Thirteen awesome athletes ran between two and four kilometers, to help out at Living Well.

It hadn't looked promising this afternoon, with thunder rumbling all round, lightning flashing and rain pouring down. I was reassured though, that our task was indoors and would encourage everyone to come regardless. Not only did our regulars come, but we also welcomed two newcomers, with Marie joining us after attending GoodGym Southwark previously and Kim coming along for her first ever GoodGym group run, welcome to both of you! We also had Monica visiting us for the first time, wearing her lovely new wings t-shirt (you receive this when you complete 100 good deeds!). Nice.

First up, well done to those who were able to fit in some extra goodness over the weekend, delivering flyers for the Crystal Palace Festival, which is happening from the 11th-17th of June, right on our doorstep. The flyers were to encourage people to join in and volunteer, which you can find out about here if you fancy helping out. With it being the end of the month, I thought we should celebrate the Heroes of May.

• Most good deeds: Louise, with 8

• Greatest distance run: Tim, with 61.9km

• Most cheers received: Tim, with 121

• Most cheers given: Hannah, with 130

My, haven't we improved on last month?! I'm very pleased to see everyone getting stuck in and supporting each other :)

Get me to the church on time!

Off we went, after a brief warm-up amongst the commuters, towards Holy Trinity Church, where Living Well is based. We had heard that the stocks at the food bank are currently running low, so we all ran with various tins and packets in hand, to add to the boxes on arrival. Tonight's task was to pull everything out of the store cupboard, clean the shelves, sort through the boxes, organise the contents and return everything to the correct place. Easy! The space outside the store cupboard was very quickly covered in tins, boxes and bags of pasta, a whirlwind of red shirts buzzing around.

Elsewhere in the space, Hannah and Stuart were cleaning the smaller kitchen, then a fridge, before joining in with the Big Sort. At one point, I really did wonder how we would get all of this back into the cupboard (there had been a donation of food delivered in the meantime, increasing the contents of the boxes). There were a few puzzled expressions, as we tried to work out where certain items went, trying hard to find a home for two rogue jars of jam. Time ticked away and the boxes went back in, the order of which was helped considerably by Emma having taken a photo of the shelves before everything was pulled out. Genius.

Saying goodbye, we took advantage of the little park just a short jog away. To warm back up, we played a quick game of what I think of as 'Cone-Over'. I do enjoy watching these competitive games unfold, with people's true personalities coming through...In one spot were Hannah and Paul, crouched down, head-to-head, in a very serious game of flip-the-cone. We then did a running circuit, before some technique-focussed drills, which we carried over into our next run, to see how we could work on our form to run strong. Really great pacing from everyone, spot on!

Back at base, we stretched and heard about the GoodGym Olympic Games (the deadline to sign up is this coming Sunday!), the Dino Dash Relay and next week's group run, which will take us back to Forest Hill Station. See you then!

20 runners ran 6km to weed at Bell House in Dulwich

Hump Day evening! You know what that means... it's GoodGym Southwark! Last night 20 of us gathered at Old Spike Roastery including FIVE (COUNT 'EM) FIVE FIRST TIMERS. Big cheers for Chloe, Caitlin, Frances, Heather and Marisa for coming along, hopefully the first of many good deeds! A big woop also for Bristol legend Debs Redmond who's furthered her GoodGym tourism by coming to see us!

A New Task EEk!

After a briefing and a warm up we set off for the 3k (basically a straight line) to Bell House in Dulwich. Bell House has had many incarnations in its lifetime and now it is an education centre that offers support outside the mainstream curriculum. The house is a centre for educational needs such as dyslexia support and it is entirely volunteer led. They have some great short films on their website about the work they do, have a look!

Weed don't need no education (except the amazing opportunities offered by Bell House)

We arrived at the gorgeous garden and were put to work - Sarah and Tim helped us with what were and were not weeds and we got to work. 20 people can get a lot done in as many minutes! We got really stuck in, enjoying the beautiful environment as we did so (and messing around with sticky willy). When time was up we had two very full wheelbarrows to show for ourselves (see photo). Sarah was thrilled! We thanked our task owners and headed back through gorgeous Dulwich park to base.

Every Saturday at 09.30 Bell House have a volunteer session. As Tim pointed out, it's perfectly timed for just after Dulwich parkrun... and there's coffee and croissants. What more could you ask for on a Saturday!

We got loads done and got a solid 6km run out of it. Great work team!

Looking forward to seeing you next week.

Keep running happy,

Lucy

Last night 12 runners ran 6k to clean toddler toys at the Salvation Army

On a beautiful warm evening we set off to the Salvation Army for a task that can only be described as child’s play! We ran a steady 3k to the Camberwell Salvation Army where we were greeted by Janet who we haven’t seen in a while. Nice to see you Janet! Our task - to remove toys from the children’s play cupboard, clean and dry them and put them back. Let’s get to work! Most people got to work with dettol and water whilst Helena worked out the logistics of what was best to tackle first (cupboard queen!). Dettol stations at the ready we started cleaning. We didn’t get to the really big ticket items (toy cars) but we got an awful lot done in 30 mins and Janet was very impressed.

There was of course a little time for hobby-horsing around but we mostly kept it pretty slick... well done team for a great job giving these children a super fresh start.

News

• Sunday is London Marathon day! The main GoodGym cheer point will be at Somerset House at Mile 24 - we’ll have the banner out so you should be able to see us! Come and join and shout and scream. It’s a huge amount of fun.

• We still have 59 coaches waiting to be paired in Southwark so if you’re keen to start coach running, sign up for your DBS check and let’s get going!

• We’re doing a parkrun takeover! Vote for which parkrun and what date we should do here.

• Next week we’re going to Surrey Docks Farm. It’s a good 11k total but there is the option of getting the overground home (and the others will be racing the train back!). It’s sure to be a good, physical task and of course you’ll get to say hello to some animals. We’ll need to leave bang on 19.00 and please bring your contactless/oyster/whatever it is people pay with these days if you decide to get transport back to base. Sign up here

Thanks for another great Wednesday team, looking forward to seeing you next week.

Lucy

13 runners ran 7km to spread love in Southwark last night

A big hello to our new runners last night Tom, Marie and Alex ! On Tuesday eve we heard the news that Cossall had a flood over the weekend so our plan to clear up the hall was postponed!

Thinking caps on, Helena helped me design a scavenger hunt. She also led a great warm up because I’m still a little broken from Paris marathon. We had many challenges with different point values that included handing out GoodGym leaflets, picking litter and exercises. The teams had 45 minutes to get back to base to tot up the scores.

Challenges: Photos of a good dog Litter picking (points per bag) Longest plank 20 burpees 20 squats Train stations GG leaflets handed out

Bonus: Pubs with P in them Interpretative team photo Best pun

Scores on the doors

• 4th place – The rebellion 63 points but with the LONGEST PLANK 07.08 - big cheer for Helena

• 3rd Place – 3 stars 104 points and the winner of the interpretation bonus for 'Two Star Tandoori' - see photo above!

• 2nd Place – Off Piste in Peckham 132 points and the pun winner or their team name

• 1st Place – Dogspotters 146 points and the most pubs (7!)

Each participant received a medal and a mystery red-themed prize. Solid work team, we spread some love around Peckham and had a blast doing it. Next week we’re going to the Salvation Army to help with their baby bank. I look forward to seeing you there!

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