We started off our group run in Wandsworth with even more good things to celebrate than usual, kicking off with a load of lovely new faces joining us for their very first GoodGym run. A massive welcome to Egle, James, Hanna, Letizia and Ozge!

We also gave a huge round of applause for all the many racers who took to the streets of Bucharest last week to represent GoodGym internationally! So many of you put in some great effort on the various courses, and we're all very proud of you. A big well done to all those who raced elsewhere, including the Hackney 5k and half marathon.

There was a could of fantastic achievements to celebrate, as Ella did her 50th good deed last night, earning her black tshirt, and Frances hit her 100th and got her wings. You guys are wonderful, and have shown brilliant commitment and energy to do good in Wandsworth and beyond.

With 36 brilliants runners ready to spread a wave of good across Wandsworth last night, we had two community tasks ready to be tackled. We had been asked by a church in Balham if we could go along and help empty out their huge basement so that it could be used for something that would benefit local residents, while the other group, led by speedy Beth, were also going to head back to the amazing Grub Club to help them set up a community café that would help provide food and nutrition advice to disadvantaged families. But first a warm up!

Heading outside we kicked off with some dynamic stretches, lots of fast feet and knee drives before discussing what were our favourite attributes in our friends. Answers included kindness, a sense of adventure, the ability to drink lots of wine, a sense of humour and being rich!

After the warm up we split the group into two - one to take on the longer run to the church, the other to do a short but nippy run down to Caius House. My group opted for the slightly longer run, and headed off in the direction of Balham (along with a much-derided paper map!), where, two miles later we found Robert, the vicar, waiting for us with a huge skip and a full basement We got straight to it, forming a human chain and tackling the heaviest items first. out came beautiful stained glass doors, parts of benches, panes of the heaviest glass in the world (which are pretty dramatic when they smash!), netball hoops, old chairs and much more. It turned out to be a great upper body work out, and increasingly covered in dust, we worked for half an hour until the skip had reached overflowing point. We were rewarded with fruit and water (thanks St Mary's!) and set off on a speedy run back to the common where Chi had discovered a Strava segment and a few of us split off to race the clock and get GoodGym up the rankings! Great speed work everyone.

There was just a last push back to the BAC to meet up with the other group and hear about all the good they had been doing.

Over to Beth for her take on last night's fun at Caius House and the new Grub Club there:

Half of the group ran a short but brisk mile to help set-up The Glub Club at Caius House Youth Centre. Once we arrived we were met by Aisling who briefly explained the vision of The Glub Club; community is at the core of The Grub Club and it is a wonderful initiative that supports and engages families with nutrition advice and cooking skills. Following on from last week’s prep work this week the task was to paint the sanded down furniture and the walls of the café. There were no 'moaning Lisa's' about the prospect of painting instead in true Changing Rooms fashion, lots of 'Carol Smillie's'. The group efficiently split into three painting teams: Team Furniture, Team Magnolia and Team White; everyone picked-up either a roller or paint brush and enthusiastically got stuck in – possibly a touch too enthusiastically as within minutes Jessie had splashed her black GG t-shirt with white paint, and by the end of the task most had either their hands or clothing covered in paint, or both in Lewis’ case!...but everyone stylishly brushed it off and rolled with it.

After a fun-filled 30 minutes of painting to some classic 90's hits (Backstreet Boys and painting, what's not to love?!) there was a marked difference from when we had arrived, the chairs were now all painted white and the café walls had a nice coat of either magnolia or white – although much to the disappointment of many we didn’t have enough time to finish the tops of the walls. We all downed painting tools and began the tidy-up which was quickly done, quite possibly due to the lure of treats awaiting the group once they had finished – a fruit smoothie, berries, cereal bars and popcorn had all been laid out, what a treat!

We had a brief final chat with Aisling about when The Grub Club was planning to launch before we both said our thank yous and goodbyes (until we return on the 11th June!). Following a quick headcount to ensure no-one had been lost or got too attached to ensuring the walls were completely painted, we all headed off on the short mile run back to base to meet up with the other group.

We beat the other group back so much to everyone’s excitement they were treated to 30 seconds of either wall-sits or step-ups followed by a 30 second rest. Sadly/luckily (delete as appropriate!) within a few minutes the other group appeared and we all began the cool down and stretch together.

As the two groups reunited back at the BAC, all that was left to do was bid a sad farewell to lovely Hannah who will be leaving us in Wandsworth, but hopefully not the GoodGym family - well done for all the time you've put into doing good Hannah, we'll miss you! Theres was also the matter of Matthew's birthday (congratulations Matthew!), and we used what lung capacity we had left to sing him a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, and no doubt startling a few passers-by as we did!

