy as it was Ayub's second good deed and first group run and Frankie was staying at her brother's - she's a Hackney regular. ❤️‍

With no time to lose, Peter showed us to the tonne bags of woodchip and soil as well as where he wanted us to lay down this stuff. As he was doing this, Sam and Paulin strategically put down the six portable lights as it was pretty much pitch black in some places (safety first!). With eight GoodGymers and two areas, one would split it fifty/fifty, but Sam is clearing not great at maths 🙄....but he also knew one area needed an extra person 👀 So, he made Paulin sub-team captain of Ayub, Benjamin, Emma and Sophie as they took care of two ton bags of woodchip, which had to be put down and spread along a bordered path. There was another task for them to wheelbarrow one ton of soil to the polytunnel, but limited time and resources meant this was put on hold. Yet, let's not dampen the mood like the weather dampen our day! They shifted two tonne bags 😲 that is 2,000kg of woodchip in the dark with strong (but warm) winds in 40 minutes! 🤯 Five of them...no wonder our bodies felt tired afterwards... 💪

Team two consisted of Emma, Frankie and Sam as they laid down half a ton bag (500kg) of woodchip around the raised bed area of the school garden. With one wheelbarrow (and then we found a spare bag) and a shovel between the three of them, this team's effort might have looked to have been dwarfed by what team one did, but as a member of this team I can say we did not stop for one second. Shoveling and moving woodchip is some serious business - tough work! 🔥🙌

As the night approached 20:00, we just had about enough effort to move the final wheelbarrows of woodchip before calling it! After a slight scare that Benjamin had lost his phone (Emma found it), we took our group photo before saying our goodbyes to Peter and those who left us to go home from Surrey Square Primary School.

Frankie partially joined the group run back to Peckham - peeling off near Burgess Park before Emma did the same near Surrey Canal Walkway. The rest of us forced our tired bodies back to Peckham for a much deserved stretch just as the rain had started again.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night to run 3k each way in the strong winds and especially on the way back when our bodies had a workout! It was a proper classic GoodGym session and GoodGym weren't lying about their phrase of Getting fit whilst doing good!

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Thank You Peter

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter for thinking of us when he got this contract to help Surrey Square School via Edible Rotherhithe. I hope you manage you put down the soil and the rest of the woodchip this week!