We finally went back to the bees!! I'd heard lots about Bee Urban, loads of people's favourite task, basically a collection of hives and flowers to keep the bees going and make some tasty honey. 😋

We had a beeeeautiful team, ready to get BUZZY. 🐝🐝🐝🐝

Barnaby gave us a couple of jobs:

🌸🌺🌼Planting bulbs - finding little spots around the park to plant some bulbs with some concise instructions 👌

🍂Sifting compost - shovelling a load of compost onto a big sieve to get rid of all the leaves (and twigs and sunglasses?!) and then wheelbarrowing that into a big sack - we filled 3!

After an hour we were done and hit the road (back in time for the Bake Off 🧁)

Nice to have some visitors from nearby - shout out to Miranda and Holly off of Hammersmith & Fulham and Emma from Southwark!

Also nice one Will - he SMASHED the London Marathon just two days ago 👏👏👏 And is booked in for another one in just a month!

32 runners ran 5km to help out Bee Urban by beeing distinctly un-urban and getting on with a variety of garden tasks.

Bees!, said Oprah.

Close. Stuffy. Claggy. Your thesaurus will tell you that these are all acceptable synonyms for the weather on the evening of GoodGym Lambeth's trip up to help Barna-bee (B for short) at social enterprise Bee Urban. But, hey, sweat is just fat crying (was it Richard Simmons who first said that?) so you didn't hear any complaining from our raring runners.

We kicked off with a warm welcome (partially because it was already so warm) to newcomers Luke , Felicity , Eleanor , Gavin, and Suzi - HIYA! Then Issy and Vic led half the group on a slightly longer run up Clapham Road, while Elise led the other half slap bang up Brixton road.

Fortunately for the bees and perhaps less fortunately for the runners and riders of GG Lambeth, there was a surplus of help to be had on arrival at Kennington Park, and so the group split into two - with one half being subjected to GRUELLING PHYSICAL EXERCISE. But don't worry readers, the groups swapped half way through.

"PHEW" thought the readers.

One half got straight to the rural urban bee-saving tasks such as watering the plants that the bees get all that sweet nectar from, or moving bits of wooden structure that support the hives. Someone even gave Tim and some others little hammers, and they could be found making bits of honeycomb hive inserts for the bees to run around in and somehow turn plant juice into delicious honey.

"I made a thing" said Tim, holding a hammer.

The other half lined up, with 'really up for this exercise' at one end, and 'not feeling this at all' on the other end. Four groups were then made along the line and different circuits were given to each group, varying in intensity from 'ooh that's hard' to 'ah that's quite manageable'. The idea being that all groups should finish their circuits at the same time. It largely worked. Lucy wasn't convinced, but she was still a bit sad about Murray getting knocked out of Queen's and no amount of jump squats was going to change that.

"I am sad that fellow Scotsman Andy Murray has been knocked out of Queen's" said Lucy, lunging.

Bees helping and concerted squatting done, it was back to Brixton for a trip to the pub's lovely beer garden. Cheers!

We started the night off with two big bits of news. Southwark had hit their good deeds and distance January Challenge targets - Yeah! Plus, Beth Hoskins has been recognised by the Prime Minster for reaching 500 good deeds by reaching the ‘Points of Light award’ - give her a cheer.

For this week’s task we were off to Bee Urban, a social enterprise that offers free bike maintenance sessions on a Saturday to the local community. They also care for some very urban bees too.

To avoid the busy high streets on the way there we took a loopy diversion up and across Burgess Park with exercise intermissions to tire out the speedy runners at the front.

Once we found Bee Urban, camouflaged amongst estate garages Barnaby was there to greet us and give the group a brief run down of what they do there. Then asked 4 people to brave the cold and clear leaves from the planters and drive outside. And the rest of the group were split into: checking inner tubes, sorting bike wheels, wheel locks and sweeping. Then all too quickly it was time for a quick group photo and to head off again a nice direct route back to base.

Well done for getting out and running January Southwark.

50 absolutely cracking runners legged it down to Kennington Park, did some serious gardening, legged it back and celebrated Beth's 500th good deed with Great British Bake Off cakery. Then pub.

