This Monday saw the Goodgym runners head out to help and offer support to Spitalfields City Farm. After a great belly-button-tucking-in warm up the group head off at a good pace on the 1.5km run to the site. On reaching the farm, the runners gloved-up and set to task on removing old wood and rotten sleepers to allow space for a new garden/vegetable patch to be made on the farm. The ambitious target of removing all the wood in under 8 minutes was set and duly smashed with the larger pieces carried in pairs and competitive sprint shuttle runs back to collect more.

"ambitious target of removing all the wood in under 8 minutes was set and duly smashed"

Setting expectations the group made quick work of moving around 100 large pot plants and then set to work on the final job of moving a larger pile of railway sleepers and compost/manure. The deceptively heavy or light (depending on whether they were rotten or not) sleepers required 1, 2 or 3 people to move whilst carefully avoiding splinters and old nails. 20-30 minutes later the task was complete and the runners set-off back to base, splitting into two groups for some of the guys to do some further interval sprints.

"The clouds above were grey and it looked like the weather could go in either direction, an onslaught of rain or a well-deserved clear sky and sunset."

The clouds above were grey and it looked like the weather could go in either direction, an onslaught of rain or a well-deserved clear sky and sunset. Luckily for us it was the latter! A steady 3.5km run back across Haggerston park and along the canal gave the runners one final work-out before getting back to the Arches to enjoy some delicious flapjack! All-in-all a great run whilst helping out the local community for both newbies and regulars.

written by Chris McNicholas & Cinzia Brusini

Surely there's no better way to spend a Monday evening than bagging steaming manure?! As though making new friends whilst having a good upper body work out wasn't enough, it turns out the ten bags of fresh manure that we prepared will be used by community growing projects around the city to grow good local produce. Plus my skin now feels like a baby's bottom, after a wholesome manure steam bath. How can you beat that?!

by Hermione Taylor

title pun by Charlotte Bradford