What a glorious day for a run! The sun was out, the birds were singing, and it seemed like everyone’s mood was lifted. With a spring in our step, we were eager to get started. There was much chatter about Friday night's Festival of Running, when Battersea park will be alive with colourful lights and energetic runners. If you haven’t heard of it yet, be sure to check it out! It's a fun mix of light running and vibes and ggers even get free entry when they sign up to help out - more about that later.

Unfortunately our planned task got cancelled last minute. No problem though, we were not going to let all that positive GoodGym energy go to waste! We quickly pivoted, and instead of refilling planters we started last session, we were to go the Ecogarden to give the whole place a good clean up. The idea is that this urban space is being converted to increase biodiversity and to create more places of well being in the city. So its no good having loads of trash strewn around among dirty benches. Enter Goodgym!

A big shout-out to Sevgi who joined us for her very first GoodGym session today. Welcome to the crew! We hope you enjoyed it and will be back for many more fun-filled missions. Also, huge kudos to Richard, who's just about to hit his 50th Good Deed! Richard has been doing so much good, net time you see him he'll be in a black GG tshirt, so give him a cheer! A special shout out goes to Anna for back-marking today, making sure we all I kept everyone going and no one got left behind in a busy tourist area.

Today's task involved heading over to the Grounded Eco Garden, a place we've helped out at before. For those who haven’t been before, it's a community garden focusing on eco-friendly practices, and it's the perfect spot to get your hands dirty and make a positive impact on the environment. We’d been there before, helping get it ready for the community, and today was all about cleaning up the surrounding area.

With the magnificent Tower Bridge as our backdrop, we met up with Alicia and got to work collecting rubbish. At first glance there wasn't loads, but when we really started to look we found an impressive haul, including a surprising number of bottles cig butts (which take 60 years to biodegrade!), and, most curiously, an old car key. If anyone has lost a car key lately... well, now you know where it went!

As we ran, we discussed all sorts of random facts inspired by our surroundings. Did you know that every Wetherspoons pub has its own unique carpet pattern? Yup, it's true! And apparently, there are over 900 Wetherspoons pubs across the UK, each with its own distinctly designed carpet. Who knew there could be so many different patterns?

There was more chat about the Friday Night Lights Festival of Running (where GoodGym volunteers get free entry!) - here’s the link for more info on how to get involved - there's a morning and an afternoon session to join in with. It's a great opportunity to get your run in while enjoying festival vibes.

Lastly, don’t forget about our Monday run in Wandsworth, which will feature our monthly pub quiz after the run. All are welcome, whether you're a regular or a newbie! It's always a blast, and we can’t wait to see you there.

Thanks to everyone for being such an amazing crew today despite he last minute change, and we hope to see you out there next time for the next stage of the transformation of Tower Bridge community garden!

There was just the slightest sense of seasonal change in the air as we met for our group run last night in Wandsworth. Maybe the back to school feeling was because the summer heat wave seems to be behind us, or perhaps it was because we were heading back to Sacred Heart for the first time in a while for our evening's task.

We started off the session with our usual warm up, and this week we tried to think of movie stars with whom we shared our initials. Among us last night were Julia Roberts, Liam Neeson and Patrick Swayze!

We ran down to the school and had a bit of an adventure trying to find the right entrance. Luckily Jared the Head came to rescue us and explain the jobs for the evening.

There were two main tasks - sanding and undercoating the planters, and dismantling the one that was in a state of disrepair. We split into teams and got started. It didn't take long for us to finish taking off the flaking wood and start getting the paint on. Meanwhile the wreckage team were busy breaking the wooden structure to bits and transporting the wood and its contents across the playground.

Jobs done, we waved goodbye to the school and headed next door to the park to do a mobility and strengthening session. We knocked out lots of different moves aimed at stretching and conditioning our muscles before running back - just in time as the heavens unexpectedly opened! Great job tonight everybody.

Next Monday is a bank holiday - we'll still be having a session but it will be earlier int he day so that you can make the most of your day off! Sign up here for all the details.

On Saturday there will be a community mission to help out at our GG garden with an optional 5km together beforehand - the details of which will be in our whatsapp group so if you haven't been added and would like to be then let me know.

Breaking news!

Last night, not only did we turn a whole eight years old, our group session pushed us over the 10 000 good deed mark! What an amazing way to celebrate.

