30 runners helped two local community groups and ran a 1k time trial in Kings Cross

We had a lovely time this week- we had two weedy good jobs (bang!) around the Kings Cross area.

Group 1- St Mary's Flats

13 people jogged 1k to St Mary's Flats in Somers Town. We were met by Jon and his Dad. Jon is a brilliant guy- about 12 months ago he decided he was sick of looking out of his window and seeing fag butts and beer cans strewn across the communal gardens....So he got in touch with us and with our help he has transformed the area.

This week Jon wanted some help planting some new plants, painting a bench in the front yard and weeding an elderly ladies garden. We all set to work and in no time at all we had done the lot. Special mention should go to highly skilled bench painters Rodney, Faye and Beth (who barely spilt a drop!) and the quick fire planters, who managed not to end up planting the scissors somewhere amongst the plants!

Group 2- Urban Orchard-ers

The rest of the team ran up to Camley Street to the Urban Orchard by the side of Alara Wholefoods. This is an area managed by Alex from Alara and the Urban Orchard Project- a project that takes derelict pieces of land and turns them into community managed orchards.

We had two tasks, weeding around the trees in the front orchard and tidying up the Eco Park, an area where Alex provides free compost to food growing organisations across the borough.

Here's a quote from runner Denzil;

Coooor, lovely stuff. Weeds- yeah, they're a pain in the neck for trees. Drink all the water don't they. Glad we could get rid of them. As for that rubbish, what kind of person throws rubbish on a compost heap? Anyway we got rid- no bother

Thanks Denzil for the insight.

...And here's a tweet quote for Alex;

stinky compost site replaced with sweet smell of success after speedy clear up.

Sums it up really.

Granary Square

We all packed up and made our way to Granary Square where we launched the inaugural 'Granary Square GoodGym Certified Wednesday night, once every 5 weeks, Time Trial' Yeeeeeeeeahhhhhh!

We all dashed around Central St Martins as hard as we could- setting a marker we will aim to beat in 5 weeks time! Everyone ran amazingly, its going to be a tough push to beat those times next month.