Last night we met at Charlton house for a warm up and the heady prospect of finishing our task in the light! 🎉

The ice breaker involved sharing our phobias which ranged from belly buttons, to snakes, flying and fingers near eyeballs (eugh). Luckily none of the phobias were encountered on our run through Charlton Park down to the lovely Charlton Manor Primary School.

Here we were reunited with GoodGymers who met at the task and with Michael who was armed with brushes galore, paint, wet wipes and gardening tools. The task was to paint the kitchen and fences in the nursery area and get rid of all the pesky alkanet. We got to it, and many hands make for light painting so after fourty minutes we had a large section complete and lots of weeds in the bin. Excellent job team!

After a quick intervals session in a triangle round the school we stretched and headed home. A lovely evening with a lovely bunch, thank you all 😊

On Saturday we're helping at the Pet Cemetery in Hornfair Park and next Wednesday we're sorting at the Bridge Community centre.

Until next time 👋🏼

Rachel

One of the quickest missions I’ve ever done - Mr G had the steps and new bulb ready and it was in and out in a couple of minutes. Finding the flats took much longer. A quick whisper with an iron cormorant on the way home.

Wow! A record 16 litterpickers turned out for Clean Up Charlton's monthly pick... with 9 GoodGymers included. Our 16 bags of rubbish were a bit lighter than usual as they seemed to be half full of cigarette ends - maybe the stress of a 2:1 loss for Charlton Athletic yesterday? And Ivar was on shocking form as you can see...

With such a big group we powered round Anchor & (no) Hope Lane, Bugsby's Way (plenty of MacDonald's litter there) and Woolwich Road before meeting at M&S for the usual celebratory coffee. Today, the team was really the perfect blend.

Here's a great joke from one of our sparky junior litterpickers: "What did the egg say to me when I told it a joke?" ..... wait for it.... "You crack me up!". He's got a future as a GoodGym report writer!

Thanks team for making SE7 a lot nicer. Love you a latte.

Presenting this year's Easter Parade - Good-gym style!

12 GoodGym-ers met on a changeable Easter Saturday morning, some travelling from Park run to Bark run, for our Community Mission today at the lovely Maryon Park Community Garden.

We were met by Tim & Edna, as well as a veritable mountain of freshly delivered woodchip, which our task today was built around. The woodchip had to be moved uphill from the entrance to the Forest School area beyond the food growing plots.

Cue lots of teamwork and with shovels at the ready we were soon loading up wheelbarrows and relaying them up the hill to where more of the team were waiting with rakes to smooth over the woodchip in the Forest School.

After half an hour we'd already made a huge dent in the pile, getting it down to a definite hill, at which point resident beetle Ringo decided to make his objections known. Regrettably, Ringo did have to be re-housed, but is hopefully settling nicely in his new woodland home.

Soon the hill became a few scraps & it was time to sweep up the last few flakes, down tools and partake in a much appreciated cuppa ☕️

A very warm welcome to Mayuri on your first task.

Thanks all & see you soon 😊

9 GoodGym-ers made their way from various start points between Charlton & Woolwich, along the river at Woolwich, to the outskirts of a retail estate in Plumstead, where fast food, a major roundabout, and several pedestrian/cycle interchanges have contributed to a huge build up of rubbish.

Our task might not have been as exciting as this morning's Lunar Litterpick, but adventures were to be had as we got to see the best & worst of the area, passing through local parks along the way.

Joined by other volunteers, we hastily got to work gathering the usual bottles, cans, coffee cups, masks, water bottles, chocolate wrappers & papers into bags. Some of this involved hedge battles to rescue the captive litter, which in general I think we won, with many bags of waste & recyclables to show for it.

Time made April Fools of us all, and soon darkness was announcing the end of today's task. A final workout taking lots of full rubbish bags to the bins around the corner and we headed our separate ways.

Until next time!

It’s been a great sunny morning for us GoodGymers, enjoying the parkrun community and making the most of the weekend.

First up, Bea was holding it down at Thames Path as tailwalker, with a front-row view of some serious Saturday overachievement. One runner (we think John!) had already ticked off Charlton parkrun and still made it over to Thames Path to finish ahead of Bea—two parkruns in one morning! Honestly, if we could, we would too 😄 Bea, meanwhile, kept the good vibes going and cheered everyone home to the finish.

Meanwhile, over at Greenwich Peninsula, Julian was on finish token duty – or should we say token gesture turned token tornado! A rogue gust of wind sent tokens flying at around position 200, creating a brief moment of chaos. But in true GoodGym style, calm heads prevailed, teamwork kicked in, and every runner got the correct time. That’s what we call a finishing touch under pressure.

Back at Charlton, I joined fellow GoodGymers including Linda, our fantastic Race Director. Evie, who brought the beats as well as the feet 🎶. Armed with a speaker and an upbeat Spotify playlist, we parkwalked, chatted about past and future races, PBs, and toughest courses – because what’s a parkrun without a bit of sole-searching? I even dropped a nugget from Jim Kwik: “When you move, your brain grooves” – and honestly, it felt spot on.

Post-parkrun? Straight to the café for a coffee and a catch-up before heading off to the next GoodGym task. Lovely jubbly! 🌞

Three different experiences, one shared vibe: getting out there, showing up, and being part of something bigger. These are the moments you don’t get sitting at home waiting for motivation – you create them by lacing up and stepping out.

As always, the best way to start the weekend is right here in this brilliant parkrun community. Just bring a smile, and connection comes easy

Till next time. Cecilia 🍀