It was the wettest group in Lewisham since the time we visited GRACE and ran back in a thunderstorm, I’d checked throughout the day and a lot of people had signed up for the celebratory evening but then I stood in Glassmill wondering if it would just be me running to Beecroft.

I should have had more faith, of course people began to arrive and not just from Lewisham, but from Sheffield and Stockport (lovely to have some more fellow Northerners visit) and everyone braving the rain to do good!!

After a quick run through of the news from the past week: GoodGym Croydon Parkrun takeover at Bethlem Parkrun, Community Missions and Bradley winning a 10 mile race, it was time to head out into the rain and warm up. I was so excited about having enough people to use tennis balls in the warm up that my description of the warm up was so confusing but after some rearranging of people and re-explaining what on Earth we were doing, we got there and warmed up we set off on the uphill (slight incline if you’re from Sheffield) and arrived at Beecroft before we knew it and slightly more soggier than when we left Glassmill.

Before we could get stuck into the amazing cakes that a parent at the school had made for us (thank you so much!!), a couple of tasks needed completing:

• moving bags of sand to the front of the playground to an area that is going to be made into a Peace Garden
• creating a water maze using pipes that will be attached to the side of the shed (photo's included for those who don't know what one of them is - I didn't at first!)
• hanging bells in order, in the Sensory Garden area so the children can learn to play some songs (mainly Christmas Carols)

*Garden forks earn popping corks! *

Once the tasks had been completed it was time to celebrate all the hard work that has been done since July 2018. Whilst we tucked into cupcakes and Prosecco, we watched a presentation that showed the transformation of the area and the various stages and all the people involved - there were a couple of speeches as well.

Everything tidied away and we began our run back to Glassmill, I switched up the route on the way bag to run past Hilly Fields but at the last moment decided against hill repeats as everyone was pretty drenched by now and time wasn’t on our side. Instead we continued back to Glassmill with a sprint finish for those who wanted to and inside to the warmth to kind of dry off a bit and stretch (thanks Amber!).

Thanks to Oli for backmarking and providing the excellent puns!

A big thank you to everyone for their efforts with various tasks (digging, wheelbarrowing, painting, more wheelbarrowing, shovelling and missing out on the heavy duty tools!!) over the past 18 months, it’s amazing to see what we’ve helped achieve, from groups runs to missions that have taken place at Beecroft. A huge thank you to Gemma for all her efforts in getting the project off the ground and being there on Monday evenings organising and encouraging us in all weathers!

Next week, we are off to Crofton Books which is a lovely indoor task!

I was the only runner on this community mission so I pitched in alongside Beecroft Garden Primary School families on their volunteer gardening day. Despite the heatwave, impressive progress was made towards creating the school’s new sensory garden and outdoor chill-out and reading areas.

After doing some rubbish-clearing and weeding, Gemma asked me to prepare containers for the older pupils to pot up the flowering bedding plants they’ve been growing for sale at their summer fair – a great way of re-using empty olive oil and passata tins donated by a local pizza restaurant! The money raised from the plant sale will be used to help finish work on the garden project.

I resisted the temptation to join the children playing with buckets of water in the shade and instead stuck with watering the garden and the potted plants as a welcome way to get a bit wet and cool off from the sun.

By the time I left the other volunteers – still working hard – it was 28 degrees so I opted to walk home rather than attempt another red-faced run!

As the sun shone, 21 runners did good, covering 5km of running, helping at Beecroft Garden Primary School and running up and down hills!

I can barely contain myself today, every time I looked at Strava over the weekend someone had either been on a run, or carried out a good deed! Here's a round-up of all the news:

• Jacqueline and Clare were at Endure 24, outside Reading, running round and round for 24 hours, amazing work (and in the pouring rain at some points too!).

• Kim and Tom ran a HUGE training run (around 30k, with Hilly Fields parkrun as a starter)!

• Sarah got herself a parkrun PB with the help of Louise's motivational support.

• Helen and Kim ran their 50th parkrun!

