Embracing the bracing air, 28 of Lewisham's finest took to the streets to gather a record number of discarded Christmas trees.

Oli has done it again with his marvellous punning. Also included in this report are puns from Tom and Emma, good work.

January Challenge

Yes, at the start of our run we were in second place on good deeds for our division in the January Challenge (with GoodGym nationwide having the biggest week ever last week!) and, by the end of our run, we are IN THE LEAD! Our winning ways are down to some very committed volunteering and running in the past week, with many of our group over at a community mission on Saturday at Beecroft Garden Primary School, runners tackling parkrun and the cross country and others running off to help in people's homes and to visit their coaches - we are unstoppable!

We had a couple of new faces with us this week - welcome - with all our Lewisham Love going to Holly and Marie.

After a bit of fun warming up and getting to know our teams, we split up into four groups and headed off in different directions - a very big thank you to Caireen, Kim and Emma for leading the other three teams. When I say we ran in different directions, that's not strictly true, because a whole crowd of us headed the same way at first, with my team politely looking the other way if we saw trees outside of our allotted zone, we're good like that.

It'll be all pine on the night

I can only really tell you about the experience of my team, Team 3, who showed their might and dedication to the cause straight away, by engaging in some pretty serious teamwork to retrieve all the trees that had been thrown on top of bus stops by young tikes. Good thinking from Marie, who created a human step for Will to balance on - part of the team from the start! We jogged these first five trees along Adelaide Avenue, then continued over to weave up and down the roads off Brockley Road. There were rich pickings along here, with some trees of colossal proportions, which created the need for us to form a chain, weaving through pedestrians who were clearly perplexed by this sight!

Watch out, needles about!

It was at this point that we saw some treachery going on, as Marta and Andy appeared in our zone and took an actual tree from the actual hands of a member of the public, can you believe it?!

Cutting it pine

Throwing our final finds onto the pile at the foot of Hilly Fields, we waited (in a squat, of course) for the rest of the teams to return. Bouncing trees appeared and smiling faces, who had clearly had a lot of fun. We heard stories of Itmari running with a tree on each shoulder and Conroy apparently managing three, we had a chuckle at the tiny tree that Caireen had found and wondered if it counted (yes, of course) and we all waited with baited breath for the final count and I asked 'How many trees did yule log?' (thanks Emma!).

• Team 1, led by Caireen...12

• Team 2, led by Emma...10

• Team 3, led by me, 15

• Team 4, led by Kim...drum roll please...16!!!

Amazing work everyone! That's 53 in total, so a whopping 31 more than last year! I would love to see the look on people's faces when they open their curtains tomorrow morning...

Less trunk in my junk

Everyone was so pleased when we realised that we had enough time left for a fitness session, 'Woo-hoo!' they shouted! It was pretty obvious that hill repeats awaited, so off we skipped. There was some really strong effort on that tough hill, with the last one taking us up and over towards home. Next week is our THIRD BIRTHDAY! I really can't believe it, all that goodness! We will run to Crofton Books for our annual birthday run and will head over to Mama Dough in Ladywell for a post run pizza (please sign up if you are definitely coming, so we know how many to book for). In the meantime, you can get in an extra good deed on Saturday, with a fun 'plogging' starter session in Hilly Fields, sign up here.

See you soon for some more of the same x