Bexley News...

• Well done Nick for reaching 50 good deeds tonight!
• We have a brand new Community Mission on Saturday to help prepare and set up Bee Street. We will be meeting at Barclays Bank in Sidcup at 10am
• We will be heading to Danson Youth Centre on Saturday for their [Quiz Night]. It's great fun! Let me know if you want to come as tables must be pre-booked. We already have 3 teams!

Tonight was a special run for us as it was GoodGym Bexley's 3rd Birthday

We met at Crook Log, thankful that it wasn't raining and no storms were going on outside! We heading out for our warm up before making our way to Welling Library.

As usual, we had a walking group and a running group.

We made our way straight down Welling High Street as we were meeting Patrick, who was giving us seeds to plant as part of the Bee Street Project.

On arrival, Patrick was already there and had started planting some small shrubs which were going to be acting as an edging/barrier to hopefully stop people walking over the garden area.

We were working on 2 areas tonight...

The Welling Cannon

and

Welling Library.

First we had to weed and tidy the garden areas, rake the soil and the spread the seeds.

There was actually a lot more garden area than we thought.

After not very long we were done. All the seeds had been sprinkled over the area, so we swept and tidying away before heading to the pub for our birthday celebrations!

Well done guys!

Until next time...

Happy running!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

Bexley News...

• Did you know that there has NEVER been a parkrun on the 29th February. This leap year, the 29th falls on Saturday. No-one has ever run a parkrun on this date and the next time this will be possible will be in at least 28 years time! Join us at Bexley parkrun to celebrate the occasion!
• Let us know if you are coming to the Quiz Night at Danson Youth Centre. It is a little different to the conventional pub quiz. BYO snacks and drinks!
• Next Monday we will be celebrating GoodGym Bexleys 3rd Birthday After our group run we will be heading to The New Cross Turnpike.

Tonight 12 runners and walkers met at Crook Log, ready for our task at Bexley Mencap offices.

We welcomed our new members Andy and Liam. Great to have you guys along, we hope you enjoyed your first GG session with us!

We had a quick warmup, deciding not to use the cones as they kept blowing away last week. We then had a quick run straight to the Mencap offices as there was lots to do!

The walking group went ahead and went the shortest way to get there first as they had the keys.

We paced ourselves well as both groups arrived at the same time.

Nick had already prepped the space, so we could get straight to work.

We poured paint into trays, picked up paint brushes and rollers and got to work.

We had plenty of hands to get the job done and in no time we had covered the walls with its first coat of paint.

We helped Nick tidy up and admired our work. Next time we might be able to give a second coat.

Great work tonight guys.

Until next time...

Happy running

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

Bexley News...

• Have you heard?!?...GoodGym have announced the dates and location for this years Shindig. Find out more and register your interest here
• We have lots of exciting things coming up this month.
• On the 7th March we have a new Community Mission to help prepare for Sidcup's Bee Street Project. Find out more and sign up here
• We will also be joining Progressive Welling in their Big Litter Pick on the 21st March.
• In a few weeks we will be celebratingGoodGym Bexley's 3rd Birthday. After our run to the Welling Library on the 2nd March we will be heading to the New Cross Turnpike for some food and drink.
• We also have a quiz night on the 7th March at Danson Youth Centre to raise money for the Danson Youth Trust. You can sign up to the event here Let us know if you can come as we can book tables.

Tonight we met at Crook Log as usual. The storm seemed to have disappeared as we made our way outside for our warmup. However, it was still windy enough to keep blowing our cones over for our game. We decided to alter the game a little and had a relay race to see which team could collect all their coloured cones first. After a bit of confusion and an almost fatal collision, we settled at a draw.

It was time to split into out 2 teams.

Runners

&

Walkers

We headed straight for the care home as we wasn't sure what task we would be doing. We made it there in not time at all. Great running from the team and the walking group arrived not too far after the runners.

Upon arrival, we were given some paint brushes and a large pot of paint. Our task was to touch up parts of the coving. We nominated some painters, who picked up a brush and got to work while the rest supervised, making sure that they were safe and holding the tools.

The coving looked better already!!

We tidied up, washed brushes and made sure that there were no drips of paint anywhere... We were all good!