• Caireen and Ian were over at the Grove Park Nature Reserve, helping to clear an area for some bees (it looked really beautiful).

• A group of us did a litter-pick before Hilly Fields parkrun, a now regular community mission.

We have a few more opportunities to get involved outside our group runs:

• Helping at the Hilly Fields Midsummer Fayre (various roles at different points throughout the day).

• Tidying the outdoor space at the Bellingham Children's Centre.

Winners on aggregate!

Mega shout-out to Vic and Marta, who both did a whopping three missions on Saturday, with Marta topping the leaderboard last month with 28 good deeds...28!!

This week we welcomed a brand new runner! Lewisham Love to Matthew. What a great evening to make your debut, as one of our regular runners hit a milestone! Well done to Chloe, who hadn't even realised she was completing her 50th good deed tonight! Many of us will remember Chloe's starring moment, at our birthday run over to Crofton Books, where she helped to compose and then perform a GoodGym poem.

Can I barrow that bucket?

Thank you to Kim - with her tired legs - for leading us at the front this evening and to Marta for back-marking. We met Gemma and Tom at the task and were blown away by how much the space has moved on since our last visit. There are sleepers, the steps are more gravelly, the purple paint has spread further and there is a slide, ready to be fitted. Gemma quickly gave us a run-through of the many jobs on offer. We soon had teams working on:

• shovelling aggregate into barrows and wheeling it to the steps
• raking the aggregate to level it out
• painting the interior of the 'sensory room' a darker shade of blue/purple
• painting the trellis
• digging and picking the slope where the slide will go, finding and removing rocks

That's a lot of work going on in one space!

Blue is the new green

There were the usual challenges, a wheelbarrow with a flat tyre (always, why don't they make puncture-proof wheelbarrows?!), keeping between the lines whilst painting (well done Vic, exemplary work), ascertaining the correct pickaxe technique, and uncovering an ants' nest. Before we left, Gemma told us there will be a couple of chances to help out on a Saturday, this week and then on June 29th - we will list these as community missions, so watch this space!

It would seem churlish to pass by Hilly Fields without at least one little hill run. We totally surpassed this though, with a good, hard FOUR repeats. Great work from everyone, that is possibly the toughest hill in the park!

Next week, we are heading to Crofton Park again, this time to our friends at Crofton Books - hoorah! Sign up here and don't forget to sign up to our Summer Social too, this Thursday at Wildcat Wilderness :)

*Thank you Oli for the puns in this report (the title pun is all my own work this week though - glows with pride - *

On a lighter evening (hoorah!) 20 runners covered 5km and helped shift a whole load of gravel at Beecroft Garden Primary School.

Yes! The clocks went forward, life is good. We had a busy weekend again, with runners off visiting older people, either for a chat, or to help out with a task in their home. If you want to find out more about this, have a look here. At one mission, runner Samuel very quietly completed his 50th good deed! Samuel doesn't generally come along on a Monday, so most of these have been helping older people. Well done Samuel! Why not see what he and Nykolette got up to and also give him a cheer?!

This week we welcomed Sarah along for her first run with GoodGym Lewisham (she has been part of GoodGym Camden for a few years, but now lives closer to us), how exciting! Lewisham Love to you!

We have been visiting the Sensory Garden at Beecroft Garden Primary School for a few months now and have really seen it grow and develop from an ugly wall, piled high and overgrown, to a series of easily accessible, wide steps, an indoor calm space and an area for new planting. This week we were visiting to take the project another leap forward by lifting, shifting and spreading a massive amount of gravel.

Big thanks to Kim for running up front again this week with Amber (and for leading the stretches at the end, superbly done) and to Jacqueline, Itmari and Chloe for back-marking and keeping everyone together, what a team!

It was such a joy being out in the daylight, the sky orange, with little fluffy clouds. On arrival at the school, Jules and Gemma very quickly showed us the work that has happened since our last visit - wow! The steps, fence and some trellises are now painted a lovely plummy shade and everything looks so much more solid! Gathering wheelbarrows and shovels (or spades?), we made our way round to the skip area, where there were a number of massive sacks of aggregate and gravel.

