21 warm hearted but cold fingered Hackney GoodGymers ran 7k to Hackney Wick community Garden to dig for glory in the ongoing instillation of a brand new Inverted Polly Tunnel.

On a night where only the strong survived Team Hackney were out in Force!

We welcomed Alice our solitary GoodGym first timer, talked through Hackney themed fancy dress for the GoodGym Christmas party on the 9th of December and looked forward to the Hackney Christmas celebration on the 13th of December!

We set off on the 3k run to Hackney Wick first getting our blood flowing as we picked our way through the back streets. After a very chatty first kilometre we paused to get our muscles and joints primed for some physical action with a dynamic warm up. Once we were loose we picked up the pace and swiftly made our way down towards the river to meet Kirsty.

Wasting no time we got to work digging out a 20 foot by 12 foot trench down to the membrane below about 3 feet deep. While we had the majority of the crew forking and shovelling away on the trench we had a crack team dismantling a wooden ramp with great haste and great effort. Peter made light work of the wooden frame with a couple of lusty blows taking care of the frame. Before the gang attacked and filled the void with 25 bags of rough soil.

Meanwhile Phil was sawing away at a huge birch tree cutting it up into manageable chunks for the fire. The trench digging was now moving at a great rate, with shouts of delight as the next area of membrane was hit! We now had a team of forkers turning over the top soil in preparation for the final push! Then we got the call with 10 minutes left that we had dug enough and then we burst into overdrive!! All hands on deck as we forked, carried or threw the piled up vegetation into the trench at a rapid rate before Jumping up and down on it to compress it down and finally covering the vegetation with soil as quick as possible. This created a perfect site for our next visit on the 13th of December to install the frame of the Polly Tunnel!! Looking forward to that evening already!

We were then treated to an amazing spread of biscuits, oranges and water and a fire for our efforts before we zoomed off into the night with a job well done!!

We took a slightly different route back to base and for the brave few we ran the ladder back down Victoria Park Road. Working hard on the ups and downs of the roads while recovering on the acrosses. Some speedy changes of pace were on show even in let's say unconventional running footwear!

Once the ladder had been conquered everyone smashed out some serious efforts on the 1k long stretch alternating working hard then easy between the lampposts before a cool down job back to the Bakehouse.

A few static stretches and we were on our way for a well earned rest and refuel!!

Great work today team and look forward to seeing you all again very soon!

Next week we are off to St Luke's Church to help with the set up of the Christmas activities. Be great to have you along for the session which will also include a dose of running form drills to get you through the festive period. Sign up here.

Thanks to Dominique for letting us know about the free Bike MOT at Top of Broadway market on Wednesday evening between 5 and 8!

Smooth shifting

Joel