What do Catwoman, several south London Zombies, a giant spider, Pikachu, a banana in his pyjamas, some vampires and bats, plus a whole host of the undead have in common?

They all met in Wandsworth last night for a mammoth run where GoodGym became BadGym for one night only….

Scream if you want to go faster

It was a huge turnout with no less than 36 runners ready to take to the streets, and we had a number of excellent new faces. Hello to Amanuel, Anna, Leanne, Maddy, Rebekah, Eva, and Molina and a huge welcome. It was also lovely to see our ace Greenwich visitors Steve, Alex and Christian. Come again soon, and we will definitely be visiting your home ground!

Before we hit the road looking like the cast of Thriller, we had a special Halloween themed CoRUNdrum to think about while we ran. Jack O’lanterns traditionally used to be carved out of which fruit or vegetable before we started using pumpkins?

Be-corpse we’re (Wands) Worth it

With Catwoman and Spiderwoman backmarking, we limped, groaned, shuffled and dragged our undead selves down to our Halloween themed task at St Paul’s Churchyard and its neighbouring community garden. With a few stops along the way to do some horrible high knees and jumping Jack o’lanterns we were there in no time, ready to move a pile of wood from the garden into the churchyard ready for the annual bonfire at the weekend. There was also plenty to do in the decomposing compost bins, plus dead leaves to rake and logs to stake, I mean, stack. With the task done it was a sprint to the common to play some fiendish running games. We turned a few heads as we went, and even earned a salute from a mini-Trump with accurately sized hands.

Team spirits

First off was Zombie Tag, with Maddy, Emma then Ben and Trish all sprinting hard to tag as many victims as they could. Then it was Team John (who is the mysterious John?) versus Team Rocket in a terrifyingly competitive game of capture the flag. Pikachu made a valiantly fluorescent bid for the prize, with The Banana following in his yellowy footsteps, but it was a photo finish by Jack from Team John and Amanuel from Team Rocket.

We finished with an epic relay. It was Team Rocket V Team Lame Rocket V Team John V Team John Paul (names need a bit of work, guys) and it was a fight to the death. OK, not to the death, but to the finish line. Well done to Team John who cleared up with a resounding win, but congratulations to you all for some spooktacular sprinting.

It was dead fun

Back to our starting point we ran with a frantic game of Beat the Reaper (thank you Lambeth for this great idea!). Grim Reapers Jack and David gave the group a 2:45 head start, before trying to chase us down in a race back to the Battersea Arts Centre. Nothing like a bit of fear to get those legs pumping. Well done to those speedy reapers for managing to hunt down about half the group.

Then it was a well-earned social with prizes back at the bar to raise our spirits. We took a vote on our GoodGym tree, with plum, cherry and pineapple all making the shortlist and Pineapple emerging as the final choice. Photos of the tree itself and its accompanying signboard coming soon. It was Ben that cleverly solved the CoRunDrum by knowing that turnips used to be carved before we all started using pumpkins for our jack o’lanterns. Good knowledge!

We all munched on Catwoman’s delicious homemade snacks (thanks Sally!) while we took our second vote of the night to decide best costume. Congratulations to Spiderwoman (the lovely and usually two-legged Hannah) and to the freakin’ scary blonde clown-faced zombie Amanuel – who deserves a mention for basically sweeping the board for wins last night. He also went on later to show us how it’s done on the racing track with a resounding victory. Was it the wig that did it, or sheer talent? We’ll find out next week! Meanwhile Kylee and Ana proved that fast on the athletics track does not necessarily translate to fast on the racing track….

A big hat tip goes to Matthew who rose to the challenge, and proved his commitment to GoodGym by having never missed a group run since the Wandsworth group was established. Brilliant, keep it up Matthew!

Thanks for a frightfully fun night team Wandsworth – same again next week (minus the fake blood). You can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/long-ish-run-to-granard-primary-school

Kenyan-born Bernard ‘Kip’ Lagat was once asked during the Sydney Olympics what the secret to his record-setting times was, and how his country had produced so many amazing athletes. ‘It’s the road signs,’ he replied. ‘Beware of lions’!

We don’t have many lions in Wandsworth, but we do have some amazing charities and social organisations, and that’s good enough motivation for us on a Monday night.

Our incentive tonight was a run to Caius House, a youth centre in Wandsworth that is committed to giving young people in the local community a safe place to go where they can try new things, develop their talents and have fun. They had asked GoodGym to distribute a huge pile of flyers in the area to help spread the word about the amazing work they’re doing.