It was time to head back to Crook Log. We had a short jog back before cooling down.

Great work tonight.

See you next time!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

Bexley News...

• It's great to see and hear people taking part in RED January. Whether you are running everyday or trying out new activities, it is not too late to start!
• Remember, it is the GoodGym January Challenge! This month we aim to go further and do more good than ever before by running and doing more good deeds. Hopefully, there will be more Community Missions popping up over the month.
• If you use Strava to track your runs, make sure it is connected to your GoodGym profile so we can rack up the miles for Bexley! See how we are getting on here

Tonight was the first group run of the year and also the decade! and we did not hold back on the numbers. It was lovely to see everyone after the Christmas break and also great to meet new members Gemma and Lea. Welcome to GoodGym Bexley, we hope you enjoyed your first run!

We headed outside where we had a quick introduction to everyone before moving on to playing our favourite warm-up game with the new giant pack of playing cards!

You know the drill by now. ❤️♣️♦️♠️

Each suit in the deck represents a different exercise and the number on the card represents the amount of reps. One day we will get time to go through the whole deck! But today we drew 2 cards each, then went around the circle carrying out what was on the cards.

Martin had 2x Joker cards and so could decide on what exercise we had to do. Even though he had threatened of throwing 50 burpees into the mix, he opted to choose 20 squat jumps instead.

Squat jumps seemed the most popular card tonight and so after we had finished squating and jumping we split into our groups heading to the Care Home.

The walkers set off down the high street while the running group went the back way around which was slightly longer. We seemed to arrive at the task all around the same time, signed in and said 'Hello' to the resident cat before splitting into groups again to go and talk to different groups of residents.

There were chats of where they used to live, football matches and family. The lady I was talking to was one of the oldest residents in the home who had her birthday last week...104 years old. She was telling me about her drink of Baileys she was going to have before going to bed.

It was great to see everyone getting involved, chatting and laughing to the residents. I think we cheered them up even if some were waiting to go to bed.

After, what seemed like no time at all, we said our goodbyes and got ready to leave. We all made our way back to base at Crook Log, a slightly longer run today. Well done everyone for smashing it.

Until next time.

Happy Running!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

11 GoodGymers met at Crook Log tonight.

Although we were disappointed that the task we had planned was cancelled right at the very last minute we had quickly thought of a back up plan.

We headed outside to our warm up area with pack of cards in hand.

We welcomed our guest from Goodgym Greenwich, Marta and also welcomed back Matt for his second GoodGym Bexley run! It was then time for the Card Pickup warmup.

♦️♠️❤️♣️

Each suit representing a different exercise, and the number of times it must be done. This week there were a lot of squat jumps on the cards! After we had gone around the circle twice, we split into our walking and running groups.

We were heading to the Christmas House on our run. The house is covered from top to bottom with Christmas lights and figures, all in a effort to raise funds for Water for Africa. https://justgiving.com/fundraising/jonathan-blake9

The runners arrived first and whilst waiting for the walkers, admired the house. There was a little bit of a buzz around the house as numerous people came to see, donate and have photos outside. It wasn't long before the walking group joined us and we had some photos before heading back to base.

Our little last minute task was to make decorations for our GoodGym Bexley sponsored tree at the Erith Christmas Tree Festival at the weekend.

We gathered the materials and heading into the leisure centre, setting up a production line workshop to make paper chains and hanging tree decorations.

With everyone getting stuck in we managed to add the hanging loops to our 'GG' decorations, create new hanging stars and reindeer as well as make a 23foot long paper chain.

As we packed away and tidied up, I think some of the team would have stayed until midnight creating little decorations.

Bexley News

On Thursday, we will be heading to Christ Church Erith to decorate the tree. If you would like to come and help you can sign up here

The Christmas Tree Festival will run from Friday until Sunday. There are a number of things going on over the weekend so have a look here and make sure you come along to spot the tree!

Next week is our last group run of the year before we have a Christmas break! We will be heading back to The Salvation Army to help out. Find out more and sign up here

Until next time...

Happy running!!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

Bexley News...

• Remember that this Saturday we have the community mission to set up Christmas Trees for the Erith Christmas Tree Festival. You can find out more and sign up here
• There is the Christmas Pudding run on Sunday at Dartford. Some of us are running at this event. You can find out more and sign up here

14 goodgymers made the short trek to Danson Youth Centre for tonight’s task.

