Feeling the bite of a chill wind, 22 intrepid runners covered 5km and helped out at Crofton Books.

This week's awesome title pun comes to you courtesy of Oli, who also supplied some puns throughout this text.

There have been so many missions going on recently! Well done to everyone who has got involved, helping people in their homes and making a big difference. Well done also to those who got out running and volunteering, with a special mention going to Vic, who completed her 25th volunteering day at parkrun, so will be the happy recipient of a lovely aubergine t-shirt before long. Over in Venice, we had three runners taking on possibly the wettest race ever seen - so wet that they wished they'd taken their goggles. With Venice experiencing the worst flooding since 2008, Jacqueline and Nykolette took on the 10k and Kim tackled her first ever marathon. By all accounts it was as tough as it gets, with driving wind and rain, bridges (of course!) and wading through knee-deep water. We're all very impressed and proud of what you all achieved, such great examples of what can be done if you put your mind to it!

Joining us for his first visit to Lewisham this week, was Arran, who has now visited four GoodGym areas - Lewisham Love to you Arran, we hope you enjoyed our South East ways!

Hubble bubble toil(et) and trouble

Well, the temperature has certainly taken a dive, so we had to get moving fast. A Hallowe'en themed warm-up saw us walking around like zombies and jumping like slimy toads, before heading out to Crofton Park, with Nykolette keeping us together as back-marker. At Crofton Books, we were met by Jason, who always has a wide variety of tasks for us, but we were all taken aback when we walked into the library, to find Kim standing there! She had come straight from the airport, wanting to share her marathon story and show us her lovely medal (Nykolette was excited to share her medal too, though you could definitely see where the budget had been spent...!). Once we'd got over the shock (delight), Jason told us about the jobs to be ticked off:

• Clearing rubbish from the side return

• Moving a toilet from outside to upstairs

• Transferring some cookery books from inside to a new set of shelves in the entrance

• Sorting through the shelves in the bookshop, making sure everything was in the right place

• Pricing up some newly-donated books

With everyone heading in different directions, the space was buzzing with activity and the noise-levels rose as chatter and laughter rang out all around. Outside, the workers moved fast to keep warm, lifting shifting and, for Oli and Tom, coming up with top toilet-humour puns ('I've had my first bowl movement at GoodGym' said Tom...). As always when we visit here, people paused every so often to enjoy a magical find (Maria and I were particularly taken by a 1930s book on smock making) and promise to come back another day to spend some money. Before we knew it we were ready to wrap it up and head back outside. Jason thanked everyone, telling us what a difference our visits make. Guarding ourselves against the cold, we ran back out briskly, towards Adelaide Avenue and Hilly Fields. As it's very nearly Hallowe'en, we played a game of trick or treat, the treat being to run up and down the hill and the trick being jumping squats or swing squats. All good, wholesome, winter fun.

Red noses, flushed cheeks

Running up and over and not even pausing to enjoy the view of the lit-up city, we found ourselves back at our start point with enough time for a plank finisher, before we tucked into some eyeballs. Yum! Next week we have a different task entirely, delivering flyers for the Kings Christmas Trees, sign up here and come along next week.

As the chill set in, 21 tremendous runners covered 4km of running, raked an embankment of weeds, painted a selection of planters and tended to the needs of a beautiful community garden.

At this time of year, our help is needed more than ever, visiting older people in their homes, either for a weekly chat, or to tackle something that is affecting their quality of life. This week we have seen so many of our runners heading out to deal with overgrown paths, put up curtains, move heavy furniture or to create a space for a bed, to allow someone to return home from hospital. These visits make so much difference, so well done to all of you who have shared your time in this way.

This week we welcomed one first-timer and one visitor, so all our Lewisham Love goes to Michaela and Victoria, we hope you enjoyed the way we do things here in the 'sham.

Marafun

On Sunday, Kim will be running 26.2 miles around Venice, to complete her first marathon. She has been on such an incredible running journey since she joined us and I'm very proud of how hard she has worked. To honour her efforts, we had a marathon themed warm-up (picture repeating things 26 times, running through a wall and so on...), before we synced our watches and ran out towards Hither Green (thank you to Bradley for back-marking and keeping us all together).

