Love Lambeth

Big night last night… MASSIVE 41 of you and four tasks completed. CRIKEY… That’s a frankly obscene amount of good being done in Lambeth. Bigger than Comic Relief I reckon… and funnier.

Below is a wee report on each task. I didn’t get feedback on all the tasks and as I wasn’t there for them I pieced together what you did from the evidence provided and my own imagination. I think you’ll find my guess is pretty on the money. If you would like to submit what you really did then email me and I’ll put up the real version of events.

Don’t forget Vauxhall Food Bank next week., along with the Great British Bake Off sweepstake.. It’ll be a great night.

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/taking-food-to-vauxhall-food-bank-1e1c13ab-4338-4d03-aade-2e6f7ddb1f49

Brockwell Park Greenhouses; 3 miles.

Lots of GoodGymers were keen to go back to Brockwell Park Greenhouses. I think this is because lovely Tom who runs the project sent them home with bags of spring onions last time. I suspect these spring onions acted like a gateway drugs and the vegetable junkies of GoodGym were back looking for a bigger better hit. Half way through the task, Neil Buchannon from Art Attack turned up and recruited the runners to have a massive ‘Art Attack’ with him. He produced toilet roll and pipe cleaners and the group set about making 20ft letters that spelt LOVE LAMBETH… all done in 9 and a half minutes. Neil was very impressed and promised to use the footage when he gets commissioned a new series after his 15 year haitus. Any time now Neil eh? Then the group ran back to Papas, star struck but happy

Loughborough Junction; 2 miles.

Right next to Loughborough Junction sits the magical Loughborough Farm. You may think this is a sham farm for there are no animals, but as the group of GoodGymers found out, you have to really really look, then you find them. After being instructed by Anthea on the weeding task, Rodney saw a small creature move in the bushes… after getting Sarah and Judy over to look closer they realised it wasn’t a small creature after all, but a million woodlouse forming a human pyramid… upon closer inspection still it transpired that woodlice were on a stag do for Barry Woodlouse and were all wearing matching T-shirts saying “Barry will Marry”. Barry was looking worse for wear, stumbling about with his pants on his head. The woodlouse invited GoodGym to join the stag but they had to get back to HQ…. Although Judy made a mental note to go back on her way home and see if she could join them for last orders.

Palace Road Nature Garden; 5 miles.

There ‘s a reason why Palace Road is called so, and last night the group of GoodGym runners wanting a longer run found out. When they got to Palace Road they were met by Gerry who was winged by Camilla Parker-Bowles and Prince Charles. It turned out they had a holiday home in the nature garden, a small tree-house that Charles had built to impress Camilla back when they were courting. In the tree-house the walls were adorned with posters from Smash Hits of Take That and East 17. Whilst Charles had always been a Take That fan, Camilla was a grittier East 17 fan. They confided in the group that they had often quarrelled over the rival bands, but made up by compromising and listening to Spice Girls.

The group of GoodGymers helped the Royals give their hut a new lick of paint. “it’s bleeding wonderful’ Camilla proclaimed, teary eyed, and as the group left to head back to base Charles waved them off shouting promises of Knighthoods for all....

OK, here's what really happened from the lovely Helen...

About eight Goodgymmers happily ran up Brixton Hill to Palace Road Gardens, which features a beautiful painted mural and pretty winding paths. We were asked to do several different jobs and split up into two groups. My group cleared the paths of ivy which was encroaching on it, and we did so using machetes and something that looked like a scythe, before finding that using secateurs was actually way faster! In the process we encountered some unforgiving nettles, but relentlessly worked until we’d filled two big bags full of ivy and assorted thorny stingy plants. We all came out unscathed save for a small rash my arm incurred from an encounter with a fern. The run down Brixton Hill was even happier than the run up, and we arrived back at Papa’s Park smiling and sweaty. A hardcore few sprinted the last 50 meters or so and arrived sweatier than the rest.

Brixton Youth Centre; 2 miles.

The sadists in the group opted for a 2 miles run and circuits and Brixton Youth Centre. We were met by Reece who was a little nervous at giving us all orders but soon found his voiced and we were put to work moving football tables as heavy as articulated lorries and sweeping up the leaves in the playground.

The group were split into two to do circuits consisting of ONE MILLION burpees, sprints, squats and lunges. Everyone looked like they were enjoying it very much. Then we headed back to base, wondering what everyone else got up to.