Victoria Park is London’s oldest public park and one of it's most historically important ones. It's used by loads of local people as a place of healthy recreation, sports, play and relaxation.

We've all got fond storys about Victoria Park, so it felt really good last night to help Alfie, the Park Ranger, keep the refurbished VA& PLay Area tidy - with a whole bunch of new GoodGym runners.

It was a lovely evening to work at the playground. Alfie welcomed us with our tools and gave an intro about the importance of the playground. We then quickly split into two groups. One group swept pebbles and sand out of the water play area (to keep the water flowing) and the other team racked sand level in the sand pit.

"Children stayed well clear"

Children stayed well clear as we all cracked on with the task. I've got to admit, on first glance, I thought the task would be relatively easy, however after only 10 minutes my arms, shoulders and back were aching in all the right places. The pebbles were heavy loaded with wet sand and the sand pit area was deceivingly large…. Thanks Alfie!

Using shovels, large brooms and even hands…the water flowed once again and the sand pit stood ready and golden for tomorrow's set of eager sand castle making kids.

"we re-warmed and flexed our back muscles before embarking on the next challenge of the evening"

Running on from the playground, we re-warmed and flexed our back muscles before embarking on the next challenge of the evening. A series of 400m intervals around part of Victoria Park - West. We were joined by other park runners, and the GoodGym runners stepped up in gear for each 400m followed by a relative period of rest (to recover enough to take on the next 400m at the same or faster pace). The runners teamed up in 2s, 3s and 4s to support each other along the way.

Believe me, after the final interval, pushing pebbles was another fond memory.