Southwark News

• Saturday 20th July there's a community mission happening to mulch and water some saplings in Hilly Fields park. It's at 11am so perfect for post-parkrun fun! Find out more and sign up here.

• Sunday 21st July is the London 10k and GoodGym is manning an aid station. Come along to earn yourself some stash and a free place at either Hackney Half, Oxford Half or London 10k next year. Plus it's really fun! Find out more and sign up here.

• Next week we're going to Rye Oak primary school to spruce up the playground. It's a shorter run. Find out more and sign up here. Next week is also the social so stick around after for a picnic!

• My last GoodGym run will be 14th August. I hope to see you there!

That's enough of the business

Last night we ran 5km to Southwark Tigers in Burgess Park to repaint their benches. The benches are really important as Vernon's found it's the best way to encourage parents to hang around when they drop their children at the club and a real community has started to build because of them. We love this task and do it once a year. Last year was in the winter so the paint ran a little bit. This time weather conditions were perfect!

Shout out to Billy who came on his first GoodGym run last night!

We arrived at the pitches and one group went to collect more benches from the clubhouse across the park, whilst the other group got straight to work.

Huge apology and an ENORMOUS cheer for Ian from Croydon who did his 50th good deed with us last night! You're amazing!

Creativity was at an all time high last night. Billy went for a Jackson Pollock approach with an arty splattering and multi-tonal tiger stripes were very in vogue. Vernon was delighted with our work and Dom may be organising a community mission to finish some of the benches we couldn't get to. Watch this space!

Great work team, see you next week!

Lucy J

Southwark News

• Lianne has been doing good since March 2015. She's been injured so we haven't seen her for a while but she's been busy nontheless because she just reached 100 good deeds! A massive achievement congratulations Lianne! Give her a cheer by clicking here.

• This Saturday 24th December we're having a Christmas Decorations Party. It's hosted by Helena, bring your craftiness! Sign up here.

• Which leads nicely onto the GoodGym Christmas party! It's on 1st December at the Old Library it'll be an absolute blast! Sign up here. Aaaaaannnd whether you're coming or not, weigh in on what we should fancy dress as - the theme is the first letter of your GoodGym area - vote in the poll before Friday here.

• A big hello and welcome to Rai-lee and Becca who joined us for the first time last night. They did a stellar job at the Tigers Clubhouse and nailed the run, particularly on the way back.

• Next week we're going to Galleywall Nature Reserve for some planting. All being well, half the group will go to present-wrap at the Giraffe House. Both runs are 6km. Sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night we gathered in the bitter cold, extremely grateful that the rain had passed long before our run. Phew! After a briefing we ventured outside for a warm-up featuring lots of bunny hops and a cameo from a passerby. Fully warmed up, off we went to go see Vernon at Tigers Clubhouse to do some painting and tidying. He had a list of tasks ready for us:

• Paint the damp patches in the bathroom

• Re-paint the blackboard

• Sweep and tidy the attic

• Empty, clean and re-organise the storeroom

• Clean the kitchen

We spent just over half an hour there and got everything done. The biggest feat was the storeroom which required super-speed cleaning, removing brackets from the wall (involving some sensible screwdrivering and some not-so-sensible yanking), and putting everything back in an orderly fashion. The kitchen was sparkly clean by the end (cleaning is suprisingly cathartic!) and the attic was in excellent shape. Stuart found his calling in the toilets and we were delighted to leave the clubhouse looking in such good nick. A great evening had by all!

The run back was a bit more direct and we killed it. After a stretch we headed next door to Batch (the third Wednesday of the month is social night) for a drink and some interesting conversations about non-gendered classrooms, micro-pigs that aren't really micropigs and polygamy.

Great work everyone, see you next week!

Lucy

...and the last known survivor paints a bench in the night, and they're painting us all with the stripes of the tiger

18 runners ran 5.5km to paint benches for Tigers RFC

Southwark News

• Tonight is the GoodGym Social at Islington Townhouse 6.30pm til late. It's Pritesh's birthday so give him a wave, enjoy International Pun of the Month and bring your bling for #TreasureThursday - sign up here

• Get involved in the big races GoodGym will be doing in 2019. On 11th October we'll be meeting to decide what races we'll be focusing on next year. It's run by the RaceTeam but everyone is welcome. I'll certainly be throwing my hat in the ring! Sign up here.

• This weekend there's about 20 GoodGymers running the Oxford Half Marathon. If you're there, ping me an email and come for a drink after :)

• Andrew Gilyead did his first mission over the weekend! Give him a cheer by clicking here.

• Next week we're going to Galleywall Nature Reseve and I know I keep saying it and then we don't need them so much but definitely headtorches for this one! They really don't have any lights! I'll have three spares with me.

That's enough of the business

Aaaaah it's good to be home! We were back in Old Spike last night after two weeks being put up by lovely Phil at Batch next door (some serious cocktails guys, go visit and let him know you're from GoodGym, there's a little discount in it for you!). A whopping 18 of us gathered ready to run to Burgess Park to help out our friend Vernon. Vernon realised that parents weren't hanging around after they'd dropped off their kids for his community rugby club and he wanted to change that so... a simple but effective solution... he had some benches put together! It's made a massive difference and creates a community vibe around the club, parents stay to watch their kids and get involved. Wonderful! In January last year we went to give the benches a spruce up - in the theme of Tigers of course. We went back last night to get creative again and make our mark on the benches. We also helped tighten up any slightly wobbly ones (there were a few!).

Cynthia, club chair was there to inspire us with the club tshirt and to judge the most creative bench. Her decision? Everyone wins first prize!