Tool good to be true

Arriving in Hither Green, we met Anne-Marie and Laura and were told about the various jobs that needed doing tonight. Lined up against the fence were various tools: rakes, forks, spades, many of which had been kindly loaned to us for the evening by local residents - thank you! Everyone zipped up a Network Rail hi-vis and listened carefully to the health and safety briefing (there are very particular considerations when working close to a railway line!). Those who had a tool got stuck in, raking away the weeds on the station embankment to clear the way for a seed sowing session to take place here soon. Those who weren't tooled up went with Anne-Marie around the corner to the Springbank Road Community Garden, where there were planters that needed painting along the street and autumn tidying that needed doing in the garden.

As always, there was lots of chatter as we worked, with people talking about upcoming races, guerilla gardening (ssshhhhh!), shared home towns (and schools!) and food (our tummies always start rumbling about now). While we waited for our Springbank friends to return, we gathered all the weeds and leaves and added them to the pile near the gate (which had grown a lot in the time we were here!). Hi-vis vests were put away, thank you chocolates were eaten (thank you!) and our group photo was posed and taken in the lightest spot we could find.

Core!

Our run here had been a flat one, avoiding the big hill we usually climb, but I though a hill was exactly what we needed to warm us up on the way back, so up (and then down) we went. On our arrival at Glass Mill, the warmth of the foyer was calling, so in we went, to do a quick upper body and core workout before a finishing stretch. Next week we have a lovely indoor task, over at Crofton Books, sign up here to join in on what is always a fun evening (and, as it's pretty much Hallowe'en, feel free to spookify your kit!).

Hopefully see you at parkrun on Saturday and good luck to Kim in Venice on Sunday!

A whopping 29 runners ran 4km to St Peter's Church, Brockley, to tidy the garden and shine the windows.

Thank you to Bradley for our title pun this week and also for being our back-marker.

I was a little blown away this evening by all the new faces that joined us for the first time, a super six absolute first-timers to welcome into the fold. Lewisham Love this week goes to Damian, Katy, Rosie, Nick, Justin and Greg.

What a weekend! We had Nykolette persuading her mum and daughter to join her in volunteering at the Oxford Half-Marathon, we had Maria heading back to Hilly Fields parkrun to knock another two minutes off her previous time (!) and we had a whole host of runners representing over at the wonderful Petts Wood 10k. Amongst our runners enjoying this challenging, yet enjoyable race, we had Rebecca bagging a PB and Vic taking fourth woman position and her very own trophy! Amazing work everyone! Not content with running a 10k yesterday, Kim was joining us this evening at the end of her longest run ever. With Venice Marathon just two weeks away, she was completing her last long run before she tapers towards race day. This meant that her effort on our group run made up her total to 32.4km!! Amazing.

After a little warm-up outside (in the dark!), we ran along Lewisham Way towards Brockley. With this being #RunandTalk week, I didn't really need to tell people that it's OK to talk, it just happens. As I ran up front, I could hear a cacophony of happy sounds as everyone got to know each other a little better, or caught up on the latest news. There's something about running alongside each other that makes talking easier and it's certainly something we do every week.

Arriving at St Peter's, we were met by Lynne and Juliet, who quickly showed us inside and told us about the role they play here, as church wardens. Our jobs for this evening were to clear away weeds. leaves and overgrown shrubs outside and to clean the windows inside. Those with head-torches headed out and found a space to work in and everyone else looked around at the beautiful and delicate-looking stained glass that graces every window. Pausing for a moment, wondering if those were the windows in question. We collectively sighed though, when we were told that the windows in the porch and in the entrance to the kitchen were the ones in need of our attention this evening. Phew!

To the front of the church, a team worked closely to clear the path to the noticeboard, which becomes wet and muddy over the winter. To make the updating of the notices more pleasant, some little slabs have been bought, to create stepping stones through the ivy and shrubs. Around the side, James and Clare very carefully cleared nettles and, on the opposite side of the building, we had a major leaf-clearing operation going on. Quite quickly the windows were clean (with a bit of inventive use of a mop by Ian and Damian, who couldn't quite reach the top) and the leaves were bagged, so it was time for me to climb the stairs to the gallery and assemble the masses for our group photo.

We will definitely be returning to St Peter's in the near future, but said goodbye for now and ran along and down towards our start point. We had just enough time for some work on our upper body, with some plank chasers, before stretching and heading off for some pizza to refuel Kim.

• Next week we will be off to St Hilda's Church in Crofton Park, sign up here to join in.