OH WHAT A NIGHT! It was all happening down in Brixton town as we were celebrating our great pal Beth. She's the first ever GoodGymer to reach 500 good deeds and if that isn't cause for celebration, then whatever is?!

We had some lovely visitors from other boroughs and some lovely new first time ever runners. We also had week one of our Great British Bake Off Sweetstake, with Rowenna quite literally stepping up to the plate with a chocolate peanut butter heart attack in your mouth that was, quite frankly, the most excellent thing most of us had ever tasted!

After a t-shirt presentation of the all new 500 CROWN design, we headed to the basketball court to warm up and meet some of our new found friends. Splitting into 2 groups, one headed the 2.5km straight down to Kennington Park and the other took a more circuitous 4km route.

Luckily both the Friends of Kennington Park and Bee Urban were ready and waiting for us. There was litter picking, bind weed removal, dead heading, weeding, log moving, compost turning and all manner of other useful garden jobs. We made the rose garden - originally planted in the 1930s - look just splendid.

Once back at base, we did some stretches and sang a loud rendition of HAPPY BETHDAY. Katie also contributed a crown cake in tribute to the new t-shirt. And Lambeth happily tucked in to the delicious goods before a trip to the pub for celebratory drinks.

I think this is the best day of my whole life! Said Beth (possibly)

What else is there to say? She's simply the Beth't!

LOADS of excellent runners tackled THREE tasks across Lambeth and did loads of good whilst they were at it

First up, hooray to Dee and Jim who finally got their black t-shirts after weeks of waiting. Another big hooray to Steve for hitting his 100th run and getting his wings t-shirt (on time and everything). BIG CHEERS for the excellent running all of you!

We had a nice big crowd along for some running and supporting community projects and we had a lot to do. After a nice warm up led by John we headed off to three brilliant tasks:

Group 1 was led by Sarah. They went back to the Moorlands Estate allotment and finished digging and woodchipping the path. We've been there a few times over the summer and this visit saw the path finally complete. Great stuff!

Group 2 was led by Katie. This saw another return to the BAGS OF SOIL at Loughborough Farm. They need to move some massive planters full of soil literally about 2 feet. Soil is heavy. Very very heavy. So we need to dig it from one bag to another. Rose was part of the group who made headway a few weeks ago and this time she was back for revenge! She totally smashed it in a neat little team of three, entirely emptying one bag into another before heading off to do some weeding. Katie, Beth, Nelly, Jim and John took on the fearsome task of a massive, super compacted bag. After a seemingly endless dig and shovel, they had still not transferred all of the soil. HOW IS THERE SO MUCH SOIL? Still, a top effort and a job well done by all.

Group 3 was led by James and John. They headed 2.5km down to Kennington Park and the lovely Bee Urban project led by Barnaby. There were three teams, one on watering, one on weeding and one turning compost. Dee also got handy with a saw DANGER KLAXON John did some fitness with them and everyone got tired.

And with that we all returned home and went to the pub, where we valiantly stayed outside because it's August even though we were all freezing. That's the GoodGym spirit!

35 amazeballs runners head 2.5km down to Kennington Park to support the brilliant Bee Urban project and do some lovely yoga

Well May is off to a terrible start so thank god for GoodGym Lambeth and all who come along to make the week a bit sunnier. We started with big cheers for Judy for her London Marathon efforts and also to George, who did his 50th run last night!

With a warm up out the way, which saw some kids joining in with our numbering off (they were 3, the total was 38 so we were 35. MATHS!), we were OFF. A giant swarm of red made its way down Brixton road to the lovely Kennington Park. Here we were helping out the Bee Urban project and the man running it is called Barnaby. I know, you can't make this stuff up.

Splitting into two groups, recently qualified yoga teacher and Lambeth runner Tim took us through a lovley yoga for runners sequence. Everyone got their warrior on and looked most wonderful. Thanks Tim!

On the way home we split into three groups and ran at different speeds back to base. Some of us went to the pub because it's Beth's birthday! Happy bethday!