Next week it's the second of our Monday bank holidays, but if you're worried about missing out on your Goodgym fix then good news - we're still running as normal! We'll even have a little social afterwards to celebrate. Sign up here - see you then!

It was a rainy old night in Wandsworth last night, but we had lots of great news to cheer us right up.

The first thing to put a smile on our faces was two lovely new runners joining us for their very first group run. Put your hands together for Oliver and for Jacqueline!

If you were inspired by the heroics of David and Rachael who both ran the London Marathon at the end of April, then now is your chance to do something about it! The VLM ballot is officially open so even if you're just toying with the idea of tackling the greatest race on earth then why not enter and see what happens?

Fresh off the back of this endeavour, Rachael showed there was no stopping her, and hit her giant 50th good deed last night - that's 50 times she has made Wandsworth a better place. Go Rachael!

If all that cheering has made you thirsty, then why not pop down to this month's GoodGym social which will take place in Penge on Thursday from 6:30pm. It's a great way to catch up with the GG news and meet other GGers from the different areas.

Last night we had not one, but two tasks for your delectation and pleasure - finishing up the cleaning ready for a festival focussed on mental health, and clearing a communal garden at local sheltered housing. After we warmed up - finding out at the same time what was the greatest biscuit (it was chocolate hobnobs of course) -we set off in one big group down to our first task. While Team One got stuck in with the cleaning, Team Two nipped down to the garden to meet Anthony and start digging.

This small but productive garden is for the residents, and is looked after by the lovely Anthony who has recently had surgery so needs a quick hand maintaining the site. It was flourishing with rhubarb, dill and gooseberries, which we carefully dug around, before Hannah found hidden treasure in the shape of four little potatoes. Score!

Job done we met up with Team One, who has been carefully scrubbing sinks and floors for the Sound Minds charity, and got stuck into our fitness session. We kicked off with squat fencing in a battle royale of competitions. It was a nailbiting tournament which came down to two final contenders - Matthew and Dave, our super visitor from Southwark. It was a close fought thing, but it was Dave who emerged victorious, and Matthew's supporters were fined with 10 burpees. We then partnered up, with one GGer giving the other fiendish/kind drills to do while they sprinted. You lot are tough!

After that it was a gentle trot back to the BAC, and a reminder that next week is bank holiday but we most definitely will be running, so sign up here for bank holiday fun and social!

All that is left is to bid our friend Nick a tearful goodbye as he leaves us for a new job overseas. We'll miss his friendly smile and awesome hair - thanks for all the laughs and the good deeds Nick!

It was a bright, bright, bright, bright sun-shining day in Wandsworth this evening and we made it evening brighter by using our runs to do some good in the local community this evening.

Before we set off we had a big round of applause for our new runners Jamie and Eve-Marie who joined us for their first ever GoodGym group runs this evening - give them a cheer Wandsworth. We also gave David a huge series of congratulations for completing the London Marathon YESTERDAY, and still making it to the run this evening - what a man! His account of the Marathon was something along the lines of : very warm, but a fantastic way to experience what London is all about, plus the support from spectators was great. We heard that the GoodGym support was immense and that everyone had a fab day out cheering - so well done to all those that supported too!

We had just a short run down to the task, for an arts for mental health charity called Sound Minds, however we had been told there was a lot to do, so we set off quickly and after just over 1 km we arrived to meet Paul. Paul told us all about the charity and the project we were helping with before assigning us to different tasks. They are setting up a space for use as a festival to showcase the arts for mental health and all that Sound Minds do - there will be bands playing in there, arts exhibitions, and lots of other great projects! Before this space can be used, they needed us to help clear it all out.

The Task: We split into groups to tackle different rooms and tasks to try and get done as much as we could in 45 mins. Some were cleaning windows inside and out, one group took on the basins in the bathroom (check out the comparison pics!), we formed a human chain to move leftover building materials down to the basement, a few people removed blu tac from the walls before giving the walls a good clean, plus we had people sweeping and hoovering! There was a LOT to do, but many hands make light work and we achieved a lot in just a short space of time.

Once the 45 mins was up, and the place was sparkling, we left Paul with a venue smelling of every cleaning product under the sun, and made our way back to base. Right at the end of the run we stopped briefly to go over some tips for hill sprints, such as an upright posture, landing with the front section of your foot, and pumping your arms. This quick chat was followed by a superb hill sprint, up our favourite hill, by everyone. Great work team!

