Lured by the promise of getting our backs stuck into some more hard farm labour, we followed our noses (rather than my much less reliable map reading) back to the scene of last week’s task at the Morpeth School in Bethnal Green. Their allotment space is really coming along there and, as well as some really impressive pumpkins, we found several substantial, new raised beds, which needed filling from the still steaming mountain of manure that we shifted from the playground seven days earlier. 

The rather fortunate lack of working barrows meant that we were to employ the far more rewarding method of carrying bags of the funky stuff round the corner - engaging our arms, cores and legs and really working up a sweat. Another team of GoodGymers worked around the corner, continuing to weed for more raised beds.

There’s loads of potential for growth (quite literally) at the Morpeth School and they appear to have a dedicated team of adults from the local community who are working hard to make this an awesome outdoor learning space for the pupils. I’m sure we’ll be paying them some visits over the coming months. 

To wrap up our run training for the evening we paired up for some speedy dusk sprints over a gentle incline and a pretty bridge across the canal; completing six or seven ‘laps’ with arms pumping and legs rotating before following the canal all the way back to Coffee is my Cup of Tea to stretch and warm down. 

And now to the real reason for my agreeing to write the run report… Some of you last night expressed interest in joining the social netball team that my partner is about to take some maternity leave from. They play on Monday evenings at Highbury Grove School. Games start at different times each week: the earliest match is at 6.20pm and the latest is at 8.20pm. The new season starts on September 22nd. Anyone interested can email me on hi@nugerama.co.uk and I’ll pass your details on to her.

See you on the next run!

Kevin Nugent