18 runners ran 4km to help dig trenches and plant baby trees at St Lukes School!

Ah you guys, it's good to be back!! And happy to see another decent sized group for a winter month which bodes extremely well for the January Challenge... we are absolutely spanking the distance total and now working our way up the league for good deeds too so let's keep it up! I think we can do some serious damage to this leaderboard!

We were running a bit late but there's always time for a short warm up game, which admittedly have been few and far between recently! We began with Alex and Ben linking arms/holding hands, lovely. Then they began to tag as many scared runners as they could and lured them in to joining their chain. Loads of fun!! I especially enjoyed it when someone got cornered and had realised their fate.

Then it was time for more running, this time with some respect for each other's personal space. We set off through the foot tunnel and arrived at the school moments later. We were met by the lovely Myra who had loads of spades and forks and most importantly, the baby trees which had been donated by a bank (I think?) in Canary Wharf who are doing some carbon offsetting... ha! So hundreds of little tiny trees arrived at the school, all individually wrapped in their own clump of soil and our job was to find homes for them.

At first it wasn't exactly clear where they were going, but essentially it seemed that anywhere would do as long as they weren't too close to the fence or each other! Everyone grabbed some gloves and a spade and got digging. Lots of leaves and weeds were cleared in the process too, nice! After half an hour, we'd planted all the trees we could. Now all that was left to do was to hope that the kids don't come into school tomorrow morning and trample them all.

We said our goodbyes to Myra, had a quick photo and headed off to Millwall Park for a mini session. We paired up for a mile long fartlek, alternating between various fast, medium and slow paces. This is a great one to spice up any run, especially if you tend to be the type of person to do the same running route! So throw in some fartlek the next time you're out, it will make the time pass a lot quicker plus ultimately making you faster and fitter! Win win!

After two 800m laps we called it a night and headed back to the uni for a stretch! Nice work!!

Events coming up!

Pop Up Kitchen Community Mission in Charlton on Wednesday 22nd January.

Eltham Junior Parkrun Starter Session on Sunday 26th January.

Great work tonight everyone as always. Well done getting stuck into the task and getting loads done, it's always hugely appreciated by Myra and the school! See you next week for some fun at More 2 Childcare!

17 excellent elves ran 3km to help tidy up at Ballast Quay Garden!

It was the final group run night of the DECADE and even the soggy weather couldn't dampen our Christmas cheer this eve!

We firstly congratulated Jenny for her amazing debut marathon in Barbados. After volunteering so many hours, raising a tonne of money and running multiple laps of the London Relay, she was entered into the prize draw for an all expenses paid trip to Barbados to run the marathon and she only went and won! And somehow she managed to keep it a secret since August..... that in itself is quite remarkable! You can check out her incredible run here. Huge congrats Jenny, super proud of your running this year, it has gone from strength to strength and you're always doing it with a big smile on your face which is what it's all about!

We then went round to find out some of the weird and wonderful Christmassy traditions that take place amongst the group. The main take away from that little exercise was that Sara's house seems like the most favorable place to spend Christmas with extra presents on Boxing Day.. you're onto a winner there Sar! Score! And Amy's perhaps on the other end of the spectrum with a forced horror film night on Christmas eve! So harsh!

After a quick warm up we headed over to the garden. Diane who looks after the place had to attend an appointment so couldn't be there this evening but she wishes the "good runners" (that's you guys) a very warm and happy festive break! She also had kindly left the garden unlocked and put out everything we needed for our evening of fun to continue. Our task was essentially giving the place a final Christmas makeover, clearing as many leaves as possible and clipping back the ivy!

Everyone grabbed either some loppers or some leaves and got stuck in! As always, leaf matter was to go straight into the Thames, although with the direction of the wind, some would later end up at the other end of the garden instead! After twenty-ish minutes, our work was done! We headed back to the university for a final festive fitness session!

A little Christmassy quiz/relay in an attempt to get you all in the holiday spirit plus a few extra laps in between to keep warm. In the end it was team Oliver who took the win but since it's GoodGym EVERYONE is a winner of course and the prizes included some gingerbread people, mince pies and star cakes for all! Thank you to the fabulous bakin' boys Lee and JC for some top sweet treats.

Don't forget that there will still be missions and community missions taking place so you can still get your GoodGym fix over the next couple of weeks!

Well done everyone! Just want to say a huge thanks from me for making 2019 such a wonderful year for GoodGym Greenwich. We've had countless PBs, thousands of good deeds and infinite happy times along the way. You all inspire me every day and I can't wait to see what 2020 has in store for us all! Have the merriest of Christmases, enjoy the time off and see you in the new year!!!