Could we....dare we believe...might it possibly be summer? It was the perfect night for a run last night - warm, sunny, and brimming with lovely runners.

A massive GG welcome to the excellent Chantelle, Ben, James and Elizabeth, all of whom joined us for their very first Wandsworth run last night. Give them a cheer, people!

We had a loooot of congratulations to give last night - you've been very busy people! So - deep breath - an enormous pat on the back for Sarah, who casually ran a marathon on SUNDAY and still came along, to our fabulous fresh from Riga Racers Sophie, Jessie, Dave, Jack and Vix, to Matthew for a park run PB, to Luke for doing a mammoth 100k walk, Jo (and her mum) for doing a bit of park run tourism, and to Alyx for doing a whole lot of lovely good deeds. You are all superstars.

It was bound to be a great run last night after kicking it off in our fave teletubby room, but the sun was shining and our task was waiting, so after a quick hello we made our way outside for some warm ups and to get to know each other a little better. Tonight we found out what everybody likes to whack on the BBQ (thanks for the inspiration Jack!). The shock winner tonight was....halloumi! Who knew that little cheesy squeaker was so popular. With that decided we headed off for our task at Balham Baptist Church.

We have been working at the church a few times now, forming a human chain to empty a room of junk so that it could be turned into a foodbank. We've discovered some exciting things in the past - a huge crucifix, a mannequin, records, a pair of oars - but tonight we were down to the last big stuff. We filled the van with doors, chairs, planks and a lot of nails, and just managed to squeeze the final few bits into the van before declaring it Job Done. Way to go team, it's great to see a task done from start to finish, and especially one that would have taken the team at the church much longer to complete.

We waved goodbye to Pastor Jim, and set off to the common, where we smashed out a fitness session. Starting off by buddying up, we found out something nice about our partner. Jo found out that Ruth works with children with hearing impairments, while Luke found out that Dave had missed him when he was in Riga. So lovely. Then, while one person was doing a shuttle run, the other was doing a strengthening exercise - either holding a plank, squat, doing press ups or ab crunches. There was some interesting running from Will and Matthew, both trying to make each other suffer with the plank segment as long as possible - bet you can feel those abs today! Then we moved onto our core triathlon, before finishing the evening off with a quick game of British Bulldog. That was a tough session tonight, so well done everyone. Back to the BAC we went, finishing off a splendid evening of running with some stretches. Next week it's bank holiday but that doesn't faze us - we'll still be running as usual, as well as having a drink or two afterwards to celebrate. You can sign up here, and I hope you do!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/distributing-flyers

Yesterday a team of excellent Wandsworth runners made it all the way through Monday, and celebrated by meeting up to go on a lovely run together. It must have been some kind of record last night, with a bonus number of gorgeous new faces. Let’s give a huge GoodGym welcome to Clare, Hannah, Jasmine, James, Abbie, Kate and Helen.

Well done to Matthew and to Jasmine who both crushed Park Runs in Fulham Palace and Exeter respectively, and a big good luck to [David] who is running the Edinburgh marathon in a couple of weeks. We were thinking of our Wandsworth-on-Tour runners who were away in Riga smashing the 10k and half marathon races there, way to go team flying squirrels! Hat tip to Jo who is topping the distance tables and to Alyx and David, who are making their borough better by doing the most good deeds. Lovely bit of business.

Don’t forget we have a Wandsworth Whatsapp group which everybody is welcome to join – just let me know – a Facebook and Twitter page, and a Spotify account which we usually listen to on our runs, except that somebody forgot to switch it on last night (me). There is also a mission this Saturday in Tooting, for which you don’t have to have had your documents checked. It’s for our lovely friends at the Work and Play Scrapstore, and it starts at 9:30 so you could even fit in a Tooting Park Run beforehand! Check it out.

With our welcome done and dusted we took ourselves outside for a spot of warming up. We did a quick head count, and to get to know each other a bit better we drilled down right to the important stuff – our favourite type of crisp. The results were eclectic, to say the least, and there was no outright favourite – but Thai sweet chilli Sensations and Salt n Vinegar were named more than once, with guacamole and salsa getting honourable mentions as crisp companions. There were a few left fielders which set our bellies rumbling, including Space Invaders, Discos, Squares and Monster Munch. No Frazzles, Skips or Salt N Shake though. Interesting.

With this crucial poll taken, we set off to do some good things for our community. Tonight we were going to Eden Community Garden, a beautiful outdoor space for everybody to enjoy that we have helped at before. Eden’s objective is to provide a ‘green, tranquil, inner city space; a pleasant place for all to sit, play or garden. Its aim is to create and maintain a sustainable habitat for wildlife and promote bio-diversity by planting British native species and through organic gardening’, which we are right on board with. We were treated to a light shower (ahem) of rain on the way, which only sped up the pace, and arrived damply at the gorgeous garden to be greeted by Benny, the head gardener, Philippa, who runs the project, and the churchyard cat, who we named Jim (or Gym).

There were plenty of jobs to be getting on with, including moving a big pile of wood to the churchyard for a bonfire, weeding the ancient graveyard (which was full of the final resting places of Roundhead soldiers killed in the Civil War battle for Battersea Marshes), forking beds (sorry David and Daniel, I didn’t really get to grips with what you were doing, but it looked like hard work), clearing areas, and turning over compost. Team Compost did not find anything too alive in their bins, although Philippa did tell us that one year when they had a bumper load of snails that they cooked them and ate them with garlic and butter. True story.

With the jobs done, we said goodbye to Eden Community Garden (we’ll be back soon!) and shot off to the common to do our fitness session. We got our blood pumping with a quick game of Clusters, and then hit the hard stuff. Intervals! Everybody’s favourite. We alternated a minute of hard running with a recovery, making sure that we really made a change in pace. This kind of training is hard work, but brilliant for you, and as well as improving speed and strength, is great for developing aerobic capacity and burning fat. Great work. It was a short jog for recovery back to the BAC, where we cooled down with a few stretches, and as usual, rounded off the evening nicely with a medicinal drink or two. Same again next week? Yes please! You can sign up here.

Ps don’t forget to get me your elements for the Wandsworth flag!