We kicked things off at Old Spike and somehow managed to dodge the heavy rain as we made our way over to Old Alleynian Rugby Club. We had three newbies with us—Roland, Kamil, and Olga—great to have them along for their first Southwark Group Run!

Ian met us at the club and set us up with some weeding and patching up the pitches with seed. Once the hard work was done, we got our reward: a game of touch rugby. Ian then fueled us up with winegums before our run back.

After that, it was back to Old Spike and straight on to Brick Brewery for a well-earned drink and a good catch-up.

We were joined last minute by Emma, who had heard there were blackberries to rip up. So after a short hop, skip and a jump we set off to Thorlands.

After arriving slightly early we were met by Simon, who explained we needed to move leaf mould and take out the blackberries, which had taken over too much of the community garden. So we got to work and managed to clear a significant area of the blackberry while the other half of the group transported many barrows of mould.

After the hard work and the job back to Peckham we cooled off at the Nags.

On a warm summer evening, we set off from Old Spike and made our way—running the 5.5 km (with a little unplanned detour) to Blackfriars Estate. It was a long group run, but the sense of pride when we arrived made every step worth it.

There, we were warmly welcomed by Corin and got straight to work, shifting heavy bags of soil to clear space for the final stages of their landscaping project. It was serious, sweaty lifting, but as a team we got the job done.

With the task complete, we made the return journey to Old Spike—tired, but with that satisfying feeling of a mission accomplished.

Our group run started a bit early this week with a few of us meeting at the Nags Head to watch the woman’s euro game allowing us to hydrate pre run. Ten of us gathered at the Old Spike and did a short run to meet Karthik and Koshy at Cossall Estate. Our first task was litter picking the nature reserve. You never know what treasures you may find there! After this we weeded the beds in the estate and then jogged back to Peckham. The majority of the group were keen for more football so headed straight to the pub after!