The secret Red Brick Warehouse tucked away by the canal made an exciting new meeting place for our regular Monday run. Ian (who’s building the new GoodGym website) was there to ask questions, show what he’s been up to and gather some tips and opinions. There was lots of talk about the half marathon we’re running in April as those signed up already tried to encourage more to join in. Then, of course, a quick warm up, and we ran out onto the streets. We ran down Cambridge Heath Road, Old Ford Road, down the side of the park and through the backstreets to Stepney City Farm.

Katharine, happy as ever to see us, showed us in and offered various workouts – we donned gloves and split into a soil diggers, stone lifters, compost turners and pallet dissectors.

The compost turners increased the richness of rot down of over 1.76 tons of matter; the soil diggers created and entirely new foot-deep pit into which the farm’s quails intend to move; the stone lifters cleared an pile of weighty slabs from a ridiculous “by a barn” position to a much more sensible “by a shed” venue; and the dissectors of pallets harvested plenty of wood for building raised beds in the chicken coop – lovely nail-free planks, pure and delicious.

Once the tasks were complete we reconvened and began the run back – one group picking their way back through streets of E1, and the others climbing the great hill of mile end park and snaking along the bike ridden canal path.

Of course we finished the session with some fruity coconut water from Vita Coco and stretches before retiring to the pub for further rehydrate. Back to Red Brick Warehouse next week, to head north east instead of south. See you there.