New Year, New GoodGym Southwark Group Run?

Just because the year changed from 2022 to 2023, didn't mean our group run had to change too. We were back after our deserved festive break with the same format, but with a few new faces. We got introduced to Lily and Maksym who came for their first GoodGym experience and got their first good deed ever! Kudos to you both! There were a few travellers who had come from afar namely from Camden (Sophie), Lewisham (Clare and Steve) and Lambeth (Joao, Magdalena and Nathan).

Although, it was a fairly mild night, there was this bitterly cold wind in the air. Yet, after everyone bunched up in Old Spike to listen to Sam's GoodGym intro speech, we braved the cold night to quickly warm-up down in the alleyway.

Sam's ice-breaker question tonight, was to do with the fact it's the New Year, so people usually have goals in mind...but he wanted to be inclusive and included to other questions: What are your 2023 goals?, What are your hopes for the world in 2023? or What was your best/worst Christmas present that you received this year (if you celebrate it)?

There were a bunch of answers, but from memory there were running goals, trying new sports, doing more GoodGym (more than last year), being a better person, world peace, reading a book a week, sustainable shopping, running and finishing the Isle of Wight Ultra and Steve is now the proud owner of a warm cuddly onesie.

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Competitive by nature

With Sam leading from the front and Daryl backmarking the back of the run, we all ran 2k together from Old Spike through Nunhead and finished off with a strong uphill incline to Telegraph Hill Lower Park. Technically, we were in Lewisham as Southwark does not have drop-off points for Christmas trees as they ask people to email the council for collection. Thus, we found ourselves just across the border (hope Kim (the AA of Lewisham) doesn't mind). Once everyone took a breath and Sam took out his maps, he assigned four sub-team captains to take charge of their team to find Christmas trees in certain streets and areas around Telegraph Hill Lower Park. We were met by Alex who met us at the task meeting point and so he was promptly put in a team. Sam made it competitive by saying the team that collected the most Christmas trees won the box of Lindor Dark Chocolate (a re-gift).

Nathan, Alex, Clare and Sophie started strongly by being the first team to drop off the first tree and then they disappeared for the rest of the 30 minute session.

Daryl, Nelly and Magdalena quickly brought two trees over and since Emma had just cycled in, she joined their team as they went on the hunt for more trees.

There was nothing for a good 10 minutes as Sam waited at the drop-off point and saw three residents bring their Christmas trees over by themselves. Then suddenly from three different streets, three teams brought a tree each and thankfully, it included the two teams (Steve with Lily, Maksym and Clare as well as Emily with Joao, Lindy and Gemma...ended up being their one and only tree) that hadn't dropped off a tree yet and Daryl's team took a further lead with a third tree.

As the time drew closer to quarter to 8, Nelly and Magdalena brought a fourth tree for Daryl's team. Yet, suddenly in the distance, Steve, Lily, Maksym and Clare assisted each other to carry 3 Christmas trees and suddenly it was a tie for top spot! It was exciting as some of the World Cup games... Daryl's team were determined to win, so he went off to find another tree (keep up, we're up to five now) and as luck would have it, a man on his electric scooter was dragging two Christmas trees (as one wasn't big enough for his front Bay window....first world / rich problems...). Nelly and Magdalena swooped in and helped him untie the trees and "officially"/"unofficially" take the win with 7 trees in total for their team! If that didn't happen, it would have made it more interesting as if we forgot...Nathan, Alex, Clare and Sophie came back at the end with 3 trees themselves and took their total to 4! Joint second place, so we dragged and "stole", a total of 16 Christmas trees (7, 4, 4 and 1) in 30 minutes!

All in all, everyone had a great time running around the roads near Telegraph Hill on a small treasure hunt. We departed after a group photo saying goodbye to Alex, Emma and Steve. Later on in the run back to Old Spike, Lindy split from us. We finished off with some stretches before a few of us went for a drink or two at Jumbi.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was great to see 16 (17 including me) GoodGymers come out last night and as I said it reminded me of pre-pandemic days. Thank you for keeping up with the run as it was hill, cold and dark in places. Plus, for some it was your first run in a long time, so kudos to you! I was impressed with everyone's spirit to get involved with the task and the competition, so thank you for getting stuck in!

