As soon as I heard about GoodGym, I wanted to give it a try. Doing good deeds whilst working out? A double whammy of endorphins? What's not to love?

There was a very warm welcome when I arrived, and I was relieved to find out I wasn't the only newbie. This was my first workout in months so I was a bit apprehensive.

The set-up was very relaxed. We split naturally into two groups, the faster lot led the way and the slower runners (me included) brought up the rear with lots of encouragement from Ade, the coordinator, who kept us company and made sure no-one got left behind.

The run was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, mostly because I had other GoodGym folk to chat to, which kept my mind off the actual exercise! 

When we got to the garden we were split into two groups. My group was assigned the task of moving around 3 tonnes of compost (yes, 3 tonnes of compost!!) from the road 50 metres away into the garden. The other team were digging deep and lifting and clearing heavy paving slabs and low-grade concrete to leave usable soil for planting. 

We managed to move every bit of that compost, and the paving team managed to clear a significant area of land. The people running the farm were so thankful for our help that I felt pretty heroic by the end. My halo was only dimmed, slightly, when I was told there was no actual poo in the compost, just really stinky mud. Never mind! I got quite a lot of it on me so I guess it was better that way…

The run back was the most challenging part! I really really wanted to stop, pretty much the entire way. But, my new GoodGym friends and Ade were there for support, and somehow I managed to keep going. I ended up doing my longest run ever, plus we managed a sprint finish! 

I'll definitely be signing up for another one.

• Lizzie Hibbert