There was a little bit of Monday magic in Wandsworth last night as 33 runners took on a huge painting challenge....

• We welcomed Ava, Annabel, James and Cheryl to their first run - great to meet you guys!

• Well done to all the racers this weekend, including Hanna and James who did the duathlon in Hampstead - nice one!

• This Thursday is the GoodGym social at 6:30 at The Court in Tottenham Court Rd. Sign up here for a great night including all the news, heroes, GG hero of the month and international pun of the month!

After a warm up and a poll to find out our favourite sports person - Roger Federer and Serena Williams came out top, followed some way behind by Mr Motivator and both Brownlee brothers - we set off for our task.

Our massive painting job was at Doddington and Rollo community association, and we picked straight up where we left off last time. We had a series of corridors to paint to help out this community organisation which was set up to provide opportunities for education, training and employment for local people, and to provide facilities for community activities.

Dust sheets down, rollers at the ready and we were off. Every week it's always incredible to see what you guys achieve, and it was particularly evident this week. In the time we were there you managed to give the place a proper makeover (who remembers Changing Rooms?) - it's amazing what 33 pairs of hands can do in even a short length of time.

We finished off the session with fitness in the hall, and this week we took on the EMOM (every minute on the minute) challenge. It was six minutes of seriously hard work as we knocked out burpees, press ups and squats, and we still had the run and that hill to contend with - as usual you all rose to the challenge!

Next week we've got an interesting new task helping create an amazing area for a community festival. To find out more and sign up click here. Until then, run happy!

This evening was our 10th Group Run, and it was great to welcome some new runners to Goodgym - Tom, Adam, David, and Sam - as well as Abi visiting us from Camden for the first time.

Give them a cheer on the website!

Once you've completed 10 Group Runs with Goodgym you'll get an invitation to get a little more involved by joining the Taskforce (it's totally optional), so it was great to hear a bit about how this works from Abi, who is on the Taskforce for Camden.

With bumper numbers this evening we set off in gorgeous sunshine on the first run to Iffley, with Sophie kindly making sure no-one got left behind.

At Iffley Glebe we met Rachel from the Oxford Preservation Trust, who was ready with gardening tools and explained our task for the evening. Iffley Glebe is one of Iffley village’s most important open spaces, playing a vital role in maintaining the rural atmosphere of Iffley within it's city setting. The field is full of wildflowers each summer and the ancient hedge across the field provides birds with nesting places, and insects and berries for food. At night the glebe is an important hunting ground for bats and owls. The stone wall surrounding the site has a lot of weeds growing in it which, although pretty, needed clearing in order to keep the wall in good condition. Ensuring that we all knew to avoid the stinging nettles, we gloved up and set to work.

It turns out 21 pairs of hands makes light work of weeding a wall. Despite some minor traumas (spiders, sleepy bees), snickering over childhood names for galium aparine (aka...sticky-willy), and resisting the urge to stick goose-grass on anyone's back, in 35 minutes we had stripped the main wall along the Glebe of the worst of it's weeds, and made a good start along the side wall too. Taking a brief breather for some water and squash (thank you Rachel) and a group photo, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful evening sunshine by taking the scenic route home along the Thames Towpath, with Ash back-marking this time.

Iffley Lock didn't disappoint by providing me with my first bug-swallowed-on-a run moment for 2019 . Running's a glamorous hobby isn't it?!

Hopping off the river path at Donnington Bridge, we had to do the Meadow Lane lamp post fartlek session because it is fast becoming a Goodgym Oxford tradition (In the spirit of primary school level humour - fart! and willy! in the same run report!). Then....

FRISBEE!

It seems that frisbee brings out the killer instinct in all of us. Who knew that our most mild-mannered runners are actually fiercely competitive when given a frisbee and a goal to aim for?! 3-1 to the non-red-clothes team clearly calls for a re-match as soon as a few more people have their Goodgym Tshirts through the post.

We completed the Tour of Iffley by running home past the Roger Bannister track, where the 1st sub-4 minute mile was run: had to show off Oxford's Claim to Running Fame! Then back for drinks to celebrate our milestone 10th run.