Throughout the day, Sam received texts that people would meet him at the task. This was partly due to the fact a few lived close to the task tonight and partly due to a few people wanting to rest their legs before Sunday's Big Half. Tonight's run would take us on a 4.2k run either way, so it was understandable.

Sam met up with Benjamin and Nelly, who both arrived by 18:40, thus giving us time to take it chill to warm up and run the 4.2k at our own pace.

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A pond with a dry sense of humor

Benjamin, Nelly and Sam just arrived as Mikhail showed up to meet Jane, who got the first runners/volunteers stuck into the first task. Noticing that the pond had unfortunately dried up; actually provided an opportunity to clear the banks of the willow bushes that were growing in there. Benjamin, Nelly and Mikhail got stuck in before being joined in by Alex as they had a system where two people pulled out the willow and two people chopped them down further in order to compost down quicker in the compost heap. They were later joined by Vic, who wanted to get in the dry pond and not get stuck this time (unlike the last time in waders....).

There were a few other tasks; Emma and Magdalena who arrived by bike were given the task to sort out the items felt underneath the canopy and determine what was junk and what wasn't before putting everything neatly back. It was great to see Magdalena back at GoodGym after a year or two away. The third task require just one person, so Emma took on the job of clearing the gutters of leaves before joining Sam on the final task, which was to fill the smaller pond (that hadn't dried up) with stored smelly rainwater.

After a couple of buckets of rainwater filled the pond, a few trips of shredded willow brought to the compost heap and a clear back office, we had completed all the tasks set by Jane within 40 minutes. This meant one thing; a HIIT session. Yet, knowing many are running the Big Half this weekend, Sam didn't want to tire everyone out. He just put them through a few squats (and jumping squats), jumping jacks, high knees push ups, tricep dips, lunges (and side lunges) within 8 minutes before calling it a day. After our group photo in the dried pond, Sam asked the ice-breaker question at the end, which was about the fact we will be getting a new PM on Monday: Which famous personality (sports, musician, actor/actress, author) would you want as your PM?

There was a overwhelming majority that would like Marcus Rashford, but we had actress Emma Thompson, Grime artist Stormzy and TV personalities like Jeremy Clarkson and David Attenborough, but the best answer came from Alex who has been dealing with the two candidates on offer and would think a "rock" would do a better job... We can only hope for the best!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! A personal thanks to Benjamin and Nelly for coming on the run from Old Spike with me. Yet, a thanks to everyone for understanding the last minute change of destination and still being keen to get involved!

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Thank You Jane

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 owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jane for saving this week's group run. A last minute change meant I had to go back to my original plan and asked Jane kindly if she could have us this week. So, a massive thank you, especially since you came back from your holidays and had no clue what state the Reserve would be in. We're glad to help out where we could for 40 minutes. We will be back in the Autumn to further shape this Nature Reserve and plant bulbs.

After a week away in the Croatian sun (with a massive thank you to Paulin for covering last week's group run), it was back to GoodGym and getting fit again!

Our hub, Old Spike Roastery, was providing sauna like conditions as everyone started to stream in at 18:30. There was some last minute panics as the task had to be changed a few hours before due to a double booking. Yet, Ian and the Old Alleynian Rugby Club needed our assistance and he was happy to host us with only a 12 hour notice period.

After some quick announcements (including Emma's birthday over the weekend), we got on with the warm-up and for tonight's ice-breaker question, Sam still thinking about his holidays asked: If you found yourself at Heathrow airport right now looking at the board, where would you go for a long weekend?

We had a host of Scandinavian cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm and Gothenburg, but we also had Berlin, Baku and Marrakech

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Ditch him/her

The 3k run took us along Crystal Palace Road to Sam's flat, so he could collect gardening gloves. This meant we arrived at Old Alleynian Rugby Club for 19:15 instead of 19:10, but still we had plenty of time to do the task at hand.

We met Alex and Nathan, who ran and cycled, respectively, to the task. Ian got straight to it and told us we had to clear the ditches surrounding the back of the rugby club as dry leaves had fallen in. This would help as in the autumn these leaves if left become wet and the drainage system of the rugby pitches aren't as useful.