The objective was plane simple - to clear leaves from the area which will play host to the reindeer which will be arriving on Saturday.

We branched out to various parts of the area some sweeping, some picking up and bagging, leaving no leaf unturned. Various tones of “If you leaf me now”, “I’m leaving on a jet plane” and “I’ve got leaves they’re multiplying” accompanied the task; others pined for some quiet.

The task was completed quickly and efficiently as we had a social booked at the Crook Log carvery as part of early Xmas celebrations.

Garden bags piled high, tools put away, we made our way across to the carvery where everyone enjoyed the meal and company; thanks to Jess for organising. We were joined tonight by Darryl from our neighbouring GoodGym Greenwich - we hope you enjoyed it.

Bexley News!!...

• It was great to welcome Lisa tonight! We hope you enjoyed your first run!
• Some of us are running the Poppy Run at Avery Hill on Sunday. You can find out more and sign up here
• Next week we are heading to Welling Library to help tidy outside. Wrap up warm and if you have lights/head torches make sure to bring them along!

Tonight 13 GoodGymers met at Crook Log ready to embark on a brand new task at Welling Salvation Army!

Upon arrival, I thought we had not 1 but 3 new members...only to realise that Matt and Emmanuel were sporting their new black tees! Nice one guys, they looked great! ⑤⓪

We headed outside for our much needed warm up since it was a bit nippy outside. We begun with a slow jog before playing the 52 card pickup again. We changed up the exercises a bit with squat jumps, lunges, star jumps and twists. This week there were a lot of lunges on the cards and less squats compared to last week.

We also had a new running route to get to the task.

The runners went on a loop which took in the bridge over the train line and a very long road to take us to Welling Corner before turning the corner back to get to the Salvation Army. We had a good view of some fireworks en route to the task 🎆🎇

The walkers took the direct route straight up Welling High Street to arrive at a similar time to the running group.

We seemed to time it just right and everyone arrived at the task pretty much together.

We were met by Tim who showed us what was needing to be done.

There were some donations which needed to be sorted into boxes and stored away.

We all grabbed some donations and began organising into boxes, putting aside anything which was 'rubbish'.

After what seemed like no time at all, we were done!

Everyone took a handful from the pile of rubbish to take out to the bins.

Finishing slightly ahead of time, we grabbed some brooms and a dustpan and brush to give a quick spruce up!

We said our goodbyes and headed back to base!

Great work tonight guys!

Until next time...

Happy running!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️

Bexley News

• Well Done everyone who was involved with the very first GoodGym Bexley x Bexley parkrun takeover.
• Congrats to Sharine who run her 50th Good Deed tonight! Well Done!
• Next week we have a new task at the Salvation Army. Find out more and sign up here
• We have a few Christmas task and missions in the pipeline for December. Remember our Christmas dinner is looking to be on December 2nd.

We met tonight at Crook Log ready for the group task. As we made our way outside for a warm up, we had something a bit different on the agenda.

Armed with a deck of playing cards, we played a shortened version of the 52 card pickup workout. Each suit represented a different exercise.

• ❤ Hearts = Squats
• ♣ Clubs = Star jumps
• ♠ Spades = Squat jumps
• ♦ Diamonds = Lunges

Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to go through the whole deck of cards so we went round the circle and each chose a card. The number on the cards represents the number of the exercise to do, except lunges which were doubled to include one on each leg.

Luckily for everyone, most of the cards were high numbers and there seemed to be a large amount of squat jumps!

After the warm up we set off for our run/walk. We had a team of runners, doing a 4km run and the walkers who were doing a shorter walk around to the youth centre.

Upon arrival, we were met by Joy who had plenty of blue paint to give the walls a makeover. We quickly got all hands on deck transforming the walls from white to blue.

Many hands make light work

After a short amount of time, most of the walls were covered, but it was time to tidy and clean up. We formed and orderly queue at the sink waiting to wash brushes and hands while the rest scrubbed the paint drops off the floor.

After that it was a quick run back to base camp!

Great work tonight everyone!

Until next time...

Happy running!

Sarah 🏃🏻‍♀️