On a freezing cold Monday in Lewisham 23 runners covered 5km, shifted soil, cleared leaves and weeds and tackled a 1km time trial.

Big thanks to Oli for tonight's rocking title pun and others throughout this report.

My mind is utterly blown by the extent of goodness on display locally over the weekend! We had people over at South Norwood parkrun, supporting our friends at GoodGym Croydon through volunteering, we had Olivia completing her first mission AND community mission in one morning and we had a whole host of people at our Beecroft Garden task and out there running to help people in their homes and to visit for a weekly chat. Just incredible.

All this effort has edged us that much closer to our goals in the January Challenge, with an extra special mention going to Nykolette, who did three good deeds on Saturday, taking her up to fourteen for January, wow!

All our Lewisham Love this week goes to Alex who joined us for her very first GoodGym group run and to Nicky and Kate who came on tour from GoodGym Kingston, to accompany Alex, how lovely!

After a very quick warm-up, we stepped lively up and over to Crofton Park, with Nykolette very kindly keeping us together at the back. As we ran past Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery, I heard about how GoodGym Kingston had a graveyard task at Hallowe'en, complete with skeleton costumes and everything! They're fearless in South West London! Arriving at the school, I was very excited to see all the work that has been done since our last visit and I wasn't disappointed. What incredible progress everyone has made, with only a little more digging to be done.

Ramping up the effort

Surrounded by wheelbarrows, it was easy for people to find a piece of equipment and get on with the task. A group of determined diggers worked at levelling the last bit of soil in the stepped area, some powerful pushers took barrowfuls of soil around to the skip and, around the front, our wonderful weeders tended to the raised beds. At the rapidly filling skip, we had a team of turbo tippers, taking receipt of the heavy barrows and spreading the dumped soil over the surface, making room for the next load. The ramp wheeling techniques were impressive, with Kim in particular embracing the added bit of 'hill' work.

Don’t forget to serve your tipper

It really was a hive of activity tonight, with work going on in all areas of the playground. Keeping an eye on everyone kept me out of mischief and it was time for a five minute countdown before I knew it. A few last barrow runs, a gathering of weeds and the scraping off of sticky mud and it was time for our group photo (apologies here to Oli, who really does have an actual head in real life). We will return to Beecroft soon, to see the project through, so keep an eye on the group run page.

Nightskipper

It's been a while since we did our 'monthly' Time Trial, so I thought we should try and squeeze one in before January is out. For those who don't know, the TT is four laps of the area outside our start point, which is near enough 1km (and is a Strava segment if you're into that sort of thing). It was a great effort from everyone, with Tom, then Oli racing in, closely chased by Emily. Thank you to Nykolette and Amber, who encouraged Clare to give all she had for that last push to the finish!

A couple of things for your diary:

• On Saturday afternoon our neighbours, GoodGym Bromley, have a community mission, collecting donations for the Rainbow Trust at Crystal Palace Sainsbury's.

• On Sunday Nykolette has arranged for us to volunteer at the Cancer Research Winter Run. There are various roles to take on, so have a look here to sign up and find out more.

• Next week we have a brand new task, over at the Salvation Army in Deptford. We will also have a smaller group heading to GRACE to help set up their new shop space, sign up here.

On a crisp January evening, a record-breaking 37 outstanding athletes ran 5km and helped at Crofton Books.

Happy birthday to us! THREE YEARS of doing good in Lewisham! Just to help us get our heads around this fact, here are some statistics that illustrate the extent of our efforts since we started back in January 2016.

• Total good deeds - 5,691
• Total missions - 229
• Total coach visits - 941
• Total group runs - 193
• Total KMs - 72,043
• Total cheers given - 100,024
• Total cheers received -77,348

Just look at those figures, all done by 993 different runners! In coming weeks we will have completed 6,000 good deeds between us! It's especially heartening to note that we will soon have paid 1000 visits to an older person for a chat, reducing isolation with every visit. Well done to every single person who has been along over the past three years and who has gone on to volunteer outside of our activities, who has stepped up to a race start line (and finish!) and who has made a friend through what we do - this is a pretty special community that we've built here, in our little corner of South East London.

January Challenge

We are currently first in our division for good deeds (144) and utterly smashing it on KMs (1955)! Well done everyone, especially those who went the extra mile this weekend, by attending starter sessions, missions and community missions! If you haven't connected Strava or Run Keeper to your profile, now's the time! A special mention has to go to Emma, who 'did the treble' over the weekend, by completing a mission on Friday, another on Saturday morning, then a community mission shortly after!

A big welcome and all our Lewisham Love go this week to Suzi. We hope you enjoyed the evening, you certainly chose a special week to join us!

In this colder weather, it's even more important to warm up, but more important than anything ever is to have some fun. Handshakes, stuck-in-the-mud and a few hi-fives and we were ready to run. Thank you to Marta for being a tip-top back-marker tonight, keeping us together on the run.

3’s a crowd, 37 is a record!

As we arrived at Crofton Books, I realised that we might just beat our attendance record and, with a couple of people trailing in after us...we did! 37 runners, all ready to get stuck in! Jason had a lot for us to do this week. He had been over to Brixton to collect some HUGE bookshelves for the shop and these needed bringing in from the van (they really were very tall). The shelves they were to replace needed clearing (human chain!) and there was a lot of jiggling to be done to accommodate the new storage.

