Wednesday 15th March 2017
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14 Peckham pacers, sped 1.6, to pick up sticks and go jungle crazy in the wild weeds of Grove Park allotments. Pow Pow.
Oh what a GLORIOUSSSS NIGHT in the dusk of a beautifully sunny day in London Town. A perfect evening to pace pavements and hit up some wonderfully worthy volunteering for a local community allotment site based in Grove Park.
With a housekeeping filled with celebrations and cheer it was hip hip hurray for: Jo who completed North London half, Lianne who paced her sis round the 13.1 in Bath and Beth and Helena repping for goodgym at The Larmer Tree Events, with our very own homing pigeon "Hustling hurricane Helena" coming in third no less!
So with success in the air, we set off wired and fired up, ready to get 'Grovey' with it and give some winning Goodgym goodness back. And so we did - fly off into the night, up the infamous hill and to the gates of our destination for the night, ready to rock the allots.
Arriving so speedily, we beat our host Liz by a few minutes, so to maximise the time it was full circle team drills with "piggy in the middle, play the fitness fiddle" and 30second bouts of:
Jump lunges
Press ups
Jumping jacks
High knees
And quite beautifully to finish, a mindful stretch for the troops, delivered by Man-like-Coops
After the stretch it was all hands on deck and into the allotment we piled ready to tackle the long list of jobs that awaited us. Needing every bit of torch light we could cast, we started off with: Break down the branches and bag stuff! Followed swiftly by weeding the barrows and resanding the path. But with such an epic squad the tasks got finished in no time at all and not work shy at all, it was on to the next.....
We "Compost-ed" ourselves for heaving and spading the juicy piles of compost into the wheelbarrows as Liz explained its importance in the Circle of allotment life. But there was no monkeying around from this crew, just jubilant jungle fever all the way, to the merry tunes of my musical inspired mix for the night, from the The Lion King.
Three jobs down and one to go, team work and heavy lifting of broken down shed panels from one end of the site to the other. And with shouts of Pivot Pivot echoing in the air, we shed no tears, just laughed our way round the course, with torch holders and fency footwork ensuring swift and efficient completion.
Times up and after one last photo-bomb the crew said our farewells and exploded back into the night. Running like the wind down the hill, we speedy few from the south London crew, demonstrated true badassery, by doubling back up and hitting that bad boy for one last sprint and technical drill before home.
Cool down, turn around, stretch and fetch bags. We were done for the eve with all of us feeling really rather pleased.
Week three done and feeling like not such a newbie in town anymore. I for one, can't wait for the next week of fun and games, with this gang of glorious goodgymers, sprinkling that marvellous magic all over Southwark.
Until next time, people.
DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE.
Southwark
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