Weather it’s rain, sleet or snow, Goodgym Wandsworth will always shine in the show. A big shoutout to the Team who made it because yesterdays weather should never be underestimated. It was a a humble size group according the to Wandsworths numbers best but I am was confident that we was might enough to put the job to rest.

7pm came and we all looked nervously outside to see if the rain will ever subside. Luckily it did, and with a quick warm up with a little introduction to everyone’s job, we set off quick.

Over hearing some people speaking sounds like the introducing everyone and the jobs they are into became a nice little greeting. We took the scenic route to the site but Beth told me there is a shortcut and we got there avoiding all matters of traffic lights.

The first task involved some muscle work with moving the compost from one site to about 100 meters away into the garden. Some opted for the teamwork option while others showed their confidence by carrying it themselves. Beth had an interesting bear hug tug technique that got her through to the finish lines. As it was still raining, I suggested the group to try and keep running so they don’t get to cold.

Once that task was completed, we crystal mazed it to the other end of the garden to hear what else Helare had in store for us. The group got split up into teams. We had one team cleaning the green house. They were enthusiastic and very efficient. They green house looked dirt free afterwards from what I could see. Another group was making a path with some soggy chip wood. As it was cold I can see they were doing it in haste, they had no time to waste because they wanted to find heat in that place. The final group was on bathtub duty. They had to move the bath tub from one place to another. As easy as that sounded. They had to take the soil from the bath tub before its new home was founded.

With all the task done we headed back the way Beth suggested, we got much quicker and was ready to feel rested. But before I let the group go, I had to do the final tradition and putting them through a abs workout that will have them near submission.

The group deserved the treats that were laid out, the help they gave today definitely helped the estate out.

Don’t forget to look out for news on the Goodgym Games, The free Hackney 5k and The Spartan Races.

2 Storms in 2 weeks has made for some horrendous ruining conditions recently, but storm Dennis was definitely not enough to put off the team from GoodGym Wandsworth, especially with the prospect off some great company, putting in a tonne of hard work and helping a good cause!!

We had 6 new runners join us this evening and I’d like to offer a huge GoodGym Wandsworth welcome to Helena, Ece, David, Galabina, Rosie & Emily, go ahead and give them a cheer

NEWS

There’s lots coming up at GoodGym, here’s a recap of this week’s news,

The GoodGym Shindig

The shindig is a getaway where runners from all GoodGym areas come together for a weekend of running, socialising and chatting all things GoodGym. The shindig is being held from the 7th till the 9th of August. If you are interested in attending register here

The Big Half

The Big Half Marathon is taking place in London on the 1st March, with a number of GoodGym runners already signed up to take place. If you missed out on a chance to run, you can still get involved by signing up to volunteer

There is also a social after the event taking place in the London Bridge area

The 2020 Big Six races

The big 6 races for this year have been announced and the details are now up on the race team page. There are an array of distances and locations to choose from and you'll get to meet other GoodGym members from all over the country

Community mission

On the 29th February we have a community mission helping out around Fulham Palace Gardens. So, if you’d like a chance at a post ParkRun community mission, sign up here

DO GOOD, GET FIT

This week’s task was helping at a local church called St. Saviour's Battersea Fields, who support the community by organising and running several community group sessions which include free meditation, a choir and a community space

We started by warming up outside Battersea Arts Centre to get us ready for the first leg of our run. We then covered a steady paced first 1.5km and arrived at our destination wind swept but ready to get stuck in

All 37 of us were met by the church administrator who was slightly overwhelmed by our numbers. We quickly split into small groups and got stuck into a huge list of jobs, which included cleaning the kitchen, pantry, washing up, scrubbing the oven, painting the hall, pillars and corridors, moving furniture and toys, weeding, litter picking, clearing the guttering and emptying the window display

An hour later we’d completed our tasks, leaving the church in great condition, the church team happy and all of us with a great feeling of satisfaction

Our fitness session was sacrificed in order to get the most out of our time at the church. Which was compensated by taking a longer route back to base at a nice speedy pace. After a quick stretch we were all done for the night with our tasks complete and 4km in the bag, amazing work all round team Wandsworth!!

