28 people ran between 5- 12k to help out an elderly couple and a local residents gardening group.

GoodGym Camden had two tasks this week. One small group of GoodGym stalwarts covered a massive 12.5k running up to West Hampstead to help an elderly couple while the main pack headed to a nascent community gardening group on St Joans Estate in Somers Town.

Map reading- who needs it?

After a short warm up and some hasty map reading the group went their separate ways with bravehearts Will, Faye, and Steve setting off towards Primrose Hill. The shorter run group, ignoring the map, set off in the wrong direction (nice one Shaun) and eventually had to call gardener Shanta to find the garden plots hidden amongst the tall estate blocks.

Community Growing Spot

We were met by Shanta and Lee. Along with a small collection of other local residents, they have created an incredibly garden- with a series of raised beds on an disused vista between the high rise buildings. They have only been going a few months and it looks fantastic.

Weeding and Wheelie bin filling

There was 3 jobs the group needed doing- they wanted us to lower a big metal fence over the side of the gardens down to the bins, carry loads of big sacks of garden waste to the wheelie bins outside, and weed a large raised bed along the wall of the garden. With 25 people we made light work of it, and in 20mins the work was completed. As Shanta said we appeared 'like angels' and finished jobs that would have taken them ages to complete.

Russian Drug Cheat Running- minus the syringes

We all headed for Regents Park where we tried a tough speed endurance training session- the Bondarenko! Although her penchant for performance enhancing drugs kind of ruins her legacy she was an incredible runner- honing an incredible finishing kick through this killer session. We only had a taster; interspersing a series of gradually quickening bursts into our run around the perimeter of the park. This trains the body to pick up the pace even when you're dying to stop and have a rest.

Back to Somers Town

We then made our way back to Somers Town with some people deciding to push themselves by taking the long route along the canal. The rest of us headed back on the usual path, passing some Camden Zombies on the way home.. there was a Zombie movie being filmed- though it could be argued that the actors weren't that discernible from some of those hanging out on the canal lock all day.

We arrived back, had a stretch, collected our bags and had time to aplaud the long run hero's as they turned the corner after their epic run to and from West Hampstead. Although they were tired they loved it- the elderly couple had been unable to clean their windows from some time and were really grateful to the guys for lending them a hand. Thanks for making a difference guys.