Mulch of a mulchness and a super run report from the awesome Laurie!!

14 runners ran 3.5km to help their local community in Tower Hamlets

As London’s evenings begin to get later and warmer, Tower Hamlets was treated to some clear spring-time sky for the night as the Good Gym’s finest collected at the Town Hall Hotel near Bethnal Green. Though – as ever – the beautiful hotel room was almost enough to distract us from the task at hand, we piled outside to get ready and welcome our newest runner: a big, mulchy hello for Meg!

Lisa, on loan to us once more from the good folk at Good Gym Ealing kicked us off with a traditionally comprehensive warm-up: the highest high knees, pointiest toe kicks, the mystifying but loosening Carioca steps. Then, it was off to Keddlestone Community Center, a mere few hundred meters away, to see some people about some mulch.

A few zebra crossings later, we met with Margaret – and, soon, Michael too – who showed us to our arsenal for the evening: wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels and gloves. The task, you ask? To shift an enormous pile of wood-chippings and mulch over to a new section of a community garden, giving it a spruce up and clearing rubbish along the way.

Compared to the intricacies involved in the Willow Dome task last week, some runners (OK, this runner) felt much more at home running a wheelbarrow to-and-fro. Wheelbarrow jousting, however, did not take off, much to the relief of health and safety-conscious observers. Other, more skilful helpers took to spreading the mulch out and clearing the ground of a huge number of milk cartons – a useful ally when keeping your plants watered, said Margaret, rather than the work of irresponsible dairy fiends.

About half an hour later, the garden freshened with a fresh layer of woodchip, and we set off for a bit more exercise. After some consultation with the group we made for a quick circuit of Victoria Park, a favourite stomping ground of many of the Tower Hamlets crew. Though it wasn’t quite as crippling as last week’s high-intensity session, the warm evening and good company made for a chatty, sociable jaunt around a beautiful part of London.

Before we knew it, it was back over the canal and to the Hotel for a good warm down, again under the careful tutelage of Lisa. Another task bites the mulch, thanks to the TH Wheelbarrow Warriors.