Embracing the bracing air, 28 of Lewisham's finest took to the streets to gather a record number of discarded Christmas trees.

Oli has done it again with his marvellous punning. Also included in this report are puns from Tom and Emma, good work.

January Challenge

Yes, at the start of our run we were in second place on good deeds for our division in the January Challenge (with GoodGym nationwide having the biggest week ever last week!) and, by the end of our run, we are IN THE LEAD! Our winning ways are down to some very committed volunteering and running in the past week, with many of our group over at a community mission on Saturday at Beecroft Garden Primary School, runners tackling parkrun and the cross country and others running off to help in people's homes and to visit their coaches - we are unstoppable!

We had a couple of new faces with us this week - welcome - with all our Lewisham Love going to Holly and Marie.

After a bit of fun warming up and getting to know our teams, we split up into four groups and headed off in different directions - a very big thank you to Caireen, Kim and Emma for leading the other three teams. When I say we ran in different directions, that's not strictly true, because a whole crowd of us headed the same way at first, with my team politely looking the other way if we saw trees outside of our allotted zone, we're good like that.

It'll be all pine on the night

I can only really tell you about the experience of my team, Team 3, who showed their might and dedication to the cause straight away, by engaging in some pretty serious teamwork to retrieve all the trees that had been thrown on top of bus stops by young tikes. Good thinking from Marie, who created a human step for Will to balance on - part of the team from the start! We jogged these first five trees along Adelaide Avenue, then continued over to weave up and down the roads off Brockley Road. There were rich pickings along here, with some trees of colossal proportions, which created the need for us to form a chain, weaving through pedestrians who were clearly perplexed by this sight!

Watch out, needles about!

It was at this point that we saw some treachery going on, as Marta and Andy appeared in our zone and took an actual tree from the actual hands of a member of the public, can you believe it?!

Cutting it pine

Throwing our final finds onto the pile at the foot of Hilly Fields, we waited (in a squat, of course) for the rest of the teams to return. Bouncing trees appeared and smiling faces, who had clearly had a lot of fun. We heard stories of Itmari running with a tree on each shoulder and Conroy apparently managing three, we had a chuckle at the tiny tree that Caireen had found and wondered if it counted (yes, of course) and we all waited with baited breath for the final count and I asked 'How many trees did yule log?' (thanks Emma!).

• Team 1, led by Caireen...12

• Team 2, led by Emma...10

• Team 3, led by me, 15

• Team 4, led by Kim...drum roll please...16!!!

Amazing work everyone! That's 53 in total, so a whopping 31 more than last year! I would love to see the look on people's faces when they open their curtains tomorrow morning...

Less trunk in my junk

Everyone was so pleased when we realised that we had enough time left for a fitness session, 'Woo-hoo!' they shouted! It was pretty obvious that hill repeats awaited, so off we skipped. There was some really strong effort on that tough hill, with the last one taking us up and over towards home. Next week is our THIRD BIRTHDAY! I really can't believe it, all that goodness! We will run to Crofton Books for our annual birthday run and will head over to Mama Dough in Ladywell for a post run pizza (please sign up if you are definitely coming, so we know how many to book for). In the meantime, you can get in an extra good deed on Saturday, with a fun 'plogging' starter session in Hilly Fields, sign up here.

See you soon for some more of the same x

Running into 2019 with open arms and hearts, 28 eager athletes covered 7km and helped to take down the Christmas decorations at Seniors.

Thank you once again to Oli for today's rather marvelous title pun, off to a good start with this and some other puns throughout this report. Thank you also to his partner in rhyme (?), Tom for his window cleaning wordery.

Happy New Year!

Yes, we're a bit excited to be back in action, though many of our members didn't stop doing good just because it was Christmas, with a few people volunteering at Crisis and the 999 Club, many running missions and lots of people visiting their coach for a chat and a festive catch-up - well done all of you. There was also plenty of running going on, with a fair few people getting out on Christmas Day for the annual parkrun and some even taking on 'the double' on New Year's Day (yes, that's two parkruns in one morning!).

How lovely to welcome some new faces to our first run of the year, Lewisham Love this week goes to Jade, Rachel and Colin, welcome!

What goes up(hill) must come down

With a brisk warm up to get us ready to run, we were led up and over to Seniors this week by Run Leaders Amber and Kim - thank you - with Clare keeping us together as back-marker (well done on yesterday's ten-mile hilly race!).

GoodGym and Jill ran up the hill to clean with vinegar and newspaper

At Seniors, we were met by Phyllis, who had already made a start on taking down the decorations (she can't help getting stuck in!) and quickly gave us some direction on what was to be left and what was to come down. It certainly takes a lots less time to take down the tinsel, so we even had time to pick up some newspaper and vinegar and give the windows some sparkle (that smell though, we all had cravings for fish and chips!). I noticed at this point that Helen was wearing her wings for the first time - for those who don't know, when you have completed 50 good deeds, you receive a lovely black t-shirt and when you've done 100, you get your wings (see photos above).

It’s (condi)ment to be hilly!

With Seniors looking fresh and ready for all the activities that go on here, we said our goodbyes and headed back up the hill (this is a challenging run, well done to those who came along for the first time!). With just enough time to stretch on our return, I told everyone about the extra chances to do good in the next couple of weeks, as we try to smash our goal for the January Challenge - to complete more good deeds and run more kilometers than we have ever done before.

• This Saturday we have a community mission at Beecroft Garden Primary School at 10.30am

• On Saturday 19th we have a post-parkrun starter session in Hilly Fields at 11am

Next week we will be embarking on one of our must fun tasks of the year, as we run around gathering discarded Christmas trees. Join us by signing up here and please wear gloves!

Have a smashing week :)