One group got busy shovelling this into buckets and trugs, while another group wheeled these back around to the garden, where others tipped it all out onto the steps. As this went on, a smaller team continued painting, chatting as they worked, about races such as 'Race the Horse' and 'Race the Train' (yes, such races exist!). Around at the gravel mound, talk had turned to pies and whether there is a time of year for pie (I think it's perfectly fine to eat pie all-year-round). Being in a Sensory Garden, there are some magical touches but, at one point, I thought I could see two little elves at work in the corner. As I got closer, I could see it was Itmari and Will, working carefully to sand the rough edges of a hand-made xylophone (beautifully crafted by Gemma, using old zimmer-frames!). Just as we approached 8pm, the light had fallen slightly, but was still just bright enough to take a group photo, making use of the part-filled steps. We will be back!

As is often the case on a trip to Crofton Park, we are drawn to the slopes of Hilly Fields, with a few repeats pushing us up and pulling us down. With one last push to the top, we admired the view over towards Canary Wharf before easing down the hill back to our start point. Kim took us through our stretching paces this week - thank you - and we looked forward to next Monday, when we will be off over to Ewart Road Clubhouse, our first trip there in about a year! Expect a nice outdoor task and a run of about 7km in total.

See you soon!

On a unseasonably mild February evening, 22 runners covered between 5 and 6k to help out at Beecroft Garden Primary School

This week, as we head into March (Happy Saint David's Day for Friday!), we are celebrating our Heroes of February. It has been another incredible month of goodness, support, activity, sharing and giving. Check out these stats!

• Distance covered: Vic with 303km (at time of going to press!)
• Cheers given: Sarah with 607 (I haven't counted myself, but seriously, I don't know where I find the time to do anything else with all the cheering I do, I can't get enough of it!)
• Cheers received: Nykolette with 309
• Good deeds: Nykolette with a whopping 9! This might explain all her - well deserved - cheers.

Great work everyone.

A very big welcome and all our Lewisham Love go this week to Ruth, who joined us for the very first time and also to Ian G, who was joining us for the first time in a long time (he has been coach running, just unable to make our group runs!). Lovely to see you both!

This week our run was taking us on a 5k round-trip, over to our good friends at Beecroft Garden Primary School. First of all we did need to warm up though, with a variation on a theme, giving us the chance to take our knee-tagging a bit further. A very big thank you to Marta for back-marking this evening, keeping us together all the way to Crofton Park.

We were met at the task by Gemma, who quickly told everyone about the different jobs:

• Digging away some more bricks/rocks/soil to make space for another step
• Transferring soil into wheelbarrows to be run over to the skip
• Getting in the skip to take receipt of the barrows
• Weeding the big raised bed at the front
• Helping to bring some bags of compost from the car, to be spread beyond the newly-installed fence at the front

There was very quickly an air of urgency around the space, with wheelbarrows being pushed to and fro, spades digging deep to shift the soil (this space was pretty much cleared by the end of the evening!), pickaxes swinging, weeds being pulled, compost being spread and ramps being run up. Gemma referred to tonight's jobs as a 'hotch-potch' and she was right, but it's amazing to see how everyone pulls together to complete each of the different jobs, working as a team and working towards a common goal.

We were soon gathering for our group photo (after some rather lovely treats from Gemma - thank you) and taking the downward run back to our start point and the Monthlyish Time Trial (which was met with such enthusiasm when I mentioned it in my briefing...). For those of you who don't know, we have a little (almost) 1k lap outside our start point - four laps of Cornmill Gardens - which we aim to tackle once a month. Lots of our runners decided to give it a go tonight, with Oli and Ian going head-to-head at the front, pulling each other along, their competitive spirit kicking in as they neared the finishing line (it's a great spectator sport!). If you're into Strava stats and segments, you can check out the segment for this TT here and see where people are on the leaderboard.

