How do GoodGymers like their Vesper Martinis? Like James Bond, shaken not stirred as we like to shake up a community and not cause a stir 🙄

On a warm October evening, five GoodGymers met up for a Group Run from Old Spike Roastery in Peckham to Marychurch Oasis near Rotherhithe Overground Station. Newcomer (and recruited from Sam's tag rugby team) Jess was the first one present outside the cafe eagerly waiting (with nerves) for her first Group Run! Slowly, one by one, GoodGymers started to arrive! Natalia came for her second Group Run and to my surprise, Allie showed up out of the blue as it has been several months since I was saw her! Good to see "old" faces and great to see she was up for a Group Run again. Last, but not least, Fumina turned up for her 3rd good deed just as I was about to start the GoodGym "speech" and then the warm-up! After a quick blast warm-up, we steadily ran the 5.5k (yes, I admit...it wasn't 5k as I advertised 😝), which took us along Rye Lane into Surrey Canal Walk, across Old Kent Road, down Abercorn Way, shortcut to Galleywall and Southwark Park Road before joining Jamaica Road as we did a last push to Marychurch Oasis (Time and Talent). This run with a few stops for traffic lights and "breather breaks" took us just under 40 minutes. 💪

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Time and Talent

Being slightly late, Emma (who cycled in) and Phoebe (task owner) were waiting for us! They were pleased to see that we had arrived and Phoebe wasted no time in explaining the task as we did have 35 minutes instead of the original 45. Phoebe wanted us to dig up soil in a part of the Oasis that needed to be leveled down for future use and shift this (with the wheelbarrows provided) to an empty skip outside Time and Talent. This time, the portable floodlights were fully charged and helped with lighting up the digging area. With three shovels and two wheelbarrows, everyone took their weapon of choice and got stuck in. Naturally, I was on photographer duty, but still helped out with lifting the wheelbarrows and pouring the soil into the skip.

The time zoomed by as barrow after barrow, we shifted the soil from the ever-decreasing mound to the most mineral rich skip in the neighbourhood. 😂 Time does past fast when you're getting a full body workout (especially upper body) with the digging and lifting as well as talking about first dates! 👀 which was great to hear after the year we had that we're all getting back to some normality. Some great quotes from night:

Had my first date at Parkrun with a sporty man over the weekend....out of breath after the 3rd lap, so he spoke about himself, but got my 2nd best ever Parkrun time 😂

Planned to have a nice first date with a picnic....ended up having our first date at Wimbledon 👀

Thank You Phoebe

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owners and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Phoebe for agreeing to stay late into the night and host us. I am sure we will be back as there is always plenty to do!

Thank you for the group photos too! 😉

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Hope everyone enjoyed their time at Time and Talent last night! Thank you for digging, transporting and pouring soil into a skip. I am aware everyone had the chance to do a bit of everything! 💪 Hope to see you on another Group Run or Community Mission soon!

I arrived and promptly had quite a bad hypo so took half an hour to start, but once I did, I was working on breaking down and shovelling a lot of grit and building waste into refuse sacks.

There’s a really lovely team and community down at the old mortuary, now known as Time and Talents, so it was a real pleasure breaking a sweat and shifting a load of refuse for them in preparation of their garden renewal project.

There’s still plenty to do and hopefully next time more people will be able to join..!

We broke a sweat shoveling and shifting big pile of soil and sticks at the beautiful Maychurch Oasis! We uncovered the ground that was heaped with twigs, bricks, mud, snails and plenty of slugs to create more space that can be used and enjoyed within the community garden.

Congratulations to everyone who made it out in the sunshine and getting at least a third of a way through a big job.

There is still more shifting to do so looking forward to returning soon to finish the job.

Great way to spend a lunch break!