First up, a massive hello and welcome to Asa and Sinead. Give them a cheer, because tonight they came to their very first group run. Hooray!

News Round Up

Our GoodGym Tooting parkrun takeover happens this Saturday! We still need a few roles filled, such as token collector, run report writer and pre event set up, plus pacers for sub 20 and 30+. Please sign up here if you can make it and let's turn Tooting parkrun GoodGym red!

To finish off a lovely weekend of running volunteering, why not sign up to help out at the City Runs Fulham 10k this Sunday. As well as basking in a satisfied glow after spending your weekend helping other runners, you will also benefit from a medal, Adidas top and 50% off future City Runs events for your trouble! The only catch is that you have to sign up by Wednesday. Here’s the link to follow

Bus' a move

Tonight's task was at Leonard Chesire Disability centre - an organisation in Battersea which support individuals to live, learn and work as independently as they choose, whatever their ability. Led by people with experience of disability, they have a focus on community life here in Wandsworth.

But before we set off, we headed outside the BAC to warm up. It's particularly important at this time of year because starting to run without properly warming up cold muscles can easily lead to injury. It's just as important as the stretch afterwards -no excuses team!

After some dynamic moves to get our hearts pumping, we did our weekly poll. Tonight's burning question - with only six group runs left before Christmas what do you hope to find in your stocking (or other seasonal celebration)? You better be good boys and girls for the next few weeks if you want to find puppies, gin, a winning lottery ticket or Spice Girls tickets there!

It was a short run down to the charity, and we got there in no time at all to find tools, bags a washing equipment there ready and waiting for us to get stuck in. So, dividing up into teams, we took on three jobs:

Raking up the masses and masses of leaves around the building

Pulling up the weeds in the pathways and giving it a good spray with weedkiller

Washing the mobility buses (brrr!)

After 40 minutes of hard work, the place looked a lot tidier. Frank, who manages the centre, is always really grateful for the work we do here, and sends lovely emails to say thank you for our time and energy. This week he even left us a sweet treat int he shape of biscuits and water to "keep our energy levels up"!

With a sugar high imminent, it was a good time for us to run over to Battersea Park to knock out a tough fitness session. We started off with shuttle runs, which test both our endurance and pacing, before playing a quick game of 'What did you do this weekend?' - with either squats of sprints depending on our answers. It sounds like some of you had some very interesting Saturday nights!

After all that there was just time for our weekly plank minute before running back to the BAC to stretch it out. Brilliant work everybody, you all kicked off your week with some great running and a dose of do gooding too! Next week we have more of the same, so sign up here for more Monday fun.

With a backdrop of pretty colours in the sky and the smell of bonfires in the air, it was a cracking good group run in Wandsworth last night.

News, lovely news

So much good stuff to report on before our run! Here's a little roundup:

It was our very own Mr Christopher O'Driscoll's 50th good deed last night. That is a massive lot of gardening for elderly people, painting, shifting and lifting for community projects, and who knows how many miles covered! Give him a cheer next time you see him in his spanking new black tshirt for he is a GoodGym star.

Don't forget our Tooting parkrun takeover on the 17th November. We need as many eager beaver helpers as possible! There are a range of jobs to do and I'll be putting out the spreadsheet soon - sign up using the link above in the meantime.

Alyx told us about a great run she is leading soon from King's College. This women only run will be to the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, to sort and pack sanitary products, to be distributed to women via a charity that tackles period poverty. Sign up here

Don't forget it is the monthly social on Thursday - sign up here for more fun, puns and all things GoodGym!

Please give Peter, Alex and Andy a huge cheer - they came for their first group run last night! A huge welcome to the group.

After that bumper crop of news we headed outside to do our warm up, before running the 3k to our amazing task for the evening. But first, we did a poll on all things Bonfire Night - top of the pops came fireworks in our list of fav things about the night, then came bonfires (handily), all the goof food and hot alcohol, sparklers, hot baths and friends. Aaah.

After a nice steady run over to our task, accompanied by the whistle and pops of Wandsworth fireworks, we arrived at the Oasis Adventure playground charity. This is an amazing organisation that supports local kids, many of whom have disabilities. Oasis Play provides innovative and inclusive outdoor play and learning opportunities that enable disabled and non-disabled children and young people to lead happy, fulfilled lives and play positive roles in the community. It also has one of the areas most bonkers and brilliant play areas, and we had to stop ourselves getting stuck in for a good old clamber over all the fun stuff there.

We were met by David, who gave us a little background on the organisation and its history (and is well placed to do so after over 20 years at the charity!), and who had prepared tools ready for our big job that evening. Our task was to dig out a big area ready for swings and other play equipment. It was hard work - and a great upper body workout - but after just 40 minutes of work, the difference was huge. Check out the photos to see the massive hole we dug!

After all that digging we didn't have a huge amount of time left, but just enough to stop for a few minutes on the way home and knock out a quick but verrry intense tabata session. Nice frogging everyone.

Sweaty but happy we arrived back at the BAC for stretching - next week we're back to Leonard Cheshire disability charity to give them a hand with various jobs (including a wash down of those mobility buses, so wrap up warm!) . Sign up here for more Monday fun, good deeds and fitness.