We did get slightly covered in paint but as Helena pointed out, is a GoodGym shirt really a GoodGym shirt without some paint on it? I got the paint off my skin with a little ultrabland from Lush (this isn't an advert but it is my favourite cleanser plus it's totally natural). I hope you managed to get yours out too! I'm not sure it'll be coming out of those tshirts though...

On our route out Helena took us down the Surrey Canal Path and avoided the Rye which is still crazy with road works. On the way back we zipped straight down the Rye as it was quieter and knocked a bit of distance off the journey.

Great work team! Looking forward to seeing you next week.

Lucy J

21 runners ran 3 or 6km to paint Southwark Tigers clubhouse, tidy up at Cossall Estate and leaflet for Link Age Southwark

Southwark News

• On the weekend we helped man a water station at the British 10k. Read all about it here. There'll be an opportunity to volunteer at the Oxford Half in October - you get a free Virgin race place for your hard work!

• Community Missions are back! If you have suggestions of tasks a little bit out of our usual hit zone, give me a shout!

• Huge hello and welcome to Caroline, Sammy, Daniela and Owen who joined us for the first time last night.

That's enough of the business

Last night Southwark was MEGA. We helped three different organisations in one night - flyering for Southwark Link Age, painting Southwark Tigers' clubhouse and tidying up at Cossall Estate. Phewf!

We split into two groups - one running the 6k round trip to Tigers and one the 2km round trip to Cossall Estate.

• Long run group were well looked after by Helena and Girija - they got to work painting walls, scraping the floor of paint, painting the blackboard and finishing off skirting boards.

• Short run group led by Lucy and Beth watered plants, cleared a huge cupboard (we found a 'Now 2003' CD that's a keeper!) and started the big job of removing damaged flooring from the hall since the flood.

Michael at Tigers and Alan and Jaki at Cossall were blown away as usual by our speedy and efficient work. We finished the clubhouse, watered all of Grow Cossall's raised beds and cleared a huge cupboard (see photo). We also moved on lots of leaflets calling for volunteers for Link Age Southwark. A busy night... and it wasn't over just yet!

In perfect timing, both groups arrived back to base for 20.15 which means - you guessed it - 15 minutes for fitness fun! We went to a corner of the Rye for a session using the breath as a marker for how hard we're working when we're running.

• Easy: in through the nose, out through the nose

• Medium: in through the nose, out through the mouth

• Hard: in through the mouth out through the mouth

To find out more about how this works you'll have to come and run with us! After the run we went on our monthly social (third Wednesday off the month) to Peckham Levels for a well-deserved drink and food. Thank you to Girija for organising - looking forward to next month already :)

Next week we're gardening at Stuart Road Allotments - sign up here.

See you then!

Keep running happy, Lucy

3 runners ran 7km to paint the clubhouse for Tigers RFC

Southwark News

• Next week we're having a social after the run at Peckham Levels. Sign up here

• Tonight is the GoodGym wide social and it's happening in South London (yaaaaay!). Get to the Plough in Wandsworth from 18.30 for international pun of the month, GoodGym heroes and much more.

• A big shout out and hello to Shaun who joined us for his first ever run last night.

That's enough of the business

Whilst the country was gripped by World Cup fever, GoodGym Southwark had a job to do last night. With Emily visiting from Wandsworth we made a merry band of three. If I make a three lions pun is it a bit soon? Good, because it's really hard to think of words that rhyme with 'shirt'.

Our small crew set off for Tigers clubhouse in Burgess Park at a slightly nippier pace than usual, arriving the long way round (woops) to meet Vernon and Michael. Tigers are a community rugby club, encouraging local children into rugby. Vernon showed us this amazing video to thank their sponsors that tells you more about the club. It's a real heart warmer, it'll banish your World Cup woes immediately.

We had a list of things to do and a good half hour's work saw the five of us get loads done. We neatened up the edge on the blackboard (you can get paint that makes a blackboard!) and repainted the entire skirting board. Michael was very impressed that we got straight down to business - it's the GoodGym way! We had the TV on whilst we worked and an array of snacks and squash. Spoilt!

Emily peeled off home whilst Shaun and I blasted the end of the route.

Great work team, a pleasure to have you!

Next week I'll be sending those who fancy a longer run to Tigers to finish up the paint job and those who fancy a shorter one to Cossal Estate to tidy up the Tenants Hall. Sign up here.

Keep running happy, Lucy

It stopped...the rain stopped!

And nine lovely runners believed me and came along for a top night in Southwark.

A big GoodGym welcome to Carole, Jessamy and Becky who joined for the first time.

After a rather long intro speech (sorry!) we got going with Michael kindly backmarking and myself leading the way. We took a slightly longer route to avoid the hordes on Peckham Rye before cutting down the old Surrey Canal and making our way to Burgess Park, the home of the Southwark Tigers junior rugby club. There we were met by Vernon who outlined the tasks at hand.

This week we were building some shelves, landscaping some potholes and moving some equipment between the storage containers. Vernon described the storage containers as the hub of the club as the equipment is so important to what they do. The problem is that with all that equipment going in and out things had got a bit messy - enter GoodGym Southwark.

We split into three teams and under the headlights of the club minibus we got started! We had a good 40 mins of working time and in that time we cleared the area around the containers, moved some rugby equipment, flattened out the potholes and with a big team effort got two sets of shelves built, connected together and moved into the container. We stopped for a group pic (arms please!) and then headed off for a slightly shorter run back to Old Spike (thanks for backmarking Stuart).

Thanks so much for having me everyone and I hope to see you all again soon!

Top work GGS!

Pritesh