A top twenty runners took on Hither Green last night, covering a total of 3km and helping to clear the paths at St Swithun's Church along the way. Some tough shuttles were tackled and cores were worked, before a deep stretch and a social to refuel. Or something like that.

It's festival season, yay! We weren't digging out our tents and musty sleeping bags to go and cram into a field with a load of other sweaty people though, we were situating ourselves in the heart of our community, by helping out as part of the Hither Green Festival. We were initially due to be helping to install an exhibition of historical photographs at Torridon Road Library, but a last-minute change-of-plan saw us heading over to St Swithun's Church, with our weeding hats on, ready to get stuck in.

The foyer at Glass Mill was buzzing with red t-shirts this week, as a nice (not so) round twenty people gathered to hear all about the marvellous fun that can be had with GoodGym Lewisham. Newcomers were told about coach running (being paired with an isolated older person in our borough, for a weekly social visit), missions and also some news about upcoming 'extra' runs (a massive celebration of all things voluntary on June 1st and a special Lewisham starter session as part of the Brockley Max Festival on June 4th. We then headed outside to get our bodies warmed up, starting with a head-count and ball-throwing, name-remembering challenge - well done, there were a lot of new faces and new names this week ;) We ran around, jumped up and down, changed direction, partnered up, played shin-tag and got ourselves Strava'ed up, to head out along Molesworth Street.

It was a gorgeous evening, we really are enjoying these warmer, lighter days, the hard/harsh cold, dark winter nights a distant memory. Courthill Road was embraced (one of our lovely South East London hills, we have hills a-plenty around here you know) and were soon crossing the road to find our way to St Swithun's. Here, we were greeted by Josie, who is the Chair of the Hither Green Community Association and looking very sparkly in her jazz night attire. Josie showed us our tools, our water (thank you) and what needed doing. The paths around St Swithun's are well planted, with some poppies making their way out, lots of tulips of varying colour and pattern and a whole load of ivy, snaking its way up the building, clinging tightly to the brickwork. The group split up, with some tackling the main, larger area and others heading around to a path near the reception area. Nettles were (carefully) pulled, Sycamore seedlings were tugged out, Ivy was torn from the mortar and grass was snipped by hand (fancy!). We enjoyed the sound of a choir singing beautifully in the church, as weeds were prised from between pathing stones and, in the absence of Caireen, our usual treasure-seeker, a little treat was uncovered by Jacqueline, a tiny jelly-babyish photographer chap, complete with little rucksack, a GG Lewisham mascot?

Our resident expert, Kate, kept asking me to 'Mind your own business', which made me step away with my camera, I'm only taking photos, you know, documenting the task! It turns out 'Mind your own business' is the name of a quite pretty, tiny-leafed plant (weed?) that we decided to leave in place, since it created a nice edge to the path. It was suggested by Emma that we might put together a GoodGym guide: 'Is it a Weed?', we're certainly improving our knowledge during these outdoor tasks!

It was soon time to sweep up, scoop, nudge and cajole the debris into sacks (four or five?) and carefully hoist them into a bin. A job really well done!

Josie thanked the group for all their hard work, before heading off to enjoy all that the festival had to offer over at The Station, while we set off back towards our start point. Downhill. Nice. That's not it though. Regular GoodGym runners will know we don't stop there, patting ourselves on the back and disappearing into the night, there's more work to be done. This week we took to the green patch outside Glass Mill, edging some very polite footballing boys over slightly, thank you boys! We paired up and worked hard on some shuttle run relays, one partner taking on squats, press-ups, lunges or planks, while the other partner ran shuttles. There was some really super core-engagement going on (though not on the scale seen over in Islington this week...planking show-offs). It was then time to gather in, get ready and...plank some more!

All that hard work needs a balancing stretch to even things out, so we lay back and eased out our glutes, our lower backs, our inner thighs and then our upper bodies. This part of the evening was accompanied by a little talk by Lynne, from England Athletics, telling us all about Run England and the benefits of joining up (for free). We continued to stretch, relaxing our shoulders, letting the weight of our heads stretch our necks gently and then gave each other a big round of applause before either heading off home to refuel or hanging on in there for a nice GG Lewisham social. Oh yes.

A few of us strolled up to The Talbot, catching up whilst not breathless - novel! We enjoyed an evening of BIG food - Yorkshire pudding filled with mash, Ladywell sausages and onion gravy anyone?! We heard all about big breakfasts and how peanut butter is a top addition to porridge - must try this - and we all rolled home, satisfied and happy at having got to know each other a little bit better. Get your vocal chords warmed up people, there was talk of Gospeloke (karaoke with a gospel choir backing group, really!) being a great option for next time. Anyone?