As it drizzled all day, Sam saw the sign ups for the group run dwindle as the time drew closer to the start of the group run. Tonight's task would take us to Galleywall Nature Reserve, which would be our first group run visit of 2022. There was a session a couple of weekend's ago to tidy up the Nature Reserve after Storm Eunice.

As Sam arrived at Old Spike Roastery, Javier (the manager of Old Spike) was still around and thus, struck a conversation whilst he waited for all the GoodGymers to arrive. There were seven sign ups, but Sam knew one other runner would meet him at the task. As Paulin, Emma, Hollie, James and Benjamin arrived they were offered Baci chocolates by Sam as he recently came back from a weekend in Rome. There were some heart felt messages in the chocolates, but most were cheesy. Since it was planned that tonight would be a longer run, once everyone was in, we rushed out to get warm as the drizzling hadn't stopped!

The two-minute or so warm-up session was followed tonight's ice-breaker question, which was: Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, what is your favourite thing to come out of Ireland?

We had leprechauns and leprechauns chasing gold (to be specific), Guinness, Games of Thrones (as it was shot there....Northern Ireland), the Giant Causeway (again, Northern Ireland) and finally, the most heartfelt answer came from Paulin - her sister (as she was born in Ireland).

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Root cause to spawn are frogs

Paulin reminded Sam that the more direct route to Galleywall Nature Reserve via Rye Lane had roadworks, so we had to run a detour route that took us 25 minutes covering over 4k, but we made it on time.

Upon our arrival at Galleywall Nature Reserve, Jane had setup all the tools and gave a quick introduction to the Nature Reserve to those who hadn't been before. She set out three tasks as we were in six and expecting Emma too. In the end, she didn't come, but we got on with all the tasks.

We split the tasks as such:

The first task was to clear a muddy area of stick and stones, raking it out and then poured bags of woodchip which was received from the Paper Garden before this spread/raked all over to cover the muddy area. This task was covered by Hollie and Benjamin, whom took on two other tasks afterwards. They cleared the entrance area of sticks and swept to make the entrance presentable. Finally, they sowed bee-friendly seeds on a mound near the pond. Great effort! 💪 🙌

Paulin and James took on the weeding task. They had to weed Green alkanet (the one with the blue flowers) on the mound where Hollie and Benjamin were planting the bee-friendly seeds. The Green alkanet were transported to a container to break down and where it would be added to a solution, which would be put on any growing plants - it's all cyclical! ♻️

Finally, Emma LOVES litter, didn't know that, but she does. When she heard there was a litter picking task, she jumped at it and had a particular system with her litter picking. With two bags tied to her waist and a headtorch at the ready, she played hide and seek with the litter. More seeking than hiding on her end.

We finished the night with a group photo and we got the chance to see two frogs and frog spawn in the smaller pond. Great to see nature having this safe space to live and grow!

Only Paulin and Emma ran back with Sam as the others lived nearby or the 4k run to Galleywall Nature Reserve was enough. 😉

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out in the rain and for powering through a much longer run than usual to Galleywall Nature Reserve. Thank you!

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Thank You Jane

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 owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jane for opening up Galleywall Nature Reserve to us and I am glad we could help out with spreading woodchip, weeding and sowing seeds! See you in the Spring!

This week's group run at GoodGym Southwark had the pleasure of hosting ten GoodGymers including first-timer: Benjamin, who literally joined the day before. With the newbie around, Sam went through his traditional GoodGym speech and gave updates of what is happening over the weekend and the distant future!

Knowing we had limited time, we blasted through a one minute warm-up before answering our ice-breaker question, which was: What meal would you cook for your Valentine's date?

We had answers from brownies (slutty and regular ones) to plain salmon and from veggie lasagna (and other "pasta based dish") to a badly made calzone....in the end, it's the thought and love put into it that counts 😉

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Slutty Brownies & Bindweeds

Sam informed everyone that tonight's task at Thorlands would be limited to 30 minutes as the task owner, Simon, had to rush over to a budget meeting. Thus, we sprinted into the night until we paced ourselves slowly up Chadwick Road (the long incline road) to the top of Grove Hill and then down towards Denmark Hill station and beyond King's College Hospital. Simon was waiting for us with all the tools out apart from the bigger tools (shovels and forks), which Lindy and Katy obtained.

Our task tonight was two-fold: tackle the corner area that everyone leaves and cut down the "dead" bindweed from the fence near the "Walled" garden of Thorlands. Claire and Lucy took on that latter task. They were armed with secateurs, a lopper and a bin liner to fill the bindweed with....however, they realised quite soon that there was more bindweed than there was space for it in the bin. Therefore, they changed tactics to fill the bin liner with leftover/blown in litter and dumped the bindweed in a tonne bag. The rest of the team: Benjamin, Emma, Hollie, Katy, Lindy, Sophie and Vic concentrated on digging out any "greens" from the corner area of the "Forest" garden. They used shovels/shades, a fork and trowels to get as much as they could out whilst wheelbarrowing it to the compost heap! 💪

30 minutes in GoodGym world feels like 10 minutes as next thing Sam knew it was time to start the five minute countdown as we had to ensure there was five minutes at the end for cleaning the tools!

