It was the last run of the decade in Wandsworth last night and we saw it out with some proper festive spirit!

Before we headed out for a very Christmassy run, we had a look back at the year and everything we've achieved together.

A massive well done for notching up

• an incredible 1906 good deeds in just 12 months

• visiting 68 individual elderly people, along with 214 coach runs

• running a whopping 22 779 kilometers

Those are some seriously impressive stats! If it was your first run last night (hello and welcome to Amy who joined us for her debut group run - a huge welcome to you!), or if you're into triple figures, you've all made a difference to your community and to yourself. Roll on 2020!

Our task last night was our annual running and carolling session to raise money for Paul's Cancer Support Centre. This small independent charity in Clapham Junction enables people affected by cancer, through community-based care and support, to find strength and resilience, and supports them through therapy, counselling and complimentary treatments. It's an incredible lifeline for those living with cancer.

So after a warm up where I shouted snowman, snowflake, super santa and Christmas tree a lot, we headed off with our song sheets and collecting tins to our first stop. And then after our local supermarket turned out to be a humbug, quickly on to our second stop to start our night of singing. We got a few contributions there, so moved on to the massive Christmas tree to try our luck.

That was a bit more successful, but we really made it big at our fourth stop at Clapham Junction. We were quite the hit with lots of passers by, one little boy that really wanted to join in, and a man who lived in the flat opposite who wanted us to sing as loudly as humanly possible. Our next pitstop was the pub and it turns out that tipsy people are also generous and appreciative of festive singers especially the running kind, which was good, because our final destination at Clapham Common tube wasn't quite as lucrative. Where was everybody? Nevermind, we just had time to knock out a few of the 12 Drills of Christmas for our fitness session before heading back for stretches and to our festive pub social. Pace your bets on how much we raised last night - final figure coming soon!

We're back on the 6th January to do more good and get even fitter after mince pie season. Enjoy your break GoodGym, but keep an eye out for the missions happening over the next couple of weeks. Happy holidays and here's to all the good stuff that we're gong to make happen in 2020!

xx

Last night was full to the brim with bank holiday heroes spending their evening doing good in the local community and getting themselves a nice old workout in the process!

• Welcome to Paul and James who both came along for their first run last - give them a cheer!

• A huge well done to all of you that got out there running this weekend. Especially to Sam who did his 50th parkrun, Stephen and Oliver who incredibly raced at lunchtime in the Vitality 10k, John who smashed the Vitality Westminster Mile on Sunday and Matthew who did a half marathon lap race.

It was brilliant to see so many of you last night given that it was a day off for most of us. We kicked off proceedings with a warm up that featured a range of dynamic movements, and an equally important discussion about our fave ice creams. In this very official poll, it was - drum roll - Solero that came out top. A true classic!

Our job last night was at Paradise Cooperative garden, a charity that was set up to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening. They combine participation, education and celebration in cultivating under-used land in Wandsworth. It was a 2.5km run away, so we set off in the last of the evening sunshine at a good pace.

We soon arrived (after a few squats and planks along the way) to find trustee Brendan there waiting for us with a list of jobs. It was great to see the place in the light as we have often had to rely on our headtorches, and discover all the beautiful things that the team there have been busy with. Most noticeably is the new pond, which we were tasked with raking around, and all the gorgeous plants coming into fruit and flower (noticeably some quite delicious strawberries that miraculously survived our visit!). We also got stuck into moving huge logs, creating new seating areas, weeding. moving railway sleepers and having a go on the rope swing. Hard work, but a lot of fun, too!

Before we left Brenda thanked us, and let us know that the work we did tonight would have taken two regular volunteers a week to complete. What a brilliant way to spend a bank holiday -well done gang!

Next up was a quick fitness session in Wandsworth Common, starting with a game to get our heart rates up, then moving on to some tough clock sprint circuits where some teams were kinder to others when it came to keeping time! With squat holds, planks, press ups and mountain climbers, this was a good all over body workout, so well done team.

A quick run home was all that was left of our bank holiday GoodGym fix. Nice running everyone. Next week we have our final visit to the community garden in Battersea that we have been helping transform into a safe and welcoming place so it can be opened to the local residents. Sign up here to see all the details. Until then, have a great week GoodGymers!

Not even a sunny bank holiday could stop 14 community heroes from doing something positive for their community - and knocking out a nice 4 km run in the process!

Fresh from a long weekend of fun, we all met outside the BAC for a quick rundown of the week's news:

It's the GoodGym monthly social! This Thursday - and this time Southwark are hosting. [Have a look at the sign up page for all the juicy details] (https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-social-on-tour-southwark

Fancy a nice long training run with company followed by something to eat? Then look no further! On Saturday 18th May it's the monthly GoodGym long run. With options of distance and pace, everybody is welcome. Here's the sign up page with all the info you need.

It was the second week of a massive ongoing task last night. We've already been down to the Doddington estate in Battersea to start a job of transforming a community garden that has been shut for a number of years, and so we were eager to get back to the task!

It was a 2km run down to the Venue to meet Hadas, who runs a number of community organisations in the area. She had our tools waiting for us, so after picking up a selection of useful bits and pieces, we all walked over to the garden to get stuck in. It was action stations immediately, with people sweeping, weeding, litter picking, chopping down ivy, rolling up turf and cutting back brambles. There was so much to do, and it is very satisfying to see how, week by week, it is all coming together and will soon be a lovely place for the whole local community. We were even helped along by a new furry GG mascot who put our own energy levels to shame - check out the pics!

