After 5 fantastic weeks we rounded off the GoodGym January Challenge with our Group Run on this final day of Jan and where better to head to than to see our friend Juan at Jubilee Primary School.

A smaller but no less enthusiastic group turned out with a few notable mentions so Charlie welcome to your first run it was great to have you with us, Sarah welcome back after a little while away and Ana great to have another AA over for a bit of GG tourism!

For those who are following these things tonight's category was if you were a make or model of car which would you be - lots of first car reminiscences followed! And just like that we were off on our short run up to Jubilee Primary.

Juan had set out some tools for our arrival and we were split into two groups, the first was to weed the large planters(I've missed those planters!) in the main playground while the second headed to the front garden for a spot of topiary or l'art topiaire in French. Marie Noelle, Paul, Inny and Charlie set about working those shoulder muscles pulling up the weeds and invasive grasses hat had taken over the planters while leaving behind the plants which can now grow in peace. GoodJim would definitely approve.

Over in the front garden Sarah, Frances and Ana set about trimming back the bushes into nice straight lines and beautiful orb like shapes, in fact the trimming was so good (check out the pic above) that we are considering doing animal shapes next time around..... A very satisfying task as all agreed.

After 40 mins of solid graft and nearly a dozen black bags of green waste it was time up and we were off home. A very small group then made our way back to Papa's - thanks to Sarah and Charlie for accompanying me - and that was that.

Well done to everyone in the Lambeth Group and beyond for making this a fun Jan Challenge and let's take that energy into Feb and beyond. See you next week ;0)

Just when we thought we were out.... they pulled us back in! (Name the movie?) That's right we begin our report with a weather based update - it was cold, very cold, and we were due to be outside at Windmill Gardens but then it was pretty icy so tasks were prepared indoors. But then the weather changed and it was marginally warmer so we were back outside again! Still with me??

Anyway we had another two new runners with us this evening - Clare and Aristou (Sadaf's son) a warm welcome to GG Lambeth!! This meant we doubled the dulcet tones of Northern Irish accents, adding them to a smooth New Zealander, a Gibraltese falcon, a super Thai and new Francophone friends, our very own United Nations (plus the English regional accents of course!)

Marie Noelle and Paul agreed to meet us at Windmill Gardens and so did Liz after her open water swim & 10k earlier in the day (I'm exhausted just typing that) so 11 of us introduced ourselves, chose the nursery rhyme that best described us and set off up Brixton Hill. By the way who knew that Little Miss Muffett was doing keto all those years before it became an Insta thing?!!

Once we arrived to meet Jean and Annick our tasks were laid out 1) help sort the planting garden 2) rake and compost the fallen leaves. 4 Runners headed over with Annick to clear the planting garden and remove all the unfortunate plants that had been killed off by the extra cold recent weather - there were blocks of ice around the roots of some! The winter wheat (heritage wheat) looked to be doing well though so fingers crossed for the Beer and Bread Festival later in the year.

The rest of the group headed across the muddy grass to where enormous quantities of leaves were lying on the ground and stopping the grass from getting any exposure to light and air. To be honest we could have spent several evenings just on this part of the task as there were so many leaves to collect. With scrapers, rakes, wheelbarrows and black bags the team got to work and collected as much as possible in the time we had then deposited them over in the 1 tonne builders' sacks (full in no time) to be turned into mulch.

By time up the planting section was looking spick and span and the grassy area much lighter on fallen leaves and so it was time for a group photo before heading off back to base or off home for those lucky enough to live close by.

Thanks to everyone for a fun, chilly and muddy task, exactly what GGers are around for and Jean and Annick were grateful for our help - see you all next time!

It's so good to be back! This was AA's first run back after the festive break and it was a really fun one. A repeat of last week's Xmas Tree collection task and drop off on Clapham Common for mulching.

First up we welcomed two new runners to the group for their first Tuesday session, Ellie and Sam it was great to have you with us (technically Sam had been on a Mission 8 years ago but we think that break qualifies you as a newbie!)

A bumper group of 14 runners turned out despite the best efforts of the weather and you could feel the GoodGym 'presents' in the room at Papa's, the session was going to be lit!

We set off with last week's run leader Sarah showing the way to where plenty of stray trees would be waiting for us. To change things up this week we divided into 4 teams and had a bit of a competition to see which team could collect the most trees and as yule see it went down to the wire...

Teams headed out and some chose the baby carry technique - cute but inefficient - others the mother in law drag and still others the double sibling headlock pull to pick up their trees and get them to the Common. AA asked Joao if he was ok as he tried to drag 6/7 trees plus all the litter on the streets with him but he said he was pine...

It was important for those not familiar with the area to Neeeeeever fir-get where you're coming from and remember how to get to the tree collection point but in the end everyone made it safe and sound.

