GoodGym Huddersfield attendances have been a little low of l8, what with Easter hols, injuries and a few other things. So it was gr8 to have a bumper number of runners making a d8 for last night’s task at Fartown Forest Garden. The group of enthusiastic and motiv8ed runners included the ever present Ben Godfrey of course, regular Chris Green was also in attendance as were Kati Law and Louise Galvin, both returning from Easter travels in Armenia and Australia respectively. It was good too to see Meg Deacon who is fast becoming a Huddersfield regular, and Heather Wilshaw Jones returning from injury. Our group was completed by new boy John Kitson, who seemed very keen to get stuck into his first GoodGym job.

There was no time for prevaric8tion last night, as GoodGym’s f8 had been already determined. We were running just 2K to the little known and well hidden Fartown Forest Garden. This former allotment site has been turned into a community resource and a haven for wildlife. It has been planted with various fruit trees, with the idea that the produce will be available for local people. Unfortun8ly the area has also become a bit of a magnet for fly tipping and some the paths have become obstructed by overgrown veget8tion. GoodGym’s task for the night was to fettle Fartown Forest Garden, making it a bit prettier and easier to access.

Arriving on site we were met by Joseph, a particularly articulate young man obviously very attached to the garden, who told us all about it and outlined the tasks we needed to do. He also informed us there were some great trees for climbing too!

Dividing into two teams, Joseph took a group of 4 path clearers up into the forest, whilst I worked with another group on removing some of the fly-tipping from the entrance area. I h8 to see fly tipping as much as the next GoodGymmer and we soon got stuck in to the mess. John Kitson proved himself particularly intrepid, jumping down a stream bank to clear a mass of rubbish that had accumulated at the entrance to a drain. It’s amazing the range of items that get dumped, including 2 suitcases and some ski goggles, in addition to the usual cans, bottles and plastic bags etc.

The path clearers were also busy, cutting and lopping trying as best they could to clear their way through the undergrowth. In truth clearing the paths could probably have done with some more heavy duty tools, but we did what we could we secateurs and loppers, whilst Joseph impressed us with his tree climbing skills.

60 minutes l8er we were just about done, and all slightly nettled and brambled we convened back at the forest entrance to compare tales of our adventures and enjoy some “Armenian Delight” Kati had kindly brought back from her travels. Armenian Delight was definitely new experience for me, it tastes a little bit like Turkish delight only, well.....more Armenian! Thanks Kati....I’m sure we were all very gr8ful for a little sustenance after a tough task.

All that was left then was to say farewell to Joseph and run our way back to the Stadium, our collective mood definitely elev8ed by a combination of running, hard work, green space, good company and maybe also a massive sugar hit from the Armenian Delight!

Why all the 8’s? Well in case you hadn’t realised this is the first time GoodGym Huddersfield has had octet of runners out on a Tuesday night, the best attendance since our launch back in September . Woohoo! Thanks folks for all your support and efforts last night, it was gr8 to see you all, let’s keep it going and try for a nonet next week!