32 people ran, cleared a pond, shifted a pile of compost and weeded a vineyard in Kings Cross

WHO

We are GoodGym Camden running group. We run. We help people out. Both parties benefit. We are such a lovely group that people wanted to make a film about us. Runners World came along and filmed us doing our thing last night.

WHERE

We ran to Camley Street. It's a cool place with loads going on. The Urban Orchard Project had been in touch to ask for help. They take derelict areas of land and turn them into community run fruit growing areas.

WHAT

We had 4 tasks to do this evening. 2 of which stank.

One group headed to the ECO park at the front of the plot (they offer free compost to all food growing groups across Camden). Their task was to shift a humongous pile of fresh compost..... It was blocking the fire exit and we needed to clear the area so it was easier to access the rest of the garden. The second group headed for the vineyard (yup a vineyard in Kings Cross) which needed some major weeding. Those pesky blighters are taking all the nutrients the vines need to grow- and we got them gone! Or words to that effect. The third group drew the short straw- they were asked to drain a stagnant pond....they formed a chain and passed buckets of stinky filth down to Pritesh who poured it down the nearest drain. Nice. The final team had a simple task- pick up all the old dry detritus around the plot and burn it...simple but effective.

WHY

Mainly because it did them a huge favour. Emptying the pond alone would have taken 2 or 3 hours, and shifting the compost is not an easy task. It also gave us a chance to run as a group. We legged it down to Granary Square where we re-grouped and attacked some short intervals. We ran some 'out and backs'- dashing out for 1 minute before stopping, turning around and aiming to get back to the starting position in exactly the same time. It was great- most people timing their sprint finish just right to get back before they ran out of time.

Nice work y'all.