One for the record books

Meanwhile, in the children's section, Silvana had some more shelf action. These shelves had been dismantled and are quite complex in design so, in addition to wiping down and dusting, they needed reassembling with an allen key. This was a task that required thought and consideration, so there was much chin rubbing and head tilting! It was amazing to see the progress that was made, with a wall now being ready to take more books, giving a wide open space for children to enjoy the many activities on offer.

Outside we had a team of litter-pickers. There has been some great planting along the wall of the building, but sadly some people throw their litter over the fence. This was no problem for our crack team of pickers, flying around and getting it done.

With time flying, we had to clear the floor of books, so the library will be usable, so back to the human chain (though it's difficult not to get distracted as interesting books pass through your hands!). Jason had set the turntable going and the music set the pace, with 'Two minutes!' then 'One!' being called. We really could have stayed all night, but sadly had to leave so, gathering for a group photo, we said our goodbyes and ran the downhill route back to Glass Mill.

Many hands make light work... of 25 pizzas

As if all that running and lifting. shifting and building wasn't enough, we just about had time for a plank relay (cue a bit of moaning and groaning!). Those of us who were able, then headed over to Mamma Dough in Ladywell for some post-run pizza. We also enjoyed some birthday cake and the light and fluffy pannettone that Silvana had kindly given to us - thank you! At the social, I presented a few medals, marking some notable contributions. Well done to Bradley, who has been very nearly every week since he joined us a year ago (he also goes to GoodGym Bromley on a Tuesday, so is about to get his wings!), thank you to Oli, for making my life that little bit easier with his beautiful puns (see his work throughout this report) and a very special award for Jacqueline, our longest standing coach runner, who has visited her coach now for three years, sharing a cup of tea and making someone feel special. To finish, here are some words from our punmeister...

'Thank you for...

• Painting walls and passing balls
• From Glass Mills
• To Moby drills
• For group runs and humorous puns
• For feel-good missions
• And even hill repetitions!
• With high-knees
• Past abandoned WCs
• For making friends
• To sprinting ends
• Through injury woes
• Wielding garden hoes
• Bringing sore feet
• For home-baked treats
• For planting flowers
• In passing showers
• For evening trots
• Despite dreaded squats!
• Up to Hilly Fields
• Down for social meals
• Helpful training tips
• Whilst filling skips
• For friendly faces
• At local races
• Wearing head torches
• Flyering through porches
• Helping at Wildcats
• Wearing Christmas hats
• Surviving aching thighs
• To share free mince pies
• From tree collection
• Earning award selection
• For feeling fine
• Come rain or shine!'

Running into 2019 with open arms and hearts, 28 eager athletes covered 7km and helped to take down the Christmas decorations at Seniors.

Thank you once again to Oli for today's rather marvelous title pun, off to a good start with this and some other puns throughout this report. Thank you also to his partner in rhyme (?), Tom for his window cleaning wordery.

Happy New Year!

Yes, we're a bit excited to be back in action, though many of our members didn't stop doing good just because it was Christmas, with a few people volunteering at Crisis and the 999 Club, many running missions and lots of people visiting their coach for a chat and a festive catch-up - well done all of you. There was also plenty of running going on, with a fair few people getting out on Christmas Day for the annual parkrun and some even taking on 'the double' on New Year's Day (yes, that's two parkruns in one morning!).

How lovely to welcome some new faces to our first run of the year, Lewisham Love this week goes to Jade, Rachel and Colin, welcome!

What goes up(hill) must come down

With a brisk warm up to get us ready to run, we were led up and over to Seniors this week by Run Leaders Amber and Kim - thank you - with Clare keeping us together as back-marker (well done on yesterday's ten-mile hilly race!).

GoodGym and Jill ran up the hill to clean with vinegar and newspaper

At Seniors, we were met by Phyllis, who had already made a start on taking down the decorations (she can't help getting stuck in!) and quickly gave us some direction on what was to be left and what was to come down. It certainly takes a lots less time to take down the tinsel, so we even had time to pick up some newspaper and vinegar and give the windows some sparkle (that smell though, we all had cravings for fish and chips!). I noticed at this point that Helen was wearing her wings for the first time - for those who don't know, when you have completed 50 good deeds, you receive a lovely black t-shirt and when you've done 100, you get your wings (see photos above).

It’s (condi)ment to be hilly!

With Seniors looking fresh and ready for all the activities that go on here, we said our goodbyes and headed back up the hill (this is a challenging run, well done to those who came along for the first time!). With just enough time to stretch on our return, I told everyone about the extra chances to do good in the next couple of weeks, as we try to smash our goal for the January Challenge - to complete more good deeds and run more kilometers than we have ever done before.

• This Saturday we have a community mission at Beecroft Garden Primary School at 10.30am

• On Saturday 19th we have a post-parkrun starter session in Hilly Fields at 11am

Next week we will be embarking on one of our must fun tasks of the year, as we run around gathering discarded Christmas trees. Join us by signing up here and please wear gloves!

Have a smashing week :)