"I promise it will stop raining as soon as we start the run"...

On a Wednesday evening in late May, one would expect it to be raining cats and dogs all day, but the forecast was set for it to stop at 19:00... 👀

Arriving early to get change and open Old Spike, Sam spotted Paulin outside the Georgian wine bar having just ordered a coffee and pastry. He was thankful that everyone that signed up started to show their face despite the rain howling it down. Nathan was back from his Central American adventures and it was great to see Alex and Tony who hadn't been around for some time. Maria, Isaac and drenched Daryl arrived all before 18:45, so Sam got going with his speech and his ice-breaker question first which was to do with Cultural Diversity Day the day before: "What culture, that is not your own, do you appreciate or are obsessed with?"

Many chose European cultures like Italian and French, but we had some Mexican, Japanese, Mauri and thinking outside the box, coffee and drinking/pub culture.

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When it rains, it pours

Seeing that the Green was wet and uncut, Sam opted for the warm-up to be done in the alleyway as he proceeded to lead the group out and down along Peckham Rye park, cut onto Dunstan's Road before we all took our time to run up Overhill and then Underhill Roads. Thanks to Maria for backmarking. It all started off dry with a pause in the rain, but as we rushed up that hill the taps were turned on again.

We met James who cycled and Emma who walked from her house viewings with Ellie and the residents of Dawson's Heights. It was great to see Ellie again after months away and we were here to start on a project that was planned for last summer. The planters were already established from earlier in the week by Dentsu. Our task for tonight was to fill these planters with compost. Ellie had 40 out of the 90 bags, delivered earlier in the week, in her garage. The team all went over to work in pairs to haul them from the garage to the community garden space (about 20-25 metres) away utilising their sheer strength and a couple of sack trucks. This was all happening whilst Sam was putting on some mixed tunes and Maria opted to help with drilling holes in the planters to ensure there is drainage.

Once the team brought out the 40 bags, we filled the planters with the compost in minutes! Noticing that we still had 10 minutes left despite the rain bashing our bodies, we helped the residents re-plant herbs, fruits and veg whist James and Nathan sowed seeds hoping for squash and courgettes to grow, but expecting a giant bean stalk...

We ended the session with a quick weeding and pruning near the forest to ensure the berry trees could stand a chance to grow whilst Sam prepared gingerbread biscuit/cake that he brought back from his travels in Grasmere over the weekend. Breaking up the 6 big pieces of gingerbread into smaller sharable chunks, everyone enjoyed the delicacy of this famous little shop in Cumbria, but none other so than James.

After a quick group photo and our goodbyes, we took in the views from Dawson's Hill before rushing off downhill for a quick stretch and impromptu drinks at Nags Head.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night as it wasn't pleasant with the rain, but we made most of the situation! Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!

Delivering food parcels with Southwark Foodbank -

Last night 12 Goodgymmers ran 3k (and back) to the Old Alleynian Rugby club. It was an unusual session because Sam was not leading, and instead it was me - Paulin! The session started with cake - a surprise from Sam to celebrate my 300th good deed. Then it was over to me, starting with the welcome speech and the warm up.

The ice-breaker was a work-related question from me about things you’d ask to a chat bot that recommends recipes. The questions we came up with ranged from practical “What can I cook with only two tins of beans?” to morbid “What should I eat that is less than 50 calories?”. Either way, very useful market research, thanks a lot!

Once we arrived at the rugby club, we were met by Ian, who had the floodlights on ready for us. Our first task was to seed a muddy pitch, and it was great to see everyone self organise to methodically cover the whole area. After that, we did some edging - which means scraping off the edge of some grass which had overgrown into the carpark.

After a quick photo and some chocolate treats from Ian, we ran back to Old Spike. At the end when we were cooling down and stretching, we “collaboratively” remembered the task for next week’s group run, as well as a few missions that are on this week-end (Thorlands on Saturday at 12 and Peckham Rye Junior parkrun on Sunday at 9am.