COMING UP

Next week Ana will be back and leading us for our task where we're going to be distributing flyers for an amazing youth event being put on by local charity Providence House, sign up here

I’d like to thank you for all for the awesome effort and hard work you all put in tonight

Have a great week and Happy Running!!

We started off our run last night with some stats from our month of doing good to kick off 2020. You did an incredible job in Wandsworth, racking up a brilliant 188 good deeds, and covering a huge 1821 kilometers. Seriously impressive. As a whole, the numbers are even more amazing - the GoodGym community managed 8646 good deeds, and ran 98521 in the process. What an incredible wave of good happening across the country!

• Welcome to GoodGym Christina, Emily and Karen. It's all about getting fit and adding purpose to your run, and we're really happy you've joined us!

• Well done to all of you who got out there at the weekend, including Caroline who ran her first parkrun, and to Kate and Diego all spotted covering the miles at parkruns across London!

The Venue is a community centre we visit fairly regularly to support - it is run by Hadas, who organises the Waste Not Want Not , the first project in Battersea which collects surplus food from nearby markets and distributes it through local community . The community centre is run by volunteers, so we were happy to run the 2km down there to lend a hand.

Before we set off we did our weekly warm up, and also discussed the objects in our life that bring us joy. Top of the list were bikes, food, our beds and of course, cheese. What more could we need?

After a quick stop to knock out a wall sit, we arrived at the Venue and split into groups to tackle the jobs. While one team set about giving the community kitchen a deep clean, ready for another week of cooking for local people, a human chain was quickly formed to transport crates of mushrooms and compost to the roof garden around the corner. Meanwhile, several GGers got to work emptying the storage room to be able to fit in some beds which will be going to a refugee family. There was also a spot of tidying up to do outside the centre, as well as window washing and hoovering. What a lot of elbow grease!

With all the jobs ticked off it was time for our abs blast, and we kicked off with a core triathlon, before moving on to various planks and other abs focused moves. Great for keeping our form in good shape when we run and preventing injury, it's good to make this sort of conditioning part of your weekly training. Hello abs of steel!

We finished off the session with a run back to base, a bit of a hill sprint, and some nice stretching. Great work everybody! It was off to the pub for the monthly social for some of us - watch out for March's post-run fun on March 2nd, and in the meantime why not sign yourself up for next Monday's run here. Hopefully see you then. Until then, run happy!

It was the penultimate Wandsworth run of the year (and the decade!) last night and it was a goodie....

It all started with a lots of nice news:

• There was some great parkrun tourism going on, and some good long racing from Rosie - well done guys

• Don't forget that it is our last run of the year next Monday when we'll be singing carols for Paul's Cancer Support Centre, followed by our Wandsworth Christmas social - join us for the last session of the year and get ready to get your Christmas on in a big way.

• If you want to warm up those voices and do your bit to support the local community at the same time, then there is a great community mission this Thursday when Kambala Cares community organisation will be hosting their annual local event. [Sign up here for carols, mince pies and a nice good deed]

• There was even more to celebrate last night as it was Morag's 100th good deed - what a superstar! Give her a cheer for all those good deeds and many, many kilometres along the way. Shout out to Matthew who hit 200 good deeds last night- getting ever closer to that 500 tshirt!

Our task for the evening was at Spear, a south west London based charity that helps get people off the street and into secure accommodation, supports young people and helps them move into education or work. They had asked us to come and paint their training rooms, which were in need of a little love.

So after a warm up and a brussel sprouts referendum ( 23 to 6 in favour...with some caveats) we headed off on a short run to St Mark's Church, Spear's base. When we got there we found all the equipment we needed waiting for us, and got straight into the job. While most of the group got painting, James and Hanna took on the challenge fixing the broken cupboard. Half and hour of work later and we were done - the walls had a good lick of paint, the cupboard was put together and replaced, and the brushes were washed up. That was the true definition of many hands making light work. Well done guys.

We took a short run up to Clapham Common for fitness, which kicked off with a squat waterfall, before moving onto Chase the Hare - with a very strong hare performance put in by Morag. Then we moved onto flying 30s, where we knocked out some good sprinting concentrating on different technical points.

A steady run back to base and some stretching and we were done for the night. Just one session left - hope to see you there! Until then, run happy everyone.

ps thanks to Helen for the punspiration and photos - photo credit also goes to Sian!