For today’s Starter session we ran between 3 and 4km after helping restore the Brownies’ Millennial Garden in Shirley.

Today was a Starter session to give those who haven’t experienced a GoodGym task a taste of what GoodGym is all about and what we can achieve in a short space of time. We started at All Saints Church Hall in Bridle Road, Shirley where we met Brown Owl Christina and her husband Bert. She explained the background to the task and what we needed to do.

At the turn of the millennium some funding was given to create a couple of raised beds which were planted and maintained by the Brownies and there was also a commemorative wooden bench put in place so they could sit and admire the garden. However, over the years the grass and weeds took over the flower beds and the bench became worse for wear. Our task was to help restore the beds by weeding, mowing the grass and re-digging the four circles used for planting – Christina cunningly brought hula hoops to use as a template. The bench also had to be rejuvenated by sanding it down and adding a few coats of varnish. We were determined to finish the task to make sure the Brownies could get planting this Tuesday so we did stay a little longer but were kept well fuelled with juice and biscuits by Christina – thanks for that!

Once the job was done we headed off for a 30 minute run through the local streets before heading to Millers Pond where we did some work on leg strength and balance with lunges, squats, one-legged squats and hip flexor stretches. Thanks to Simon for demonstrating the lunges – not a wobble in sight!

We had one new member today so welcome to Jamie and also thanks to his brother Alex who helped him out. We were also joined by two regular GoodGymers – "Karate Kid" Simon who is the Islington Trainer and Beth who seems to have been to most of the London GoodGym runs. It was great to see Sam, Anna, Thandi and Neil give up their Saturday long-lies to join us again.

This Tuesday evening we will be litter picking in central Croydon while the Pearl Izumi Tour series (cycling) is happening in Croydon so we’ll get the best of all worlds; a run, some drills, a good deed and a chance to watch some super speedy cyclists in lycra. We will finish at our normal time of 8.30pm which will give you enough time to head back if you want to see the final laps and see the winning cyclists.