29 people ran 7km to do good in Hackney

At quarter to seven, with 4 GoodGymers in Coffee Is My Cup of Tea, I thought the tube strike would impact on people getting to the run. But, by seven another 25 unfazed runners calmly trotted in ready for the run and task.

It was a real treat working in the beautiful Dalston Eastern Curve Garden (they have a cracking programme of summer evening events, which makes it difficult for us to work out in the space). The Dalston Eastern Curve Garden was created in spring 2010 to provide much-needed public green space in an area with little or none. Just off busy Dalston Lane, this secret garden is hidden behind hoarding next to the Hackney Peace Carnival mural and visitors enter through a wooden doorway into a peaceful haven.

The garden was built on the site of a disused railway line that had been derelict for over 50 years. It was developed as part of Making Space in Dalston, a Design for London-funded project to improve public space in the area. It won a Hackney Design Award in 2010 and Making Space for Dalston won the Landscape Institute's President's Award at the end of 2011. Open Garden Squares

The much-loved community garden is a hub of activity for local people, volunteers and visitors. Tonight, we moved and bagged a huge pile of compost for their next Compost Giveaway Day. We met Marie and Brian from the Garden in front of the famous mural after a lovely 3.5 km run through London Fields, Broadway Market, along the canal, through Stonebridge Gardens and along the quieter Buxell Road.

Along the way, we experimented with the 'loop-back' system to help keep a mixed group of runners together - whilst allowing people to run at their own speed and gives the chance for some to run that little bit more, if they wished.

Marie wasn't quite sure what to make of the number of us (and our glute activation exercises against the mural), with a limited number of shovels. Ha-ha, there's always plan a, b and c with GoodGym (especially if it makes the workout harder). So, armed with gloves and squatters legs, the runners split into pairs and helped each other fill bags with compost - mainly with their hands. Who needs shovels?!

The pumped up runners made mince out of the pile of compost and easily filled at least 70 of Brian's bags in 30 minutes. Each weighed around 20 kg and had to be carried and stored along the path back to the main part of the garden for pick up.

A lot of runners are in training for Run Hackney, and the group runs, until then, contribute to GoodGym's training plan. Tonight's run was about running at Tempo Pace out of your comfort zone at Gear 3. In gear 3 you are working and breathing hard but you are in control. It could be described as your maximum comfortable range of breathing . You could say 3 or 4 words but no more, and would struggle to maintain this for very long. Running at this pace improves Aerobic or lung capacity, making us more able to take on and use large volumes of oxygen when exercising. You would usually run at this pace as part of an interval or during a race. GoodGym's Shaun Dixon

The GoodGymers split into three groups, tasked with running the 3.5 km back to base in under 15, 17 and 20 minutes, and in these 3 groups people paired up with someone of a similar pace.

Looking forward to getting back into the Curve Garden in May. There was talk of helping to build their summer mini beach for children. Come along!.

Ade Aboaba GoodGym Hackney Co-ordinator