Another big crew...

A whopping 34 runners gathered in the Hollybush Estate's Rocky Garden this afternoon to help Michael and Margaret, probably our longest standing task owners, with some big winter tasks.

...for some heavy duty work

Having all met successfully eventually (postcode/Google satellites seemed to be a hit & miss combo) at the garden, Margaret proceeded to run through our 4 huge tasks:

• One team was heading to neighbouring street to shift a vast amount of stone cobbles, forming the most impressive human chain
• Another team was tasked with planting the big delivery of young tree whips, with a splinter task then digging over some neighbouring ground
• Two teams headed to the back of the gardens to move compost, with another splinter task then shifting multiple bags of compost

An hour of heavy lifting, digging, running (for some), turning, carrying and planting later saw every last bit of work completed, and two absolutely delighted task owners.

Having expressed heartfelt thanks to our big team of runners, and a very appreciative thanks in particular to our many new runners, Margaret and Michael bid us farewell as we trundled off to neighbouring Middleton Green's basketball court where Chi had carefully laid out some cones in preparation for this afternoon's fitness session.

And an INTENSE fitness session...

The team brilliantly sped through an intense running, core, stretching and tough body weight-move session, finishing the watchful eye of Chi, for the second time this week. Way to go, crew.

What a vast, vast difference you made on a grey January afternoon. You just kickstarted 2020 and then some.

And we have some big thank you's for today's session...

• Thank you to Chris, for stepping in so quickly and efficiently, to greet all runners, especially our new runners, and lead them around to Rocky Park.
• Thanks to Chris and Si for leaving the fitness session, to help Michael complete the cobblestone task.
• Thanks to Isabelle, Leo, Chi and Liz for some brilliant pics.
• Thank you to Chi for co-hosting the fitness session.

And the biggest of thank you's to our wonderful, wonderful first time runners, Laura, Sohere, Charlotte, Sarah, Ailsa, Mia, Jeremy, Millie, Evie, Amy, Niamh, Keara, Rebecca, Krisztina, Sunny, Richard, Anna.

You achieved a staggering amount this afternoon, and the only question remaining to be asked is, when are you coming back?

We're running again on MONDAY!

Talking of which, we're back on Monday - yes,just 48 hours away, for a whopping THREE-TASK EVENING!

Followed by some more life-enhancing fitness in beautiful Meath Gardens, so I'd get yourself booked in now, if you want to start your week with a bang.

In the meantime, have a lovely, lovely weekend everyone.

On a golden Monday in Lewisham, 24 runners covered 7km of hilly terrain to help out at Seniors.

Thank you once again to Oli, who gifted us this excellent title pun and some of those scattered through this report.

Thank goodness the sun has come out at last! It was still a little chilly though, so we might have hung out in the Glass Mill foyer for a tiny bit longer than we needed to! So much to talk about this week!

• First up, we welcomed some newcomers, what a lovely evening to join us for the first time! Lewisham Love to Amy, Anna, Cat and Steve.

Sofia, so good

• At the weekend, over 80 members of the GoodGym Race Team were over in Sofia to take part in races of varying distance. We were superbly represented by a top team of Amber, Kim and Nykolette, who took on what sounded like a hot and testing half-marathon - well done you three!

• Well done to Vic, Caireen, Juliet, Emma and Olivia, who were at the Wildcat Wilderness yesterday to help with various tasks (fixing a roof, bashing weeds, lifting and shifting and...burning stuff). It looked like an epic volunteering session.

• Talking of which, we have two opportunities to join in volunteering sessions this Saturday, with Wildcat Wilderness throwing open their gates at 10.30 and Manor Park welcoming helpers in at 10am - take your pick!

• Still in the Wilderness, the date is set for our summer social (yay!). Maria has very kindly offered once again to fire up the BBQs and invite us in with our food and drink. All of the details are here, please sign up if you can definitely come, so Maria knows how many coals to tip on.

This week saw us heading on a challenging 7k round-trip. We're not put off by a few hills though are we? A very big thank you to Conroy, who led the way on the run and Nykolette, who kept us together as back-marker. When we arrived at the task, we had a slight moment of panic, when it seemed like we might not be able to get in! All was well though, as Di was in the building already and she and Alice then guided us out to the amazing garden. There is always plenty to do, so pretty soon we had various jobs going on:

• A hole lotta fillin' - a team of barrow pushers found holes in the lawn and filled them carefully with soil
• A pressing bench workout - with sanders smoothing out the benches on the terrace
• Water we doing? - some TLC, repotting and lots of watering in the polytunnel
• Dust another job for GoodGym - a very determined and dusty sanding down of the cupboards in the main room

As our run here is slightly longer, the time seems to go more quickly, so we stretched it out as much as we possibly could, before sweeping up, putting away and heading off. We look forward to returning again soon.

A trip here at this time of year isn't complete without pushing hard up to Blythe Hill Fields to enjoy the view over the city and, if we're lucky, the setting sun. The Fields did not disappoint! Back at base, we looked forward to next week and another longer run, this time to a brand new task at Camelot Pre-School to paint their fences - sign up here. Tomorrow is the third birthday of our very good friends GoodGym Croydon. We wish them all the best and hope they have lots of fun!

See you soon xx