GoodGym Southwark and Monday nights never usually mixed in the past, but seven sturdy GoodGymers were up for this community task.

Rushing from Thorlands, Sam brought along a wheelbarrow as requested by Rose. Already on site and taking down the polytunnel was Anna, Frances, Jen, Lindy and Paulin. Laura went on an adventure around Denmark Hill, but eventually found the spot (yes, it's partly due to my directions....).

The polytunnel was taken down in no time and the real task at hand began. Armed with kids shovels, a fork and couple of tarps and a wheelbarrow, we proceeded to start a system of moving the woodchip mulch from the road to the compost heap. It was a HIIT session with the added wetness and warmth of the woodchip seeping through our gardening gloves.

Since Sam didn't want to stop the Jubilee party, he put on the "Best of British" tunes to keep everyone motivated and working to the beat of the tunes. Frances thought the pile of woodchip wasn't shrinking but Sam knew it could be done. 30 minutes to go, 20 minutes to go, 15 minutes to go....the pile kept on getting smaller and smaller. Eventually, time caught up to us and there was literally two more tarp trips to do. We stayed for another five minutes to finish the job and get a group photo, but at least, WE GOT THE JOB DONE!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Rose couldn't have done it without us (in such a short time). You really pushed yourselves to the max for a good hour and I am sure there's some achy muscles in places, but it wouldn't be a workout if there wasn't.

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Thank You Rose

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 Rose for reaching out and it's a shame the polytunnel that we helped put up on my birthday has seen its days. Still where there are challenges, there are opportunities. I look forward to getting more involved.

After such a glorious day in the sunshine, the grey clouds rolled in, but the humid and warmth was still ever present.

Daryl, Emma, Nelly and Sam met up at Old Spike Roastery as they discussed their weekends as they were potentially waiting for a first-timer, but she didn't arrive by 18:45, so Sam proceeded with his GG speech announcing the latest news and what's coming up!

This time, Sam wanted to do the warm-up on Peckham Rye Common as our usual spot is down an alleyway next to Old Spike. Yet, he wanted to use as much space as he could.

After the warm-up, our ice-breaker question tonight was to do with Sam's week as he went hiking in the Lake District last weekend for a work charity event, but he is also going to be participating in the Three Peaks Challenge this weekend. Thus, the question was: What is your favourite hiking spot in the world?

Daryl started with saying the Lake District as that's where his partner is from, but he also likes the Dales, Nelly found it hard to split it between the Lake District and Brecon Beacons, Emma and Sam both chose the Dolomites. Later, Paulin mentioned a place called "Rosemary Hill" and Jen said the place near her parent's place in New Zealand (which didn't make the LOTR cut...maybe the boot-leg edition)

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The Bad-Ass Playlist

Straight down the paths leading from one end of the Common to the other and along the way we met up with Paulin who had cycled part of the way. We continued our 1.8k run up Dunstans Road before tackling the steep incline of Underhill and Overhill Road (it's in the name). We made it to the Dawson's Height estate where we bumped into Jen as she cycled from home there. It took us awhile to find "Ellie and the gang" (releasing their highly anticipated EP next month), but after some snooping from Sam, he spotted them.

Ellie was there with Patrick, one of the residents of the estate, but later a few more residents came out to help us plant summer bulbs. There were a variety of summer bulbs and tools to choose from. The instructions were clear: take a bag of bulbs, a tool (not yourself) that you are comfortable with and to plant anywhere. The rule of thumb was to dig double the size of the bulb to ensure it's not too deep and not too swallow.

Whilst we dug and planted the bulbs, Sam put on his "bad-ass playlist" with hits including a few ballads from the 80s. The songs, the weather and the company kept everyone's spirit high. We planted at least 20-30 bulbs each, but we can always round the total to the nearest thousand...

Time flies when you're having fun as the 40 minutes evaporated and before we knew it, Ellie was taking group photos of us! Everyone was pleased with our efforts and there were tentative plans to book in another session in July! #winning

We departed our ways with "Ellie and the gang", but there was a quick viewpoint stop at Dawson's Hill. Despite the weather being cloudy, the views were still amazing. We got in a quick group photo before saying our goodbyes to Jen who cycled home and then later Paulin who picked up her bike where we found her.

We finished off where we started on the Common to do our final warm down stretch before a cooldown walk back to the Old Spike Roastery.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came and ran tonight! It was great to warm-up on the Common and the outbound route was challenging, but we made it to the top in one piece. Thanks for digging through some tough soil, but a bit of GoodGym elbow grease usually does the job. Great work team!

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Thank You Ellie

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 Ellie and the residents of Dawson Heights for welcoming us into their community garden and giving us the chance to help out and to make new friends! We hope the summer bulbs will blossom in time.

We came an honourable 5th and enjoyed a fun evening of food, drinks and quiz questions

There were seven sign ups for this group run at one point and then the heavens opened up in the afternoon and the rain came falling!

Yet, with group runs, it doesn't matter the numbers as long as someone shows up and five risk-adverse GoodGymers knew the rain would stop in time and it did.

Sam knew Emma would meet him at Thorlands, but after Matthew and Benjamin had arrived, we were unsure of whether Jen would be coming to the start are not. Sam started his updates and by 18:45 with no sign of Jen, they went out to warm-up in the alleyway as the Green was wet from the afternoon rain.

After the warm-up, our ice-breaker question tonight was meant to be something related to Mental Health Awareness week and the theme of "Loneliness" (this year's topic), but it was quite a heavy question, so Sam changed the question to: What is your favourite flower?

Benjamin said "Tulips", Matthew stated his favourite is "Sunflower" and Sam went exotic with "Orchid".

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Weeds, Willow and Hazel

Our 2.6k run took us through the backstreets of Peckham, up the incline hill of Chadwick Road through to Denmark Hill station and past King's College Hospital to arrive at Thorlands.

Jen, who cycled in, was waiting upon our arrival and a few minutes later, Emma appeared. Simon made his appearance to open up the Walled Garden, so that we could gather the tools to complete tonight's tasks.

We went into the "Forest" Garden where we split into two teams. Emma and Jen were part of team planting as they planted three Hazel trees and two Willow trees. They had a special system of digging, planting, cutting cardboard and watering the plant. Whilst the boys, Matthew and Benjamin were on team clearing. They took a mattock and Dutch hoe each to sort out the ever-growing weeds of thistle and bindweed that needed to be managed. Matthew made to get a wheelbarrow of thistles onto the compost and Benjamin had a bin bag full of bindweed!

The 30 minutes whizzed by as we had to bring back the tools to the "Walled" garden before departing at 20:00.

Our run back was a solo one as everyone shot off in their own directions home (as no one left anything at Old Spike).

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came and ran tonight! Although, it was just the three of us running there and only myself back, it was great to run up the steadily incline Grove Hill!

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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 always giving us the chance to do something at Thorlands! It's a massive project that requires dedication and time, which we're willing to put in. See you next month, if not before on a community mission over the weekends.