Everyone took either a rake or a "leaf collector" (that's what I'm calling it) as we worked in pairs and threes to rake and then collect the leaves into a tonne bag to piled up by the Shed. Everyone apart from Benjamin. He was given the task to sieve through a barrel of sand to get any stones or rocks out before laying this sand on the rugby pitch - where there were obvious patches/holes.

The 40 minute session was fuelled with tunes and Claire's and Lindy's life stories (read: dramas). So, of course, we give each other sound advice.

Noticing the time approaching 20:00, Sam and Ian called everyone in for a quick game of touch rugby as we split the teams by Red GG shirts (Alex, Emma, Benjamin, Daryl and Sam) versus non-Red GG shirts (Ian, Lindy, Nelly, Nathan and Claire. Powered by the awesome-ness of a team look, the Red GG shirts won 4-1.

We were treated to a French sweet treat before running over 3k back to Old Spike Roastery via Dawson's Hill (to get the views). Lindy and Nathan went their separate ways from the group run, but since it was the first Wednesday of the month, Nathan met us at Social for our monthly social!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It wasn't the run that I advertised, but as you can understand it was a last-minute cancellation, so thank you for going along with the plan. I appreciate that it is a longer run and I become heavy on time management as I need to get you back to Old Spike Roastery by 20:30. Still, it was a very enjoyable night with the rugby and drinks at Social for our monthly social.

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Thank You Ian

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 owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ian for arranging this session at the last moment. Appreciate you helping me out this time as I love everything to be pre-organised, but sometimes you have to adapt and be flexible. Thank you again!

After two days of extreme heat, GoodGym allowed group sessions to go ahead on Wednesday, which meant we could do our group run.

This week the old gang was back after a few went on holiday, shaded themselves from the heat and/or moved into their first home.

After some quick announcements and a more thorough warm-up from Sam, his ice-breaker question tonight was: There's a BBQ happening this weekend (not real), what would you bring (food-wise) to this potluck BBQ?

We had a full spread of grilled halloumi, sausages, potato salad, ribs, a whole fish, spicy chicken wings, grilled vegetable skewers, corn on the cob and for dessert, marshmallows.

Maybe I should stick around this weekend instead of going on holiday....

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Emma's 200th & Nelly's big smile

Like that Kate Bush song, we ran up that hill again. Although, it was cooler than the previous days, we still felt the late twenty degree heat at 19:00. Still we pushed through to arrive at Salvation Army Camerbwell Corps on time!

We met Alex and Emma there as they ran and cycled, respectively, to the task. Catherine welcomed us in with beverages and sweets awaiting our consumption to replenish our energy.

We had two tasks at hand. The first one required one person, which Nelly happily took on as she cleaned the windows from the outside around the centre. The windows had collected dust due to the dry heat. Nelly did this task with a smile, which was very heartwarming to see.

The rest of the team including Emma who wore the GG cape to celebrate her 200th good deed with GoodGym - kudos - had to clean and disinfect the baby and children toys from the cupboard. Since we had done this task before, we knew the system. Bring all the toys out, take them to the cleaning station before letting them dry in a special zone. In military fashion and with some summery tunes, we got the task done in 35 minutes with 10 minutes to spare.

A stickler for time, Sam ensured the team maxed out on the time left as he set out a 8 minute HIIT session where the team did a minute for each activity with a minute's rest at the halfway point as he demonstrated the new exercises. We had squats, lunges, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, wall sit, ab crunches, side planks and finally, our favourite, burpees! Let's say our run back felt a little bit tougher after that workout.

We said our goodbyes to Catherine before Alex, Emma and Lindy went their separate ways from us at the start. Along the run, Emma and Nelly peeled off home whilst Benjamin, Daryl and Sam set a faster pace to bring it home!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was warmer than a few of our recent runs, so thank you firstly to Daryl for backmarking both ways. It was great to see Nelly push herself depsite feeling the heat. Congrats to Emma again for reaching her 200th good deeds milestone. That's her target for the year done and dusted with five months to go! Thank you for your invaluable help on the taskforce and as a GoodGym member across not only in Southwark, but London.

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Thank You Catherine

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 owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Catherine for arranging this session inbetween the end of term and the start of the summer programme. It's great to ensure the toys are clean and ready to be used! See you in about 2-3 months' time.