We met at Old Spike on a hot May evening before heading out for a warm-up. Our route took us through Peckham Rye Park and over to Nunhead Cemetery, where we were welcomed by the volunteer team and set to work litter-picking around the grounds.

The cemetery was especially beautiful at that time of day with the evening light coming through the trees. By the end of the session, we’d collected four bags of litter before heading back to Peckham to round off the evening with sundowner drinks at Frank’s rooftop bar.

On Wednesday, we headed to Cossall Estate to help out. Alan was there to meet up and he quickly put us to work.

We split up to do a spread of tasks, ranging from cleaning graffiti off a notice board, some weeding, and moving a broken bench. In the second half of the session, we all grouped back together to clean some stains off the chairs in the community hall. We smashed out target and did over 20 chairs, well done team! 🙌

Sunday started early - VERY early. 7am at Aid Station 4 on the Hackney Half Marathon Route (just by Broadway Market!). There were plenty of bleary eyes, but thankfully the sun was already shining as we arrived ready for the day ahead.

Our first mission: water station setup. And if there’s one thing permanently burnt into our minds now, it’s the maths of the tables - 20 by 8 cups on each layer, 5 layers high, over and over and over again. Tables after tables after tables. Somewhere between the endless cup stacking and chatting away, the morning flew by! The best part was meeting so many brilliant Goodgymers from all over London - and, naturally, we even ended up recruiting new members whilst we were at it!

Then the motorcade arrived and the first runners appeared… From that point on it just never stopped for the next 2–3 hours. Thousands of runners streamed past as we handed out water as fast as humanly possible, cheered people on, tried to decipher names scribbled across bibs, shouted encouragement at every fancy dress costume we spotted, and kept our eyes peeled for our fellow GoodGym runners amongst the crowds. There were even a few famous faces mixed in too. Some runners just wanted a sip, others their bottles filling, others wanted us to throw a cup of water over them!

It was loud, sunny, exhausting, and genuinely brilliant - such a fantastic community vibe. Before we knew it, the runners had passed through, the cups had disappeared, the tables were packed away, and by around 1pm we were wrapped up after an amazing morning.

A huge well done to everyone who ran, volunteered, organised, cheered, stacked cups, handed out water, and kept the energy going all morning long!

Until next year! And who knows — you might even spot some of the people handing out your water this time swapping volunteer bibs for running bibs and taking on the 13.1 miles through the streets of Hackney themselves…