Next week we are helping the Children's Allotment. Long trousers are advisable because of nettles and brambles on site.

For the first evening since the launch of Goodgym in Oxford we actually had some light still left in the sky when we met for our Group run last night: the start of outdoor tasks in the light is in sight!

With Oxford still being a really new Goodgym group, and new faces every week (welcome Julia, Phil, and Sarah!), it's really fun to introduce ourselves at the start of the group run. This week's conversation starter was "What Olympic sport would you love a go at?" Winter Olympic events proved a popular choice amongst Oxfordians, and for anyone (like me) who hadn't heard of Ski Ballet, here is your Thursday morning joy.

Setting off down the Cowley Road, with posters and flyers in hand, we meandered along a route through to the City Centre, then out West to the West Oxford Community Centre, stopping regularly to put posters up in cafes, pubs, and at the central library.

Ssssssssshhhhhhhh!

With only 2 or 3 people required to actually pin up posters at each venue, the rest of us lunged, squatted, and did running technique drills while we waited, getting some slightly curious looks from passing drivers and pedestrians. Don't they know how much fun bum-kicking your way down a side-street can be?!

Turning for home, intrepid explorers that we are, we switched on the head-torches and took the Thames path back. It was a little spooky in the dark, but really fun to see the trail of lights stretching out along the route. Avoiding the angry geese on the far bank, we had to include some lamp-post sprints, at least until we got to the cobbles of Merton Lane, which slowed us all down to a tip-toe. The tip-toe drills were actually useful!

By the time we had got back to East Oxford Community Centre we had run nearly 8km, which is our longest Goodgym Group run so far. We were also pretty pleased to manage a group photo around a '48' since we were the 48th Goodgym area to launch.

Go team!

Putting up posters and flyers can seem like an easy task to us, but it is hugely appreciated by community groups who often struggle to find the time to do it. We had a lovely thank you from Open House and the Oxford Poetry Library already:

"You guys are total lifesavers - this kind of help really makes a big difference to us. Thanks to all of you!"

Next week we return to Donnington Doorstep Drop-in Centre to help them sort out their store room. The distance will be much shorter since the Drop-In is only a mile from East Oxford Community Centre. It'll be a great one for anyone who wants to try Goodgym for the first time or who is just starting out running. You can sign up here.

Week 2 of Goodgym Oxford and it was brilliant to see so many familiar faces back, as well as 13 first timers (hopefully not unlucky for some!).

After an impromptu photo shoot with Jamila Begum Azad, the councillor for St Clement's Ward who had dropped by to meet us, a poster delivery on behalf of Flo's The Place in the Park to our hosts at East Oxford Community Centre, and a game of 'tell us your favourite place in Oxford' we headed off to Rose Hill Community Centre. Councillor and Goodgymer Mark Lygo back-marked, making sure that no-one got left behind.

Now, I know that in a city as flat as Oxford it's an achievement to manage to find a hill to run up 2 weeks in a row, but find another hill I did (you're welcome). Up we went, with a couple of stretches of magical mystery tour en-route to keep things interesting. It's good for you to mix up your surfaces afterall. With plenty of chat on the way, in no time at all we were at Rose Hill Community Centre to collect litter-pickers and bin bags, then straight round the corner to the Oval.

I know you've always wondered how many bags of litter 27 runners can collect in 25 minutes, and the answer is 16. Most unusual pieces of litter found:

• Bottle of Vodka

• Car registration plate

which means top trumps goes to the team that found.......

• Boxers shorts (hope you didn't pick them up without a litter picker!)

Delivering our bin bags to RHCC it was time to get ourselves back down the hill, this time with Stuart taking up back-marking duties. We took the scenic route back through Iffley and along Meadow Lane, with a game of sprint between the lamp posts as we approached the Roger Bannister track.

I'm sure some of you were going WAY faster than 4 minute mile pace, putting Roger to shame.

Fab plogging everyone! We'll be doing it all over again in West Oxford on Saturday, which is an extra session so that we can take part in OxClean's Spring Clean weekend, and then there will of course be our usual Wednesday evening Group Run from East Oxford Community Centre next week. You can sign up here.