But before that, we needed to say hello to our lovely new runners. Victoria and Iona, it was so good to have you with us! (And way to go super-recruiter Sinead). Huge well dones also to Matthew, Jack and Sarah who all stormed through Park Runs at the weekend. We tipped our hats to Jack, Matthew and Dani who covered some serious miles last week, and to David and Jack for doing the most good deeds for their borough. You make us all proud!

Then it was over to the lovely Jenny for this week’s CoRUNdrum, and it was a corker. What is it that makes somebody a true Cockney? Thanks Jenny!

Off we set to Caius House, where we were met by Charlene and Tameeka, who took us for a whistle-stop tour of the facilities. It turns out that Prince William had visited a couple of weeks before us, and no doubt he was as wowed with the basketball courts, recording studio, gym, dance space, meditation room and kitchen as we all were. The young people of Wandsworth are really lucky to have something so special as Caius house to use, and GoodGym Wandsworth will be back to support them as much as we can.

After the tour we were given our flyers, and split into teams to deliver them before racing each other back to a designated meeting spot in Battersea Park. It was Team Roshan v Team Win v Team Penny, and, after a mass sprint hitting all the letterboxes in the area (and a few wrong turns) it was TEAM PENNY that made it back to the park first. Way to go! It meant they had the longest breather before we headed to our starting point for our mile time trial. We’ll be doing this regularly to see how our times go down, and to talk about changes we can make if we’re not seeing the improvement we want. However, after a, ahem, minor glitch in communication (#trainer fail) the distance covered was actually only half a mile. Except for heroic James, who was the only one of us to do the whole distance. Well done James!

It was a gentle jog back to the BAC for the team, who managed to cover a huge amount of ground overall. That was no excuse not to finish with one hill sprint which took us back to our starting point and the answer to the CoRUNdrum. You are a true Cockney if you were born within earshot of the Bow Bells.

Next week, we won’t be anywhere near St Mary-le-Bow, but we will be doing a task in a churchyard – this is, of course, for our Halloween Special + Social. That’s right, we shall be getting dressed up in a finest spookery, running up to Eden Community Garden to transport logs for their upcoming bonfire, as well as a few other jobs for them. Then we’ll be heading to the common to play some Halloween themed running games before jogging back to the BAC for a big spooky social. How can you resist? Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/it-s-halloween

Ps A few of the Wandsworth crowd have been laid up with injuries this week. Wishing you all a very speedy recovery.

The rain may have been pouring, the evenings drawing in, the trains delayed and overcrowded, but that did not stop 24 brave GoodGymers meeting up this Monday evening, ready to make a difference in their borough.

We were really happy to have some new faces along for the ride – hello Claire, Polly and Sophie! And an extra well done to Claire for smashing the Royal Parks Half last week.

It was our shortest run yet, just a skip up the road to St Barnabus Church, so we mixed it up by jogging there in Indian file – with the back marker sprinting to the front to become the new leader. This got us nice and warm before we arrived at the church, which is home to a number of community and youth groups.

We got stuck in quickly, despite the lack of floodlights. It was iphones to the ready, with Jenny wielding her surprisingly powerful mini torch to shed light on us all. Thanks Jenny! If any other of you lovely people have head torches please bring them along next week. Not only will you be the most popular people on the run, but you’ll look supercool too.

Dave tackled the creeper that was encroaching on the shed. It fought back, but the GG team won in the end. The other groups wrestled the cluttered sheds, collected the litter that had blown over to the church car park from the common, and weeded the driveway. Well done team – we’ll be back at St Barnabus soon to shampoo their carpets – next time, let there be light!

With only a short run in the bag so far, it was over to the common for a tough fitness session. We warmed back up again with some more Indian file- this time in pairs – before hitting some flying 30s head on. These are hard work, with a 30m run heading into a 30m full sprint, before a recovery jog back to the start line to do it all again. Four times! It still wasn’t over, because after a minute plank (in the mud – sorry!) we ran off to find our new hill sprint spot. It was shorter and sharper than normal, so the team managed no fewer than five of the pesky little sprints. Amazing for your stamina, core, speed and fitness levels. It got competitive – who won the chase in the end, Sarah and Jordan?

A short jog back home for some stretching. This this week’s clever runner award goes to Lizzie, who correctly solved the CoRUNdrum when she knew what the sign on Albert Bridge reads – ‘All troops must break step when marching over this bridge.’ Go Lizzie! Although no one could figure out which vegetable Sophie was trying to think of at the same time – her ‘small star shaped courgette’ actually turned out to be okra. Of course!

See you all next week lovely Wandsworth GoodGymers, you can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/get-fitter-quicker