Ten years of Bootcamp SE16 at Stave Hill

Bootcamp SE16 turned 10 this month. Ten years of training outdoors at Stave Hill Ecological Park, in every kind of weather Canada Water can produce, with a group of people who mostly live within a mile of the park.

A decade is long enough to see what actually changes people, and it is rarely the thing they came in for.

What ten years looks like

• Members who arrived unable to finish a warm-up and now lead the pack up the hill.
• People who trained here for their first 5K, and people who trained here for marathons and Ironman events, with coaching built around the race rather than a generic plan.
• Sessions moved online through lockdown, then a buddy system as soon as outdoor exercise was allowed again, so that nobody had to start from scratch on their own.
• Litter picks around the park, free self defence sessions, safety marches and charity wellness events, because the group turned out to want to do more than train.

The part that is harder to photograph

Plenty of people join to lose weight or get fitter, and plenty do. What they usually mention afterwards is confidence. Doing something on a Tuesday evening that you were sure you could not do has a way of leaking into the rest of your week.

That is why sessions are built the way they are. Mixed ability by design, every exercise with an easier and a harder version, coaches who watch your technique rather than count your reps. Nobody is picked out. Nobody is left behind. It is the least intimidating hard hour you will do.

Neighbours, not members

London is oddly good at keeping people who live near each other apart. Ten years in, the thing we are proudest of is how many friendships started on that hill between people from Canada Water, Rotherhithe, Surrey Quays and Bermondsey who would otherwise have passed each other on Albion Channel for years without speaking.

Those are the people who bring soup when someone is ill, who cover a school run, who talk each other through a bad month. The training gets people there. The friendships keep them coming.

The next ten

We are carrying on with what works: coached outdoor sessions morning and evening, more community events, and the same open door for anyone who has been meaning to start for months.

If you have been watching us from the path at Stave Hill and wondering whether you would keep up, you would. Give us a ring and we will talk you through the Trial Experience, four sessions over two weeks.

Thank you to every person who has trained with us over the last decade. Here is to the next one.