29 people ran 6km and 7km to hoe and clear for Mabley Green, finish roof top growing garden for Secret Seed Society and clear a garden for an elderly person

The group split into three teams tonight for three different tasks and a 6km or 7km run. I opted for the 7km run to make up part of my training for Run Hackney, as the date begins to grow ever closer. My team ran to Mabley Green to help clear an overgrown and triangular patch of grass, almost a grass verge you could call it right underneath the busy A12.

That's the thing about GoodGym; it brings you right up close to so many brilliant, unexpected projects that are cropping up all over the place in Hackney. If I’m right, the Mabley Green project will eventually become the largest edible park garden in the UK, and the Mabley Park User Group are making great moves to achieve it.

A swift run through Victoria Park, with a few sneaky fartlek short busts and we had arrived at the site. A dumper truck had previously left large hunks of soil that needed breaking down to create even ground.

Sitting happily and merrily on top of this was a healthy looking patch of thistles. Damien and Helen from the user group greeted us with a range of tools and demonstrated the ‘scary one’, a potential back breaker. A hoe basically... With this bad boy the patch began to take shape almost immediately.

I opted for gloves, yanking out those thistles, which couldn’t be resisted after a long day at work. We got the pesky weeds out, broke down the uneven soil and lastly raked it over, leaving the patch transformed. A very satisfying job done.

Ade set us up for our 3.5km run back to base. Another lovely run through the park and another fab evening spent at GoodGym. 

Hannah Hewetson