Tuesday evening and the temperature was in the mid/late 20s so summer is finally here and the Lambeth GoodGym crew were out in good numbers for one of our longer runs.

AA Yianny was so excited by the nice weather he forgot to select a category for the group so went with the first thing in sight - favourite type of tree… Anyway warm up done in short order and we were off for a slow steady climb up Brixton Hill.

In an incredible effort from Tilly who had run a 10k two days before was back out for a casual 6kms recovery run - what a hero! With the York 10k coming up this was a chance for a few of us to also get a bit of training under our belts as we have less than a month to go!

Stop start stop start that’s the way of it heading through Brixton rush hour but soon enough we were climbing towards the junction with Streatham Hill and then left onto Palace Road where the Nature Gardens are.

Gerry was waiting for us and first order of business was who would take the scythe on, for this task there was only one person and that was Joao who looked so comfortable with it we began to question if he wasn’t secretly a character from a 90s slasher movie. Next the group split into pairs and threes to begin trimming back all the weeds and rushes that were growing across the paths and around the pond. This was made more challenging by having fairly blunt shears (or indestructible weeds) but the group still managed to pile up large amounts of the stuff which will be left to dry out and then composted in a few days’ time.

As we were all spread out we couldn’t hear Super Sam’s tunes this week but I have no doubt they were amazing as always.

Swish, sweep, repeat. That was the rythme of the scythe doing it’s work while the nettles went to work all over Joao’s legs and the blunt shear bearers were building forearm strength just opening and closing the shears! In the end it was almost as easy using the rake to drag the weeds up as it was to cut them down.

As we packed up to leave it only remained for Shauna and Maya to take in the cuttings that were in the outside of the park and then we could be off back to base at Papa’s.

A fun and physical task for which Gerry was very grateful and a decent run to boot so all in all a very fit Tuesday - thanks everyone!