It was a big group of 15 wonderful GoodGymers heading out on the short run to St Christopher's Hospice Shop.

As always at clothes sorting tasks we found a variety of items including: - a medal (congrats on your achievement Jacqueline) - pink sunglasses (modeled by Marta) - a pillow that was also a speaker - handcuffs! - shower curtains - a single shoe

Amongst all those items we also sorted the clothes into piles of mens jackets, shirts, trousers etc and then the same for womens.

It will go down in history as the quickest group run task ever but it made a huge difference to the team at St Christopher's. It would have taken them hours to sort all those clothes.

TTFL

After our 4min run there, 20min sorting clothes and 4min run back, we tackled the time trial with a difference = Time Trial Fartlek. We used the same route as the time trial but instead of pushing our pace the whole way around, we pushed hard on one side and then slowed our pace until we reached the next side of the square. Excellent work everyone!!

pun borrowed from Marta's Strava!

We gathered at St Christopher’s Hospice Shop ready to tackle the mountain of clothes for the big spring/summer switchover of stock.

The task was to tip the bags out and sort into piles of:

Now clothes - clothes that are spring/summer but can be worn now with a jumper/tights and will brighten up the shop

Later clothes (or high summer) - clothes that are for the peak of summer

Miscellaneous - shoes, scarves and children's clothes

Before we knew it we had piles and piles of clothes and new outfits for Friday’s bowling social.

On a cold and windy evening Lewisham's finest gathered in the foyer of Glass Mill speculating what tonights mystery task would be. Suggestions ranged from: putting up the Christmas decorations, making hangers, modeling the clothes, working out the size of clothes that had missing labels, dressing the mannequins...

All would be revealed after our short run around the corner. Quite often at GoodGym charity shop group runs we are tasked with sorting clothes into general piles of mens, womans and childrens or organising the existing stock but never in my history of GoodGym have we been tasked with sorting the clothes into piles of what will be sold on the shopfloor, there were big decisions to be made tonight.

Step 1: empty the bag by tipping it out Step 2: pick up an item of clothing, check for holes, check for stains and if you can smell it through your mask then it is not making the cut Step 3: sort it into the relevant pile of clothing

After a quick snack break (thank you!!) we got on with bagging these clothes according to their respective categories and then they will be hung on hangers and priced by the team this week.

Next up with tackled some of the unknown bags, most of this was destined to be recycled.

There was still time for a quick browse and I think the item that got the most attention was the Jason Donovan game - does anyone know his favourite food?

A short run back to Glass Mill during which Jacqueline, who we had waved by to at the task, managed to pass us enroute even though she was walking and it was time for the time trial!

4 laps = 1km and everyone could choose how many laps they did. Everyone gave it their best shot and times were amazing!! We'll aim to have the time trial on the first group run of every month to see how we progress.

A very warm welcome to Lewisham Margarete, we hope to see you again soon! Thanks to Amber for leading our walking group this evening, and to Sarah for backmarking.

Well done to everyone who made it out in Storm Dennis for some soggy running this weekend! Thankfully the weather was significantly drier this evening, but we still needed a mexercise wave of squats, lunges, jumping jacks, high knees and heel flicks to warm up.

We set off for the relatively short run round the corner to St Christopher's Hospice shop. The shop manager Sara had plenty of tasks (as well as plenty of snacks!) lined up for us to tackle this evening, including:

• Hanging up sorted clothes in the back
• Tidying up the shop floor, to some very exacting standards
• Sorting the scarves into colour and length order
• Dressing the clothes model ready for spring (who wore it better... the shop model or Caireen?)
• A bit of Top Gun action adding blank labels to the newly hung clothes, ready for pricing
• And did I mention the snacks??

We managed to get through everything that was lined up for us, which meant only one thing... We had time for a time trial! I was very impressed with the effort everyone put in, and enjoyed a thrilling sprint finish with Nick just pipping Adam to the post!

"I feel the need ..." "... the need for speed!"

Thanks everyone for a fun task! Keep an eye out on the upcoming community mission listings for some weekend fun with Caireen at the lovely Wildcat Wilderness, one of GoodGym Lewisham's perennial favourites.

Have a fantastic week everyone, and happy running!

It turns out GoodGym Lewisham are creatures of habit... meeting on the other side of the foyer due to half-term activities threw quite a few of you off! We welcomed two new runners this evening - go and give Aruna and Susie a cheer!

I popped along to GoodGym Leeds last week and was inspired by their warm-up activity, so decided to give the Big Wave a try, which seemed to go fairly well. Let's keep practicing!

Feeling sufficiently warm, we set off on a roundabout route to this evening's task. Even the long way round was less than a kilometer, but it turned out to be just long enough to arrive at just about the same time as our walking group.

A-bra-cadabra!

John greeted us with a very warm welcome, and gave us a helpful overview of the work that St Christopher's does in the local community. Their new shop has only been open for three weeks, so there was plenty still to do to continue getting them set up, including: getting mountains of clothes hung up ready to be priced, sorting racks of empty hangers into size order, and making sure all the bras were labelled with the right chest size.

Size matters.

John was extremely chuffed with what we achieved, reckoning that we'd tackled about a week's worth of hanging in less than an hour. Special mention has to go to Darryl for modelling the outfit of the evening - a pair of disco trousers and matching halterneck top! I imagine there's a few of us who might be back to hunt that one down (...or maybe just me!).

Many hands sort light shirts (and dark!).

After a short run back to Glass Mill, there was only one way to use up the spare time and energy - with a time trial! Thanks to everyone for participating and cheering with such enthusiasm, you did yourselves proud!

Thanks to Clare and Oli for this week's puns, Jacqueline for walk-leading, and to Rebecca and Oliver for back-marking!

See you next week for a spot of flyering for Age Exchange's Christmas Fair - sign up here.