The team were on 🔥 for the last couple of minutes of digging and trimming as they wanted to get as much done! Yet, what doesn't get done will get done on Saturday.

After oiling up the secateurs and lopper as well as cleaning the larger tools in the murky and muddy water with an old rag, we said our goodbyes to Simon and to half of the team as most ran from Thorlands back home instead of heading back to Peckham. Still, there were some hardy bunch left. ❤️‍ Benjamin, Claire, Emma, Hollie and Sophie joined Sam for the run back to Peckham via Champion Hill and East Dulwich backstreets. There was even a final sprint to the end before some deserved stretches! 🙌

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight to run up Grove Hill again and those who ran back...taking a longer route to Peckham! Thanks for getting stuck into the task as we had limited time. Thanks to Benjamin, Claire, Hollie for grabbing a drink after the run - good to catch-up despite it not being our regular social night!

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Thank You Simon

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 owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon for allowing us to help out even though our time was limited. We push on to make Thorlands Community Garden a reality!

Pun credited to: Michael

At GoodGym, you have to be very adaptive to changes as we found out last night.

Nine GoodGymers came out in full force to GoodGym Southwark's group run and met inside the coffee-filled Old Spike Roastery. Sam briefed everyone of the task, what's coming up this weekend/next week and had a difficult speech to make about Ashling Murphy's murder, safety being out and about with GoodGym (and in general) and male violence.

In lighter news, we had Hollie come for her first ever Group Run and she hopes to do a good deed once a month (I'll hold her to that 😉) and Beth came for her second group run & good deed overall, which I feel is always the tipping point. First run = no expectations, second run = it better be better than the first one 😝 Hooooorrrayyyy to you both!

We also had runners who hadn't been to a group run in ages! Nelly has been within the last 3-4 months and it was great to see her again. However, James (probably forced by Paulin 🙃) was a pleasant surprise after not seeing him at a GoodGym group run for, at least, two years! Kudos to all!

Our our ice-breaker question last night was: What cuisine would you serve at your restaurant/cafe?

There were several healthy choices like soup, falafel, tacos and sandwiches to name a few, but Lindy's choice was interesting to say the least: Haggis bhajis 👀 a great fusion to spice up your Burns Night! 😜

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I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

Off we went towards St. Faith's Community Centre near North Dulwich station covering 2.7 kilometres to get there. When we arrived Andrea was waiting for us (sorry for being five minutes late) with her well-known GROAD van parked outside. However, the collection and packing room on a Sunday afternoon and Monday night, respectively, was taken. Thus, those who wanted to pack bags and sort out donations for Andrea couldn't. The whole group had to get behind the idea to flyer for GROAD. Yet, no complaints and after a group photo in front of the van, we were off to flyer on College Road.

The first group (Team 1), which had Beth, Hollie, Lindy and Michael completed their side of College Road first, so Sam delegated them to go up to Woodwarde Road to flyer those homes.

The second group (Team 2), which had James, Liam, Nelly and Paulin, finished their side of College Road a few minutes later and were asked by Sam to take on Court Lane.

Like "The Amazing Race", they were meant to meet Sam at their final destination after completing their designated road - Team 1 at Dulwich Library and Team 2 at Court Lane Gate (entrance to Dulwich Park). Team 1 made it to their final destination first, so Sam got them to flyer Eynella Road on the way to meeting Team 2. However, Team 2 had passed their meeting point and continued to flyer up Court Lane, so Team 1 joined them to get the task done sooner.

What's that delicious ice cream place on the high street? - Beth

Beth mentioned this whilst flyering and that perked up Sam's ears. Once we finished flyering at the end of Court Lane (where it joins with Lordship Lane), we were going to be heading back and passing Oddono's (the delicious ice cream place), so naturally, we stopped at the ice cream place. Everyone got a cone ice cream apart from Sam who ordered a banana sorbet in a cup....

As we walked back to Old Spike Roastery finishing our ice creams, we decided to jog the last 750 meters or so to get warm in order to do a stretch. We finished slightly late (10 minutes...), but let's blame it on the ice cream 🙃

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight and for those wearing green to pay their respects to Ashling Murphy. We covered over 7k in total, a mixture of running, jogging and walking in over an hour.

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Thank You Andrea

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 owner and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Andrea for all that she does for the community! She works tirelessly and last night, she deserved a break to meet her granddaughter.

8 of us met on a barmy evening at Luxmore Gardens in New Cross to help with weeding the beds around the perimeter of the gardens. It was a lovely warm evening and we all had a good natter about our weeks as we played a fun game of “weed or legit plant” 😂 🌱

We also welcome Hollie, Rachel, Paul and Amy for their first missions - hope to see you guys at another mission soon ❣️

The task owner was super appreciative of our help, and was keen to have us back again soon!