• Tomorrow we will be putting in our bid for some funding at the Lewisham Ward Assembly (to buy some portable lights to keep us going through the winter months). Jacqueline is very kindly representing us and could do with some support, why not go along and join her from 7pm at Lewisham Methodist Church, Albion Way, London SE13 6BT?

• On Saturday, we have been invited along to the official opening of the new water fountain in Ladywell Fields. Come along at 3pm in your red tee, to fill your bottle and meet the mayor!

With a chill in the air and a spring in our step, 27 terrific runners took on 5km of running, two tasks AND a time trial

Thank you this week to Lucy, for our sublime title pun, that somehow manages to encapsulate both of tonight's tasks, skills! Thanks also to Ollie, who has graced us with his pun-wizardry throughout this run report.

What's been happening? Well, Nykolette only went and shaved off all her hair! To raise hundreds of pounds for MacMillan, she 'Braved the Shave' and I think we're all agreed she looks just amazing! We've had some interesting challenges in the past, to raise awareness and funds for charity, but this has to be the most original. In addition to this, there was a general air of celebration this week, as we welcomed back Chris, who has been on the other side of the world for the past few months, what a treat to see him bouncing in this evening! We also welcomed new faces, with Will joining us for his first ever GoodGym group run and Maddie joining us from GoodGym York, Lewisham Love to you both.

The biggest celebration this week though, was Marta getting her wings, as she completed her 100th good deed! Marta has been with us since March 2017, but those good deeds have mounted up quickly because she visits GoodGym Greenwich too most weeks (I really did try to find some statistic that could tell me she has been to us more, so we can claim her as our own, but...). Just recently she has also started going on missions and sharing her goodness at the weekend too. Well done Marta, we're very proud of all you have achieved with us.

Tonight was a double-task week, with most of the group heading over to Beecroft Garden Primary School with me, with a smaller group joining Conroy at GRACE (thank you Conroy). Before we went our separate ways, we did a little warm-up, with jumping and bobbing, squatting and fact gathering (I thought it might be fun finding out where our friends come from, even if we have known them for ages and especially if we have only just met!). With Conroy and co heading towards Lee Green, with Bradley and Marta back-marking, I took my group up to Crofton Park, with Jacqueline keeping everyone together at the back.

At Beecroft Garden

Here we had a few tasks to complete, with one group stepping up the effort to dig hard and form the steps that will lead up and around the sensory garden. One challenge though, was the removal of a tree that was slap bang where the steps were due to go. We were loath to just kill the tree, so there was a treemendous effort to dig it out, roots intact - amazing work on the tree-conservation task team! Also in this area is a newly installed shed, that will become a space for relaxation, with lights and textures to enjoy away from the noise of the playground. Here we had top painting pros Helen, Vic and Jacqueline, giving a lick of paint in a nice relaxing shade of blue and feeling a great sensory of achievement. Around the front of the school were a crack team of weed smashers, tugging up dead plants, weeds and roots from the raised beds, making space to grow more plants over the coming months.

Over to Conroy for some words about...

Gracious Grace

It’s the turn of the season and our friends over at GRACE needed our help in changing their shop display. Ten runners ran to their help, we divided into two groups. Group one began to sort and hang the winter wear, while group two were busy taking the summer wear of the hangers and packing them away in bags. Usually our visits to GRACE would unearth a few treasured undergarments but not this visit. There were a few sexy summer dresses and a great big red jumpsuit, but time did not allow for us to get glammed up into the party numbers. We were on a mission to get those summer wear off the shelves/racks so that the winter wear would be out in time.

In true GoodGym professionals style, we all arrived back at Glass Mill at the same time, like a well-oiled machine of goodness. With a few minutes to spare and some energy to burn (yes, really), it was time for our not-really-monthly time trial. Some opted to take on one, some two, some three and some all four laps of Cornmill Gardens, to sit themselves firmly on the Strava segment leaderboard (which Kim is still topping...). After a stretch and a chat, we tucked in to some chocolate biscuits (I will bow my head in shame here and admit I bought them from M&S and didn't lovingly hand-craft them at home. Gasp).

• Good luck to all those taking on everyone's favourite local 10k trail race, complete with samosas (Petts Wood 10k) on Sunday, have LOTS of fun!

• Join us next week as we head off to a brand new task at St Peter's Church, Brockley

• Hang around after the run too, to enjoy some pizza at Mama Dough in Ladywell, to feed Kim after her longest ever run and to celebrate a few birthdays (please let me know if you're coming, so I can keep track of numbers).

See you soon, lovely people! x