We were getting so much done that we didn't notice time flying by, and by the time we had packed up and returned the tools we found we didn't have time for the fitness games that had been planned. But don't worry - they'll keep for another week! Instead we decided on a quick plank competition which saw no fewer than five ab-tastic GGers reach that two minute mark - even with some, ahem, 'assistance' from Emily! She was allowed to do whatever she pleased last night though, as it was her two year GoodGymiversary! Two whole years of getting fit and doing good, nice one Emily!

We finished off our 2km run back to base with a hill sprint and some stretches and that was job done for the night. Well done everybody for some real bank holiday community spirit. Next week we're off to the Kambala estate to do some planting and other jobs and a good solid fitness session to make up for the shorter run. Here's your sign up page - see you there! Until then, run happy everyone.

It was an extra special cakey night in Wandsworth yesterday, as we had a bake sale after the run to raise money for Paul's cancer Support centre. Last week was the Macmillan Cancer Support cake morning across the UK, so we thought we'd join in with our own event for a local cancer support centre that we have volunteered at as a group at in the past, and which does so much for the community. It was hard to resist the scent of delicious baked goodness, but first we had a run to do!

News you can use

It's monthly social time! This Thursday we'll be meeting up in Islington from 6:30 to discuss all things GoodGym, pun and running related. Click here to sign up and for all the details.

Well done to everybody that raced this weekend - if you're up for a challenge this coming Saturday, Herne Hill Harriers are putting on a 6 mile cross country in Streatham. Local, well organised, and a bargain entry too.

Welcome to Lucy, whose first group run was last night - give her a cheer!

No half-baked efforts here

Our job tonight was at a local school that is creating an incredible hidden garden for the pupils. They are doing all the work themselves and raising the money for it from fundraising - it's a huge project but one that will see created a lovely and educational area for the children to use all year round.

As we were warming up ready for the short run down to the site, we voted on the best cake out there. Cheesecake and chocolate cake were the outright winners, with a paltry two votes for the classic Victoria sponge!

We made it down there in good time to find Barry the caretaker waiting for us with jobs and tools, and got stuck straight in. Dividing up into groups we shifted tyres and paving slabs, moved fences, wood and other bits and pieces, cut back prickly bushes and prepared things for recycling. After the task was done we got a little talk from Barry about the future of the garden, but if you want to find out more check out this link to the project. We'll be back next week to tackle more jobs, so bring your headtorch if you have one!

After a shortish run back to base we took advantage of the newly opened road at the back of the BAC to tackle some conditioning and hill sprints. Seven minutes might not sound that long, but when you're switching up squats, planks, and lunges with tough hill reps, it can feel like an eternity. This is really great for your general fitness though - the reps against resistance increase your endurance, power and muscle elasticity while the conditioning exercises are great for strength and therefore preventing injury. Excellent to see you all putting in maximum effort and working so hard!

All that was left was a nice long stretching session and then CAKE. Thank you so much for all your efforts - I'll let you know how much we raised once I hear back from Paul's Cancer Support. Next week we're back to the school, see you then!

It was one of biggest tasks yet in Wandsworth last night, plus a nice hefty run thrown in for good measure. Nice one, team!

It didn't put you off though, and a huge 38 runners were up for the challenge, including a whole gang of lovely new faces. GoodGym, please give a massive welcome to (deep breath) Nicolette, Gabriella, Alicia, Frankie, Jamie, Laura, Jack and C Bayley! Great to have you along for the run.

There was also a round of applause for all the runners who helped out at the Peckham parkrun takeover at the weekend, and to those of you who went to race in the New Forest. What a busy weekend of running.

Before we started our run, there were highs - happy birthday to our lovely Alyx, hurrah! - and lows - goodbye to Chris who is leaving us for Bristol. Good Luck!

We raced through our warm up last night, finishing off with a rousing rendition of happy birthday while we did jumping jacks, and a quick poll to find out everybody's favourite tree - with 'Christmas tree' topping the list!

We had a 5k run ahead of us, so set off at a steady pace in the direction of Southfields and our task for the evening. With a few squat stops, and a quick break to pose for some photos from a pub window (!), we arrived to find a group of volunteers from Green the Grid, an organisation which aims to plant 200 tree bases in Wandsworth in a bid to encourage wildlife, improve air quality, prevent flooding and improve wellbeing among residents.

Branching off

As well as laying on a selection of healthy snacks and refreshments, the volunteers were also super organised, and we immediately split into four groups complete with tools, buckets and a leader. Our job was to dig over 100 tree bases and remove rubble, which proved to be a pretty great upper body workout. Half an hour of hard work later, we met up again at our starting point, had a quick debate on the best kind of biscuit (inconclusive) and set off back to the BAC. Well done team, that is the osrt of job we can make a huge dent in within a short window of time, but it would have taken a small group of volunteers days to do

Now the route down there was pretty much downhill, so we knew what was ahead of us. Gritting our teeth we attacked the deceptively long hill, and made good time on the way back, finishing off the night with some stretches. We were suitable refreshed after the run with some freebies from Chi who brought us back a whole bag of coconut water courtesy of Pure Lime at Carnival! Thanks Chi, that was the perfect thirst quencher.

Next week we've got two massive tasks to do - half of us will be going on a short run to a cancer support centre in Battersea, while the other half will be going to help with preparation for a community festival in Tooting. It's going to be a busy one, sign up here!