Southwark News

• Next week is the third Wednesday of the month and you know what that means! Social! We're heading to Batch next door for a drink after the run - sign up here.

• Tonight is the monthly GoodGym social at The Mulberry Bush by Southbank. Expect International Pun of the Month, heroes and more! Sign up here.

• Next week I'm on holibobs so Ben from Greenwich is popping over to cover. We're going to Grove Park Allotments our old fave, total distance 3km. Sign up here.

• Hello and Welcome to Danielle and Beth who joined us for the first time last night. We hope to see your faces again!

Knock on the door we're twenty-four

Last night at whopping TWENTY FOUR GoodGymers gathered at Old Spike Roastery to tackle two tasks at once. One group was off on an 8km round trip to see Barnaby at Bee Urban and the other went on a 6km round trip over to Bell House in Dulwich. It was a beautiful evening and with the slightly cooler temperatures, we were keen to head out. The long runners set off early with Helena and Girija and the shorter runners warmed up with me and then set off for Bell House.

The long runners encountered a bit of an issue - Barnaby at Bee Urban had confused us with Lambeth who run on a Tuesday and had been expecting us the night before. Oh no! Luckily we got in touch with him and found plenty of leaves and rubbish that needed shifting. We still managed to get our good done! Big props to the long runners for using their initiative. You can find out more about the Barnaby's projects here.

The 6km runners went to beautiful Bell House where we got to work loosening the soil in a bed we cleared last time we were there and then planting. With the help of Sarah and George we got plenty of bulbs in and can't wait to see them make the garden even more beautiful. For more info on the gorgeous Bell House and everything they do - click here. It was hard to tear ourselves away but we managed to tidy up and get ready for our group photo. We went for 'moody indie album cover' before our usual happy selfie variation. We'd make a mean gardening-based indie band. Any thoughts on names?

Great work team. Have a great night next week, see you on 22nd August!

Keep running happy, Lucy

Ps. sorry about the Taylor Swift pun

14 runners ran 4km to help move flood-damaged flooring at Cossall Estate

Southwark News

• On Wednesday morning GoodGym celebrated reaching its 100,000th deed. That's an absolutely incredible amount of good done all across the country. Wow. Congratulations to everyone who's been a part of this amazing feat. Davina McCall made us a wonderful little vid saying well done - watch it here. We are SO VERY PROUD that the top GoodGym runners that helped achieved this include our very own Beth Hoskins who has racked up 617 good deeds. Give Beth some love by clicking 'cheer' and then cheer everyone else because you've all been part of something awesome that has benefited (and continues to benefit) so many people around the country.

• I'm planning a parkrun takeover! Fill out this form to tell me what parkrun you want and when! At the moment we're looking at the start of September. At a takeover you can choose to pace - we try to provide pacers every minute from 20 up to 30 OR you can just turn up in your GG tshirt and be a lovely smiley face. We had a massive reaction from Burgess Parkrun last time and it was a huge amount of fun.

• Task drive! I'm on a task drive! Are there any tasks you remember doing once that were really cool but you don't remember going back? Have you seen a local group and thought "hmmm I bet GoodGym can help"? If so I want to know about it! It must be a not for profit, charity or community group. Send me an email with task location, details of the task owner and contact details lucyj@goodgym.org

• As requested: details of the York Marathon and 10 Mile race - there's a big London contingent and it's officially hosted by the amazing GoodGym Yorkies. It will be super duper fun, you'll meet GoodGymers from all over the country and get to run a really lovely race. To find out more - check the sign up page (and sign up!) and email Egg the York trainer egg@goodgym.org

• I'M NOT FINISHED YET! Phewf a lot of news this week... Last night we welcomed three runners brand new to GoodGym - go on a click 'cheer' for Harry, Chris and Georgia. Great to meet you and hope to see you doing some more good with us soon!

That's enough of the business

Last night we visited our old friends at Cossall Estate to finish a job we started a few weeks ago. A radiator burst in the hall a month or so ago leading to the flooring getting ruined! Luckily the council have agreed to refurb but in the meantime a lot of damaged wood and all the carpet needed pulling up. Nine people got to work on this whilst four set about watering and weeding on the raised planters outside.

We did an absolutely smashing job in the Tenants Association Hall, getting every last bit of carpet pulled up and Jaki was thrilled with how gorgeous the planters looked after our gardeners had a go at them.

A great job well done. Jaki and Alan were thrilled and can't wait to have us back again!

Next week it's a longer run - 8km total - to go and see Barnaby at Camberwell Subterannea. It's been a while so it'll be lovely to go back! Sign up here.

Great work team, see you again next week!

Keep running happy, Lucy