It was cold, and raining, and dark but you all made it out, ready for doing good in Lewisham.

There haven't been many races over the Christmas period but there has been a lot of parkrunning, also a huge well done to Jacqueline and Caireen who spoke so wonderfully about everything GoodGym during their TV debut (not a debut for Jacqueline, she's always staring in TV roles such as the Pure Gym advert) at the Community Mission at Hither Green Station over Christmas.

We had a welcome to our new faces this evening and a quick warm up as we had a longer hilly run this evening over to Seniors, we were on our way. After all the hills, and a sprint up one of them for some, we arrived at Seniors and were met by Amber, Sarah and Clare, who were waiting outside for us to arrive.

A third of the group began bringing up the boxes for the Christmas trees and the rest of the group began taking down the decorations on the walls and decorations off the trees, and wrapping the lights around pieces of cardboard so we don’t need to struggle putting them up next year.

It was all rather hectic (in a good way, I hope) with missing boxes and too big Christmas trees for too small boxes, there was so much chatting which was amazing but I couldn’t shout loud enough to get everyone’s attention (I did with Emma’s assistance though).

All decorations and trees down and packed in boxes with instructions for next year and the master instructions safely with the decorations, it was time for a (many) group photo.

The hills are straight out of the way on the return journey and then you know it’s all downhill back to Glassmill. I might’ve took a slight unplanned detour which nobody questioned, not like when we went to put the decorations up and everyone shouted that I’d gone the wrong way!

We made it back to Glassmill, a slightly smaller group than we started with, for a stretch and chat about next weeks Christmas trees task which is my 5th favourite task, maybe because my group collected the most trees last year (I’m still deciding on the order of the top 4).

Well done to everyone for tackling those hills wonderfully and for everyone whose first GoodGym run it was, I hope you enjoyed it!

A couple of things coming up in the next few weeks: - Community mission litter picking after Hilly Fields Parkrun (11am) on 18th January - The Big Half - 1st March - The January Challenge, to do as many good deeds and run/walk as far as possible in January, we made a good start last night and all km recorded on Strava will be added to our total

The excitement was building in Glassmill foyer, it was time for one of the favourite tasks of the year - putting the Christmas decorations up at Seniors!

Knowing it was a slightly longer run than other tasks, we did a quick warm up and made our way over to Seniors. It’s quite a hilly route which gave those who wanted to the chance to get some hill sprints in and the rest of us to just enjoy running up a hill (as much as you can enjoy running up a hill).

First task of the evening was bringing up the Christmas decorations from the cellar, and then creating a human chain to bring the decorations up and get them into the main hall.

Next up was following Cathy’s detailed instructions (that’s my kind of organising) as to which tree went where and which decorations on which tree.

Everyone got stuck in putting the trees together and I ended up sitting on the floor surrounded by decorations with the instructions to make sure everyone got the correct decorations for the correct trees.

After a quick search for some missing Victorian baubles, I realised we only had 5 minutes left - how time flies when you’re having fun!!

We moved everything that wasn’t being used back down into the cellar and gathered for our group photo. It took a bit of shuffling of people as I was determined to get 3 Christmas trees in 1 group photo.

We arrived back at Glassmill a little later than normal following our late departure from Seniors so it was a quick stretch and chat about next weeks task which is a much shorter run.

A big thank you to the excellent team of backmarkers last night! And substitute backmarker and messenger between the 2 groups.

Don’t forget to check out the upcoming community missions and sign up for the Christmas social next Wednesday.

After a quick detour by sports direct to pick up an emergency jacket (because I was not wearing enough layers for the weather) I made it to Glassmill, ready to see who was going to brave the cold weather to deliver flyers for King’s Christmas Trees.

Quick overview of the Lewisham news this week, Claire ran Beckenham 10k - give her a cheer next time you see her, and Simon gave the group more details of how these Christmas Trees help and what they provide the funds for.

Armed with maps (that didn’t end up being laminated) and a plan of action, we headed out into the cold (which felt much colder from the warmth of Glassmill) for a quick warm up and we headed off to Crofton Park.

Give and Let Fly

We tackled the longest and furthest away roads first, with pairs going up either side of the roads and running back down to where I was waiting at the bottom, having completed the nearby houses and side roads with a top team of Amber and Nyk.

Once those long roads had been completed, we made our way back towards Ladywell, tackling the hilly but shorter roads, again in pairs as this system seemed to work excellently. By the time we completed these roads, we were down to 5 leaflets left!!

Avoiding the house that already had a Christmas Tree we delivered the final few leaflets and made our way back to Glassmill.

After 7 hilly kilometres later, it was time for a stretch and discussions of upcoming community missions and task packing the boxes for Big Red Box.

Don’t forget the Christmas Social is on 27th November at Ninth Life - make sure you sign up so we can confirm numbers!

Pun credit goes to Oli - thank you.

It was great to see you all this evening! A very warm welcome to this week's newcomer Marie-Claire (or MC for short) - go and give her a cheer - we hope to see you back again soon! It was lovely to see Olivia and Rosemary again this evening, and we gave a well-deserved round of applause to Oli who is GoodGym Lewisham's latest Task Force member!

Think about it, there must be flyer love // Down in the heart or hidden in the letterbox above

It was an intro of two halves from me this week... very light on news and events, yet very detailed on flyering plans (thanks to Sarah for sharing the reminder about GoodGym's 10th birthday bash this Friday!). We waved off our walking groups who were off to get a head start on their flyering, then we had another crack at the Big Wave to warm up - I think we're getting pretty good at it!

Where's that flyer love I keep thinking of? // Worlds are turning and we're just posting on

Like a Pied Piper in reverse, we set off as a group to slog up Belmont Hill towards Blackheath, dropping off pairs of runners at their allotted roads as we went along, before it was just me and Oli running up and down flights of stairs in Prendergast Road. We covered an incredible area between us, flyering about 1,000 homes which will make a massive difference to attendance at Age Exchange's Christmas Fair. Imagine how long it might have taken just a couple of volunteers to achieve the amount we did in an hour this evening - amazing work!

Things look so bad everywhere // In this whole world, what is (Christmas) fair?

The grand flyering plan (fingers and toes crossed) was for everyone to reconvene outside the Lewisham Tavern at 8.15pm for the short run back to Glass Mill and a cool down. I really appreciate how punctual you all were, it certainly saved me a lot of worrying. And for those of you lucky folk who made it back early, I hope you enjoyed the wall sits!

I could rise above on a flyer love // I will wait for it // I'm not too late for it

For those of you who took a few flyers home with you to spread the word a little further - I've listed this community mission for you to sign up to, for a bonus good deed in exchange for your extra help!

I could light the night up with my headtorch on fire // I could make the sun shine from pure desire

As we spent the evening flyering for a Christmas Fair, here are a few other events to sign up for to get you in the festive spirit, including:

• GoodGym Lewisham's christmas social at Ninth Life in Catford

• next week's group run, and flyering round 2 for King's Christmas Trees

• a festive favourite putting up Christmas decorations at Seniors

• the best human chain you will ever be a part of, packing Christmas food parcels for Big Red Box

There's that love, bring me flyer love // Bring me a flyer love

Many thanks to Steve Winwood for this week's pun inspiration "Higher Love", released back in 1986. So much mileage in those cracking lyrics, I've had a marvellous time wringing tenuous puns out of them!