Twenty Four wonderful runners joined me in Lambeth to run 7km, help Hillside Gardens and take part in the Great Get Together!

On what had looked like it was going to be a total wash-out the skies cleared (of rain at least) and we were set for a lovely evening. We all gathered outside Papa's for our intro, welcoming our new runners before, Tom, the task owner, who joined us for the run outlined the work we were Going to be doing. We then split into two groups, the relaxed and the not so relaxed and before we knew it we were pounding the Lambeth streets on our way up ALL the hills to Hillside Gardens!

With the 'not so relaxed' group leading the way and taking a slightly different route my relaxed group headed up brixton hill before winding through the streets to Tulse Hill and on to the gardens - it was hard work in muggy conditions but everyone kept at it and we arrived only 5 minutes after the other group. Once at the park Tom split us out into groups with various tasks:

• Cutting back brambles
• Weeding and clearing planters
• Digging up self seeded sycamores
• Pulling up weeds and unwanted plants

We worked hard for twenty minutes and then headed back to Papa's in our two groups again - so much nicer going downhill and with less muggy conditions. Once we were back at Papa's Alice kindly led everyone in a stretch, I explained that tonight had been part of the Great Get Together events and reminded everyone to sign up to the GoodGym Olympics and then we all said our goodbyes with a large number of us heading for drinks at the Duke of Ed.

It's been an absolute blast leading you the last two weeks GGL, what a wonderful bunch you are! Mark is back next week to steady the ship - hope to see you all soon and do visit GG Brent if you can!

Cheers,
Pritesh

You'd never have guessed the football and tennis were over because we had a MEGA group this week of 37 excellent people. Hooray!

That's good as we had two tasks to be getting on with.

The first group headed up to the Portico Gallery - 4km there and a longer run on the way back through the lovely park. Tom Benson tells us everything!:

We did a crack job of washing down a load of walls with sugar soap. John claimed it's one of the most underrated things and if he were Prime Minster he would make sure it got the recognition it deserved and also to bin Boris as well.

Sugar soap is one of the most underrated things! Said John

In 20 mins we had stripped the room and hallway and lathered the walls in some lovely sugar soap ready for the painting to begin. As always John was on good form and thanked us kindly. As we done good we took the scenic route home by taking a detour in London's finest park, Brockwell and then came back for some good stretches.

The second group headed through the park both ways to the magical South London Botanical Institute. This tiny oasis of botanical wonder is hidden near Tulse Hill. They have recently had some renovation work done and had moved all of their boxes of old pressed flowers and seeds upstairs. Our job was to form a human GoodGym chain and bring them back down again. Once complete, we had a look around the garden, which features poisonous plants, plants used for dye and all kinds of other wonders. We also looked at some of the dried flowers, which were collected 100 years ago! They have a lovely programme of events and it is certainly worth checking them out.

After some planks and lunges in the park, we did some stretches and then went to the pub for a well earned pint.

After thunder and lightening very very frightening during the afternoon, we actually managed to have a dry run come evening in Lambeth. As the last Tuesday of the month we had our Shit Prize of the Month to give out. The lucky winner was Andrew, who finally, finally bought some new trainers. This has made trainer Katie very happy as she feels sad when she looks at his sad, sad shoes. WELL DONE ANDREW.

James KB led a small but perfectly formed crack team 3km through Brockwell Park to the South London Botanical Institute. They had to move some seeds and boy were there lots. They moved boxes and boxes of the stuff in a human chain. And they only got about half way through. Don't panic Botanicals, we'll be back!

Katie led the rest of the group back to Clapham Common, where we were all happy about the rain as it softened the ground for our nearly final round of digging. We removed loads of the turf and wheelbarrowed it over to the park edge. It was hard work and sometimes even two people jumping on a spade didn't manage to get beneath the surface. But after a lot of arm muscles and a serious portion of elbow grease, we left happy to have made such a big dent in it.

After running back to base, we did some nice stretches and then went home. Well done Lambeth!