Allow me to introduce myself, today was my first outing as GoodGym Croydon’s new trainer, leading up to today I’ve had a lot of words of encouragement from near and far. Thank you all, I’ve lifted off and thanks to all who signed up today for our first adventure together, hope you will be back for more?

What more can I say?

13 is normally classed as unlucky for some but not tonight, the Scouts can attest to that. 13 runners ran 5.8km to help the Scouts in South Croydon tidy up their surroundings.

There was a buzz this evening in the lobby of our start point, some familiar faces and some new ones they were here to meet the new trainer and see what the fuss was all about, but most importantly they wanted to do a bit of good in the community. We welcomed our first timers Dami and Miriam who had come along to witness what GoodGym was about for themselves. Formalities out of the way we made our way over to Fairfield’s Hall for our warm up.

We headed towards South Croydon being led by Dom, who had kindly offered to be my glamourous assistant today and my local guide, the run to our task was 2.5km. We were met at the task by Andrew who had an array of tools laid out awaiting our arrival. (scouts always prepared) He took us to the back of the building where he explained what he would like us to do and showed us the three areas to pile the rubbish that would be burned at a later date when it was safe to do so. (scouts and campfires)

Instruction given tools in hand we started to clear the overgrowth at the back of the building, everyone was in a rhythm doing their bit until suddenly Bradley exclaimed he had been stung! Upon checking the area where he was working we noticed there were a few wasps flying around. We quickly ran for cover, away from the wasp then Ingrid realised she too had been stung earlier but passed it off as being a victim of the stinging nettles which she had been cutting. Luckily there were no allergic reactions from either Ingrid or Bradley. With the retreat a quick word was had with the runners regarding their safety and avoiding the wasp.

Woodn’t wasp it! We focused on clearing another area while keeping a watchful eye out for any wasp out scouting. We cleared an area that had a lot of wood, which gave us the perfect excuse for the chain gang after all no task is fully completed without a human chain being formed.

As we downed our tools were offered drinks (squash and water) before setting off to Park Hill for our fitness session. Dom took us on a different route back that incorporated a very windy incline which will come in handy one day in the near future. At the top we all sat on the bench for a breather and of course another photo opportunity before embarking on our fitness session. The exercises where chosen by members of the group and they did not shy away from the challenge the all selected exercises that where quite challenging, I would have gone for the simple stuff but not them they wanted to show me what they were made of.

The gate escape

• Task – Completed
• Fitness Session – Completed It was time to return to our start point, we ran down hill quite happily only to be met by a closed gate! We were locked in! Dom quickly spun around as he knew another exited from the park with a gate that would be open, only problem was we had to run back up the hill. Thankfully the gate was open when we got there and we descended down the towards East Croydon. We arrived back at our meeting point 5 mins later were we did our stretches and said our goodbyes.

Thanks to our back markers Ellie and Nykolette

On to the next one Next week we are going to settle some unfinnished business at St Augustines, last time we went there were some pleaseant surprises who knows what will be there next time round?

South Norwood Parkrun are also looking for as many GoodGym volunteers as possible on Saturday 11th of August to help Julie, the Run Director, and Andy, her husband of 1 day, and the core team celebrate their wedding, 200th and 250th parkruns that morning. So, if you can please sign up to their volunteer roster and help Julie and Andy celebrate in style.