And celebrate we did! On the hottest day of the year, a huge 21 of us met to do good and get fit on the anniversary of our very first group run. It seemed right that we should be going to our own GoodGym garden, a space where we've been growing fruit and veg to donate to the kids program at the theatre.

So after a warm up where we did, you guessed it, 8 reps of various exercises, we went round the group and said what we wanted to do when we grew up when we were 8 years old. Answers ranged from footballer, to two dentists and even Xena Warrier princess!

We set off for the garden, and were delighted to find that there were loads of crops ready to be harvested, including potatoes and some delicious looking kale. We also collected loads of the fallen cooking apples, weeded, staked and strung up our runner beans (appropriate for us!).

The produce we grow will be used to donate to the children's sessions at the theatre, which is run as a charity, and to other community food organisations. We are also repurposing what would otherwise be underused land and increasing biodiversity, so it's a win-win-win situation!

Job done we headed over to the common to play some very silly but hopefully fun ball based fitness games. We started off with human hungry hippos, before testing our squat and reflex skills before having a plank off whilst balancing the balls on our backs. There were some interesting tactics on display and luckily we had the VAR courtesy of Paul to go back and watch game play. Shout out to Kevin and Jordan for collecting the most, with Hugo and Suresh in a close second! In the plank off it came down to six of the strongest cores - well done Catherine, Beth, Hugo, Elif, Sophie and Jasmin!

After all that fun and hard work, it was time to head back to the Omnibus bar for some drinks, chats and incredible food. Everybody outdid themselves with the goodies, but it was Catherine's masterpiece of a cake that had us all talking. It was an amazing creation, and what made it more delicious was that is was baked using blackberries forged from Wandsworth common - what could be more GoodGym than that!

We had a wonderful speech from Jordan, who put what GG means to us all into words better than I could hope to here. So to echo him, there are so many memories we've made over the past 8 years. There have been lots of new faces and we love that our group is welcoming and inclusive. We have achieved so much together and made some beautiful friendships. So here's to the next 8 - and beyond.

Apparently 8 years is a bronze wedding anniversary, but I think every single one of you deserves a gold medal!

Next week we'll be back for more doing good and getting active, when we'll be painting playground planters. Hope to see you there!

If only the skies had been as blue as the paint job we did last night!

We started off the evening dry as a bone, and even though the gathering clouds were ominous, we were looking forward to an inside task. There may have been a little bit of disappointment for some in the air after the football the night before but we were cheered up with a flying visit from a friend - great to have you back for a session Jack!

The theme of the evening was positivity (especially given the prospect of our margs and margs social later on that evening), so after our warm up we each told the group something that gives us a little lift. Answers included sugar, gin, ringing a friend, yoga, coffee and entering a race - which I think is a very good range!

We set off for the ROSE clubroom, a space which is the home to lots of important resources for local people, including free workshops, classes and meals, a community engagement group, local clean ups sessions and events for children.

When we arrived we found the place already set up and ready to go, and we were delighted to see that rather than refreshing white walls with more white paint as we usually do, we had a major colour transformation ahead of us. Grabbing our brushes, masking tape and rollers, we set about changing the colour scheme from a browny purple to a fabulous bright blue!

During the course of the evening there was plenty of Changing Rooms v 30 Minute Makeover chat, remembering Smiley Carol and all the transformations that didn't quite go to plan! Luckily the new colour at the community centre was universally approved of, and we managed to successfully get the first coat on relatively quickly. We were on a roll(er)! We'll be back in a couple of weeks to do the other sections of wall.

We were just having our group photo taken and finishing up the last of the clearing up when the skies darkened even more and there came the sound of thunder rumbling. The next thing we knew the heavens had opened. We stood under cover for a few minutes discussing what to do, but it was showing no signs of stopping. There was nothing for it but to bite the bullet and head into the storm. The rain spurred us on to a nice fast run back to base and we were back in record time. Or perhaps it was the prospect of margarita pizzas and cocktails at a local bar? Who knows!

Next week we're back at a local community garden which is being reopened to the public after being shut since lockdown. It would be great to see you there!

We've also started weekly Sunday morning sessions helping out with the junior parkrun in Battersea Park. It's a really great event helping get young people active, so if you'd like to join in the fun then please sign up here.