Tuesday 26th February 2019
Report written by Richmond runner
Its getting warmer! And that can only mean one thing....SHORTS! a few of us runners were sporting shorts (and short sleeves) tonight at GoodGym Kingston.
11 keen beans arrived at Guildhall with gloves, head torches and a 'do good spirit' ready to run! After our 'floating heads trick' we headed outside to warm up and enjoyed the musical accompaniment of some well behaved protesters.
After a game of 'slap the knees' to test agility and cruelty we set our Stravas and headed off into the night. Along the way we were greeted by our old friend Surbiton Hill ...she does go on a bit but we persevered to reach the top and finished our 4km out trip at the Wayside at Upper Brighton Road.
There we met Andrew from ID.Verde who looks after this Community Garden to make sure it looks healthy and is a good habitat for wildlife. We have been lucky enough to do a few visits to the Wayside and we were now able to see the results of our efforts with most of the overgrown weeds and plants removed , lots of flowers and fauna have now been able to blossom and make the garden look really great!
Tonight we were there to work on the second half of the garden by weeding and litter picking. We got to work , getting in some good squat and bicep work trying to dig out some stubborn roots.
Our efforts were rewarded as passer-bys' stopped or slowed down their cars to say thank you and that we were "doing a great job". It felt great to get some feedback from the community first hand. (And yes it was on account of our great work in the community - not the short shorts)
With minutes to spare we downed tools , collected bags and heaved everything into Andrews awaiting van, where we took out group photo looking quite pleased with what we achieved.
Such a pleasure to help the Kingston community at this lovely task, looking forward to being back there soon with such great runners and a task owner to assist!
Welcome back to Rachel and Shonese on your second run (Don't be scared either as I think that is as short as the shorts will go despite the rumors) and well done to Kate and Rob for their PB's over the weekend.
See you next week
Kingston upon Thames
Be rewarded for your dedication to volunteering and fitness