On Sunday at 10.30am, we have another chance to visit Beecroft Garden, to do some work in the daylight, alongside families from the school. Sign up here to get involved. Next Monday we will be heading to Wildcat Wilderness, our first visit of 2019. It will be dark, so please bring a head-torch if you have one. It's a slightly longer run, of around 7km, with a great physical task in the middle. Sign up here to join in.

Don't forget!

It's that time of year again, where we get all competitive against our fellow GoodGym members, at the GoodGym Olympic Games! There are races for those with a more serious approach, but also events for people who want to show off their sack-racing skills or even baking prowess! Sign up here and find out more about what's involved (basically a lot of fun with friends in the sunshine).

See you soon!

On a freezing cold Monday in Lewisham 23 runners covered 5km, shifted soil, cleared leaves and weeds and tackled a 1km time trial.

Big thanks to Oli for tonight's rocking title pun and others throughout this report.

My mind is utterly blown by the extent of goodness on display locally over the weekend! We had people over at South Norwood parkrun, supporting our friends at GoodGym Croydon through volunteering, we had Olivia completing her first mission AND community mission in one morning and we had a whole host of people at our Beecroft Garden task and out there running to help people in their homes and to visit for a weekly chat. Just incredible.

All this effort has edged us that much closer to our goals in the January Challenge, with an extra special mention going to Nykolette, who did three good deeds on Saturday, taking her up to fourteen for January, wow!

All our Lewisham Love this week goes to Alex who joined us for her very first GoodGym group run and to Nicky and Kate who came on tour from GoodGym Kingston, to accompany Alex, how lovely!

After a very quick warm-up, we stepped lively up and over to Crofton Park, with Nykolette very kindly keeping us together at the back. As we ran past Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery, I heard about how GoodGym Kingston had a graveyard task at Hallowe'en, complete with skeleton costumes and everything! They're fearless in South West London! Arriving at the school, I was very excited to see all the work that has been done since our last visit and I wasn't disappointed. What incredible progress everyone has made, with only a little more digging to be done.

Ramping up the effort

Surrounded by wheelbarrows, it was easy for people to find a piece of equipment and get on with the task. A group of determined diggers worked at levelling the last bit of soil in the stepped area, some powerful pushers took barrowfuls of soil around to the skip and, around the front, our wonderful weeders tended to the raised beds. At the rapidly filling skip, we had a team of turbo tippers, taking receipt of the heavy barrows and spreading the dumped soil over the surface, making room for the next load. The ramp wheeling techniques were impressive, with Kim in particular embracing the added bit of 'hill' work.

Don’t forget to serve your tipper

It really was a hive of activity tonight, with work going on in all areas of the playground. Keeping an eye on everyone kept me out of mischief and it was time for a five minute countdown before I knew it. A few last barrow runs, a gathering of weeds and the scraping off of sticky mud and it was time for our group photo (apologies here to Oli, who really does have an actual head in real life). We will return to Beecroft soon, to see the project through, so keep an eye on the group run page.

Nightskipper

It's been a while since we did our 'monthly' Time Trial, so I thought we should try and squeeze one in before January is out. For those who don't know, the TT is four laps of the area outside our start point, which is near enough 1km (and is a Strava segment if you're into that sort of thing). It was a great effort from everyone, with Tom, then Oli racing in, closely chased by Emily. Thank you to Nykolette and Amber, who encouraged Clare to give all she had for that last push to the finish!

A couple of things for your diary:

• On Saturday afternoon our neighbours, GoodGym Bromley, have a community mission, collecting donations for the Rainbow Trust at Crystal Palace Sainsbury's.

• On Sunday Nykolette has arranged for us to volunteer at the Cancer Research Winter Run. There are various roles to take on, so have a look here to sign up and find out more.

• Next week we have a brand new task, over at the Salvation Army in Deptford. We will also have a smaller group heading to GRACE to help set up their new shop space, sign up here.