And so by 8:05 it was results time as well as time to celebrate Katy who was on her 100th Good Deed - well done Katy!!

Sarah's team managed 21 trees, Nathan's 17, Katy's 16 and Charlotte's 17 (71 in total - as I said Treemendous) but before announcing Sarah and her team the winner it turned out that Sam on her first session back had managed to rescue (Good)Jim from the streets where he had apparently fallen during all the running around, criminal from the AA I know. This gave Nathan's team 1000 bonus points making them tonight's winners!

It remained only to sing and wish Super Sam a very Happy Birthday for Monday evening - many happy returns my friend - and then we set off back to base with runners departing along the way to head home, satisfied after a great night's efforts.

Great group, great chemis-tree, great fun - see you all next week!!

So last night was a Two for Tuesday PLUS we had a brand new GoodGymer PLUS another little milestone for Inny so lots of good stuff going on.

We were delighted to welcome Amy to the Lambeth community for her first task and Group Run, thanks for coming down and getting stuck in! For those keeping a track on these our category this week was if you could have any item from anywhere in the world in your house (or garden) what would it be? This week's winner had to be Katy who would bring the chocolate waterfall and river from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to her house (no Oumpa Loumpas were harmed during this discussion).

It was one of our longer runs up to Palace Road and there to meet Gerry at the Nature Gardens to help with a small task and then on to Streatham Wells Primary School to clear away their now defunct chicken run.

Frances was on her bike and Lasso meeting us at the tasks so they started off helping out Gerry shift some green waste from the street side round to the compost area at the back, it was two loads each but nice to be able to help out on our way!

The rest of the group headed 50m further up the road and discovered Maya had somehow clambered over the 20 foot fencing and made it into the school (or been let in by Stephen the maintenance person). There was an enormous amount of very heavy paving stones, chicken wire, a rabbit hutch and lots of odds and ends that needed carrying round to where the skip will arrive on Wednesday morning.

Check out the pics where you can see Good Jim was raring to go with the fob for the school, all the lifting and shifting, tools of the trade and a lovely group photo.

Runners started to peel away on the run home, thanks Lindy and Michael for keeping me company and chatting on the run as well.

See you next week!

What to say about the Group Run this evening??!! It was a jam packed affair so without further ado lets's get into it.

Prologue: Both gates were locked at Papa's with new padlocks to boot and Louise was concerned that coming straight from work she was going to have to change in the street.... never fear using his past life as a safe cracker the AA had one of the padlocks off in no time and we were in.

Chapter 1: As we set off on one of our longer runs a little birdie told Yianny that it was Charlotte's 200th GG good deed (what a fantastic achievement!) so with that joyous news in mind we were off on the flattest route possible to visit our friends at the Weir Link centre. Tonight's category caught people by surprise - if you could be anyone else apart from yourself for a day who would it be - but some great answers including the rich lady from the Aristocats movie, one person's own sister and several musical type people. Our main concern was the slippery surface and all the fallen leaves (GG can help with that) but we made good time and were there nicely warmed up in 23 mins flat.

Chapter 2: Once we arrived we were on the lookout for Ivan who had ALL the tools we would need and some green waste bags. After scaring the daylights out of a small group inside the centre by popping up outside the window, they were kind enough to go and call Ivan who came out with an M&S bag with two trowels in it... That was fine the work was going to be done by hand pulling the weeds and so we didvided ip bags and set to work.

Chapter 3: Bags were filling up rapidly with soggy leaves and weeds so it was decided to leave some leaf mulch and just pull the weeds then Kaz who, true to his word joined us on the fly, spotted something in the undergrowth. What could it be you ask? A slug or snail enjoying the wet weather, perhaps a small beetle or creepy crawly, or maybe a bit of South London detritus (you know what I mean)? In fact emerging from the ground covered in mud was a very small but perfectly formed man wearing a red top and a hard hat! It was of course fate and given his attire it was agreed that this would be our Lambeth GG mascot from now on but just one thing was missing, a name.

His name obviously is Jim, Good Jim, if you hadn't guessed!

In any good story about now is where there is a misunderstanding or problem which the protagonists must overcome and we thought we were about to have our own on who would take Jim and keep him safe till next week. But that's not how we roll at GG Lambeth and despite celebrating her 200th task Charlotte is also heading off on a trip for a bit so the group agreed that the AA will hold onto him and bring him every week - when you see him say hi!

Conclusion: Job done and with time to spare and we had run out of bag space to gather any more weeds. Time to head back but not before some great team pics (thanks and welcome back Liz).

Epilogue: Back at Papa's after almost 7km of running and loads of weeding we remembered it was cake time, this week we had DOUBLE BAKE with both Charlotte and Clare treating us to delicious cupcakes and vegan (I think?) Brownies!!

What a great night, milestones, kilometres, new arrivals and old friends.

The End.