We finished the evening with some much needed stretches.

Thanks for having me Wandsworth - Ana will be back next week - so come along to hear all about her holiday, and I'm sure she will have a fun fitness session up her sleeve!

The sun was shining down on us for our entire Monday evening run, so everyone in Wandsworth could see all the good we were doing as we ran about 5km and helped at Paradise Gardens by spreading some woodchip on their paths.

Before heading out we welcomed Eilidh for her first ever Group Run - give her a cheer for using her run to do some good in the local community for the first time! We also heard about the GoodGym London Marathon Cheering that's happening this weekend. It looks like we will mainly be based on Embankment outside Somerset House, so come and join us to soak up the amazing atmosphere of this phenomenal race!

It was Ana's birthday today (hence why Alyx led the run instead), so after a quick warm up and introductions (that revealed we're all a happy, but apparently forever hungry, group of people) we filmed a short happy birthday message for her, and then off we set.

Arriving in speedy time, we met Rosie at the Paradise Gardens and she showed us where the woodchip pile and all the tools were. We've been here a couple of times now, so lots of us knew exactly what to do and we got stuck in straight away. One group piled woodchip into wheelbarrows and buckets, with another group ferrying these back and forth to the paths that needed a top up. On the paths there were a couple of teams armed with rakes, ready to spread the woodchip for an even layering. As there were so many of us there were still some hands with no work to do, so we found some bags and litter pickers and managed to do a sweep of the outskirts of the Gardens, collecting litter as we went. In what seemed like no time at all, the task was complete. I think we are getting too good at spreading woodchip and creating paths these days - thus we should set up some king of university for it!

Cracking job Wandsworth crew!

It seemed like all the hardwork was over, but we stopped on Wandsworth Common for a fitness session on the way back, and boy it was a killer one! We split up into pairs, and while one person was practicing their sprints, the other was doing a core based exercise to work on their running posture, and then they swapped. We finished off with a wheelbarrow race with some very speedy times indeed and then headed back to the BAC.

Andrew and Jamie did a fabulous job of back marking for the whole run - so please give them a cheer everybody!

We waved goodbye to Sophie (for now), who is going away on a traveling adventure, but she promises she'll be back.

Join us next week when we are cleaning a building before the rooms are filled with art produced by the local community for an Arts for Mental Health project. Alyx will be leading again, but she promises you'll have Ana back the following week!

23 runners had a cracking night searching for Easter Eggs and planting spring flowers at a local community centre!

A very closed BAC, a rainy evening and an Easter bank holiday did not put off a group of lovely runners who met to do some real good last night. We even had a new friend in the shape of Sam who came along for his very first run last night. Give him a cheer!

An enormous well done to Lewis and to Beth who both absolutely smashed the Kingston Half on Sunday. Fantastic running guys.

Don't forget that there's a GoodGym social this Thursday, which is a perfect chance to catch up with chums for all the GG areas, find out who won the much-coveted pun of the month, and hear about all the lovely stuff everybody's been doing.

And while you have your diaries out, put a big red ring around June 30th, for Team Wandsworth has a silver medal position to defend. We got this, guys. Parliament Hill Athletics track will see all the areas go head to head - they'll be sweat, tears and egg and spoon racing. We'll need to come up with a competition-winning flag, too. Sign up here for an afternoon you will never forget.

After a quick warm up and an even quicker poll to find out everybody's fav Easter egg (Cadbury's ranked very highly, and there was even a vote for quail's eggs), we set off for Providence House. This brilliant place, which was a very short run away, is a youth club which aims to improve the lives of young people in North Battersea. They provide a sense of community and identity for each of the young people; offering an alternative to anti-social behaviour and social isolation.

Our job last night was to tidy up the outside areas by giving it a good clear of litter, then planting some beautiful herbs and flowers in all the raised beds. We got stuck straight in, and half an hour later the place was looking blooming lovely.

We decided to extend the run a little by jogging over to a nearby park, where we tackled an Easter themed workout. The idea was that we all found our designated partner, and had to complete a series of exercises before finding an egg. A huge well done to the Sarah and Simon dreamteam who smashed through the list in no time at all to be crowned our Easter winners. Way to go!

We took a slightly longer route which featured the infamous Theatre Street hill on the way back, and finished off the night with a few stretches, an Easter social and possibly the biggest and most delicious 200 cookie that has ever been made. Thank for a brilliant evening, team.

Next week we've got a huge task shifting bags and bags of compost up to a rooftop community garden, so if you're in the market for an epic upper body workout while making a difference in your local community then whack your name down here!