How do GoodGymers like their Vesper Martinis? Like James Bond, shaken not stirred as we like to shake up a community and not cause a stir 🙄

On a warm October evening, five GoodGymers met up for a Group Run from Old Spike Roastery in Peckham to Marychurch Oasis near Rotherhithe Overground Station. Newcomer (and recruited from Sam's tag rugby team) Jess was the first one present outside the cafe eagerly waiting (with nerves) for her first Group Run! Slowly, one by one, GoodGymers started to arrive! Natalia came for her second Group Run and to my surprise, Allie showed up out of the blue as it has been several months since I was saw her! Good to see "old" faces and great to see she was up for a Group Run again. Last, but not least, Fumina turned up for her 3rd good deed just as I was about to start the GoodGym "speech" and then the warm-up! After a quick blast warm-up, we steadily ran the 5.5k (yes, I admit...it wasn't 5k as I advertised 😝), which took us along Rye Lane into Surrey Canal Walk, across Old Kent Road, down Abercorn Way, shortcut to Galleywall and Southwark Park Road before joining Jamaica Road as we did a last push to Marychurch Oasis (Time and Talent). This run with a few stops for traffic lights and "breather breaks" took us just under 40 minutes. 💪

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Time and Talent

Being slightly late, Emma (who cycled in) and Phoebe (task owner) were waiting for us! They were pleased to see that we had arrived and Phoebe wasted no time in explaining the task as we did have 35 minutes instead of the original 45. Phoebe wanted us to dig up soil in a part of the Oasis that needed to be leveled down for future use and shift this (with the wheelbarrows provided) to an empty skip outside Time and Talent. This time, the portable floodlights were fully charged and helped with lighting up the digging area. With three shovels and two wheelbarrows, everyone took their weapon of choice and got stuck in. Naturally, I was on photographer duty, but still helped out with lifting the wheelbarrows and pouring the soil into the skip.

The time zoomed by as barrow after barrow, we shifted the soil from the ever-decreasing mound to the most mineral rich skip in the neighbourhood. 😂 Time does past fast when you're getting a full body workout (especially upper body) with the digging and lifting as well as talking about first dates! 👀 which was great to hear after the year we had that we're all getting back to some normality. Some great quotes from night:

Had my first date at Parkrun with a sporty man over the weekend....out of breath after the 3rd lap, so he spoke about himself, but got my 2nd best ever Parkrun time 😂

Planned to have a nice first date with a picnic....ended up having our first date at Wimbledon 👀

Thank You Phoebe

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owners and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Phoebe for agreeing to stay late into the night and host us. I am sure we will be back as there is always plenty to do!

Thank you for the group photos too! 😉

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Hope everyone enjoyed their time at Time and Talent last night! Thank you for digging, transporting and pouring soil into a skip. I am aware everyone had the chance to do a bit of everything! 💪 Hope to see you on another Group Run or Community Mission soon!

Southwark News

• Shoutouts Hannah Foote is a whisper away from her 50th - she's on 49 good deeds and Nat Atkinson is 48. Looking forward to some 50th celebrations!

• Saturday 1st December is a big one. 1.30pm - 3.00pm is the third fixture of the cross country season at Uxbridge. You need to be a member of the GoodGym RaceTeam - found out more and sign up here. After that roll on down to the Old Library in a Star Wars (or any other S) costume for the GOODGYM CHRISTMAS PARTY WOOOOO - sign up here.

• The following Sunday 9th December get your long run on in Waltham Forest or try something short and speedy, curtesy of the lovely GoodGym Lambeth lot at the Tooting Bec track.

• Next week we're running 6km overall to the Salvation Army in Camberwell for a tidy up. We haven't been there in a while, Janet is looking forward to seeing us!

That's enough of the business

Last night we sheltered from the rain in Old Spike to get ready for a super Christmassy task - wrapping presents for Creation Trust's Christmas Party. Creation Trust is a community group dedicated to making sure that residents living on the Aylesbury estate receive the benefits of the regeneration of the area. This year the Christmas Party is aimed at the children of those taking sheltered housing in some of the vacant flats on the estate. We had 80 presents to wrap for under 3s, boys and girls. Everyone split themselves into groups and got to work. We finished all 80 in 35 minutes. And beautifully wrapped they were!

Everyone kept one present aside each for our speed wrapping challenge afterwards - inspired by Evolve London's speed wrapping campaign challenge. The rules: you're allowed pre-cut paper but not pre-cut tape. That's it! It was a pretty sensational moment - watch the video on Instagram (and follow us!) here.

Our podium finish 1, 2, 3 were Girija, Helena and Lucy. Wooden Spoon goes to David.

A great evening and a good 6.7km run. See you next week team!

Lucy J

Southwark News

• The Christmas party is taking place at Theatre Deli on 1st December. We're asking for a small donation to cover costs. Sign up, donate and add to the Christmas playlist here.

• We're having a Christmas Decoration Party on 24th November to get things ready for Theatre Deli. Bring your craftyness - sign up here.

• Fancy a long run with company and food at the end? The GoodGym November long run is happening on 17th November and it's a 16km circle around Southwark. Perfect! Sign up here.

• (Yes I know this isn't in chronological order...) Like art? Like the Copeland Gallery? Like hearts? The Heart of the Matter is an exhibition that brings together art and medicine to reflect on the human heart and it's on at the Copeland Gallery 1-11 November. Our very own Katie Haines has been publicising it. Find out more here and pop in (it's free!) to support local goodness.

• Next week is Halloween - we'll be dressing up, bringing face paints and popping to Batch for a drink after. Sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night we set off for the (apparently) 6km to Theatre Deli on the edge of Burgess Park. Spoiler alert: It wasn't 3km...

Hello and welcome to Dan, Lizzie and Fumina who joined us for the first time last night!

After a briefing ramble and a warm up we headed a roundabout way to Theatre Deli - a group that takes over unused spaces and works to expand opportunities for people to make, participate in and experience art.

After a few cries of 'Lucy are we nearly there yet?' we were actually there. Yay! We arrived to find Matt helping Emma unpack the varnish and tools (some slightly overwrapped varnish in there...). She told us a bit about what Theatre Deli does and, enlisting the help of the ever-practical Helena, we established how best to apply varnish (a thin layer) and decided on a method to try to minimise the chances of varnishing ourselves into corners.

Emma had cleared one section of flooring (nearly half the floor space) but we ripped through the task so quickly that we almost finished the entire space which meant some heavy lifting to clear space.

We got so much done, Emma was delighted

We did find ourselves on the wrong side of the varnish a few times (myself mostly...) but all in all an excellent job.

Waving goodbye to Emma we set off home on a 'slightly shorter route'. Spoiler Alert: it was not slightly shorter. All in all we ran over 7km and had good fun chasing down Dan just as we reached Old Spike.

Great work team!

See you next week :)

Lucy J