This week a huge crew of runners descended on Camley Street Natural Park to take part in the Camden GoodGym task. We joined forces with the Camden Runners Need Group to help the team at Camley Street Wild Park shift and fill some of raised beds down by the Regents Canal. The Park is supported by the London Wildlife Trust, and runs education programmes and holiday play activities for local children and is a hub for groups launching community growing space throughout the borough.

"We joined forces with the Camden Runners Need Group to help the team at Camley Street Wild Park shift and fill some of raised beds"

With a group of 34 strong, powerful, intelligent, kind runners (sorry I’ve gone too far), we made light work of moving the wooden structures- carrying them in teams of 4 up to their resting spot 400metres up the road from the park.

In order to fill the beds we started some wheelbarrow relays. The teams of 4 split in 2s and took it in turns to race to and from a compost pile before dumping the contents of the barrows into the beds. As one pair ran the others waited, standing in a variety of positions while performing some running balance exercises. It was tough work- a 200 metre sprint pushing heavy barrows full of muck- but we did brilliantly, nearly finishing the whole job in just over 15mins! There was some keen competition for fastest dash, with Jon and Jack’s barrow skills drawing gasps from the watching stream of black cab drivers.

"It was tough work- a 200 metre sprint pushing heavy barrows full of muck"

We then headed back to the centre where we went our separate ways. The group from Runners Need headed back to the Camden Store while the Somers Town Crew finished off the evening with a run along the canal. We covered 5-6k in the end- not including the barrow dash, thus breaking Olivia’s personal record. She should be well on course to finish her first 10k next weekend- whoop!

"We covered 5-6k in the end- not including the barrow dash"