Wall of Honour

• Hi Five to Becca for joining us after a few months off.
• Fist Pump to Sam for back marking in his new GoodGym 100 Wings t-shirt!
• Shout Out to all the runners who also ran The Big Half on Sunday!

Lets have a recap

Last night 11 runners ran 6km in total to support Age UK in Southwark.

We had been asked to deliver flyers to sheltered housing residential properties in the streets around Nunhead Green and Peckham Rye Park. The flyers were promoting a community project run by Age Uk called My Social, aimed at bringing people together to try new things, develop friendships and feel part of the community. They were advertising their regular Bingo night social on Thursday evenings!

With the rain easing off we started with a quick warm up, and a game of Knee Tag! We ran as group towards Nunhead Green, where we split into 2 teams. Sam headed up Team A with a supply of flyers, directing the group around the green and along Kirkwood Road. David lead the charge for Team B following the main road, before turning up into Barset Estate. After only 30 minutes all the flyers had been delivered, with no fingers caught in letter boxes!

Fact Of The Day - The early Victorian post boxes were originally painted green! The first boxes to be painted red were in London in July 1874.

We continued the session through the puddles making 2 loops around Peckham Rye Park. We varied the pace with some lamp post strides, and a game of follow the leader. Finishing up at Old Spike to stretch and test our balance!

Next week we are running 8km overall to Crisis store in Elephant & Castle.

See you next week Team.

Wall of Honour

• Pat on the Back to Sam for being this weeks back marker.
• High Five to Vanessa for joining us on her first group run.
• Fist Pump to Dave for touristing from Tower Hamlets.
• And a big Hej to all our visiters from Denmark!

Let's have a Recap

Last night we had a group of visitors from Scandinavia that are involved in sports organisations, local authorities, research, and social enterprises, who were keen to see GoodGym's role in using sport as a tool to promote social inclusion and change in people’s lives.

With our 14 regular members plus 6 Danish runners, our group of 20 ran 5km in total on an increasingly chilly evening! Unfortunately the original task was cancelled at the last minute, so we decided to do another Scandinavian activity known as 'plogging' - a combination of jogging and picking up litter.

We began with a few warm up drills of fast feet and mobility stretches before heading up towards the top of Peckham Rye park. At our first stop in Piermont Green we split into teams armed with black bin bags, gloves and head torches. In around 15 minutes we were able to fill 8 bags of rubbish including some surprising items of clothing and a car seat mat! After combing the paths, grass, hedges and railings, we continued back into Peckham Rye itself going in differnt directions on our cleaning mission.

FACT OF THE DAY One Cigarette butt can contaminate 7 litres of water in one hour. Studies show that about half of all animals exposed to the contaminated water get sick from the chemicals of cigarette butts. - Thanks Nelly for this fact.

With more bags filled but fingers starting to chill, we finished our work after 30 minutes of doing good and places all the bags in the nearby bins. As a group we ran 2 continuous laps of the park, discussing upcoming races including the Big Half this Sunday! And we finished with a very evenly contested lamp post post relay, before heading back to Old Spike to stretch. One our Danish friends Mikkel concluded the evening by getting everyone to perform a Danish clap - a reaction test to clap our hands together until we all reacted in unison and sounded as one!

Next week we wil be running 5km in total to carry out our flyering task for Age Uk.

See you soon Team.

Wall of Honour

Pat on the back to Emma for being this weeks back marker and walk leader. High-five to Milena, George, Hannah, Rosie and Susie on their first group session in Southwark!

Let's have a recap

Last night 22 runners ran or walked 4km overall to the brand-new Crisis store in Peckham High Street for the national charity for homeless people. With the new store being right on our doorstep, we went through a quick warm up and a short loop up to the High Street. When we arrived we met Lauren the store manager who directed us to all corners of the store, with many staff making last minute display preparations we were able to add the icing on the cake and as Ed described it! We quickly got to work arranging rails in size order, collecting wipes and cloths to clean every surface of dust, Katie covered the entire floor with a cordless Hoover and Pauline followed up with a dustpan and brush. Richard and George added security lines to the jackets and Civ and Emma lead a group in the back room packing down six bags worth of cardboard! in 40minutes so much was covered, cleaned and re-organised ready for the official opening of the store at 11am.

Be sure to check out the items and artwork on display produced by women who have taken part in the 'Making For Change' programme. A collaborative training initiative for women at HM Prison Downview to learn new skills that could lead to future employment possibilities and break the cycle between prison and homelessness.

FACT OF THE DAY - Groundhog Day is celebrated this week in Canada & the US. It is a Pennsylvanian superstition that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will persist for 6 more weeks! If it does not see its shadow due to cloudiness, spring will arrive early. - Fingers crossed!

We finished the session with a 3km loop around Peckham Rye and a 500m lamp post time trial to test our paces and raise the heart rate!

Next Week we're running 8km overall to Stompie Gardens working with a local community group to help spread out some wood chip and clear up some weeds. It's getting darker so bring along a headtorch! Sign up here.

See you there Team!