29 runners shifted hundreds of wooden stakes and wire tree protectors, carried and planted saplings and spread mulch around the bases of trees....and ran 4 Kenyan fartlek style

After Bob pelted Shaun with a soggy nut from the top floor window of the somers town Community Centre, we set off for the Camley Street Orchard Project to help them with a variety of tasks. Following a Quick warm up en route (appreciated by many a commuter on their walk home) we arrived at the Orchard and were immediately separated into teams to tackle a variety of challenges. While one team set off to turn mulch (smell ya later guys!) the majority of the group made a human chain to move a pallet of wooden stakes into piles within the orchard... more on that in a minute!

Meanwhile, myself, Beth, Becky and new runner Uni were tasked with moving some trees from the car park into position on their new bed in the Orchard. It was tree-mendously fun work and we managed to move them all quickly, leaf-ing none behind. We branched out into comedy with our puns and some said we were bark-ing mad, but fun is at the root of every goodGym task so we din't mind. Whoever delivered those trees must have had a big car - or at least a pretty huge trunk !

Back at the stake out, the team were getting into a regular rhythm with their human stake chain - each one an effective and reliable stake holder, they were large, but not too heavy - sort of a medium stake - rare, but true! They managed to avoid any mis-stakes and didn't make a (stake) hache out of their job, but to be honest, our tasks were poles apart. It's so amazing to feel you've got a stake in the community doing such good deeds in great company. Finally, once all of the wood had been shifted into a veritable pole vault (I'm not sure if anyone logged how many we shifted) we were about to say Stake Tar-Tar to the Orchard, when Andrew came out and gave us all some museli! (adult only variety!) So we left the Orchard with our muesli held high and set off back via the canal for some fartlek training and a final jog around the Kings Cross tramshed, where we staked all our energy on one final sprint. Running with cereal isn't oats-so-easy, but we did it!

All in all, an amazing night and great to know that the Orchard team can now see the wood for the trees!

signed MAJOR PUN, Goodgym Runner First Class ;-)