It was Wandsworth GoodGym’s first ever gardening task last night, and the 23 runners that met at the Battersea Arts Centre were down to get dirty in the lovely Wendelsworth community gardens.

It was a number of runners’ first group session, and we were really happy to see the lovely new faces – hello and welcome Mary, David, Danni, Francis, Jamie and Tim!

In keeping with the evening’s task, it was a gardening themed ‘Weekly CoRUNdrum’ to kick off the session. Battersea was famous for being one of the first places to grow which vegetable?

We set off in the direction of Clapham Junction, London’s busiest train station. Heads down, elbows in, Garmins on autopause, we made it through the throngs spreading the GoodGym love along the way. Never one to rest on our New Balances, while we waited for the traffic lights to change we killed time with a few high knee sessions.

You have to Rotivate to Cultivate

After a very quick couple of miles we made it down to the community gardens, and were met by the lovely and tireless Martin, who had prepared us the most organised set of tasks yet. Over the next 45 minutes we dug a new bed ready for planting, we sawed branches, we stacked wood and we shifted bags the size of Del Boy’s three wheeler across the garden. We can’t wait to see how the garden changes over the next few months. How are those shoulders today, team?

We’ll be back in the gardens next week, so after making like trees and planking, plus a couple of sprints round the newly dug beds, we waved farewell to a newly GoodGymmed Wendelsworth community garden – see you next week, Martin! We made or way to Wandsworth Common to finish off the session with a quick game of Chase the Hare. Congratulations to Tim, who just pipped the very speedy hare to the post. Nice running!

Muddy, sweaty, happy, the group finished up in Battersea to crown Emily the weekly winner with the correct answer to the quiz question. It was, of course, asparagus. Double points for some exemplary running and quizzing, Emily! And a special shout out to our new runners too, who put in a sterling effort.

See you all next week for some more gardening fun in the community gardens. Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/group_runs/run-to-do-good-in-wandsworth