The Reason is Trees-son

In the longer of the group runs this Saturday 7 adventurous athletes took on the challenge of a 10k run to help Lockleaze Community Orchard.

The standard rule of 'it never rains for GoodGym' stood fast for our trip out as Matt led the group avoiding some of the hills thus negating any unnecessary altitude (not much like Matt but he had just run an ultra last weekend so we'll let him off).

On our arrival Paul and his son Kieran (unofficial goodgymer for the day and pun inspiration) met us. Paola and her team then introduced us to their orchard and our task for the day. The orchard is an initiative introduced by local residents to turn an unused area of scrub land into a productive and educational place for people of all ages to enjoy. They have put loads of work in and it is evident in the fact that it looks great and the trees produced fruit last year.

Our task for the afternoon was to cut back and dig up brambles and clear more land around the orchard. Chris really digs spades so he took that, while Matt's de-sythe-ive action meant he also got the tool he wanted. The rest of us cut to the chase and picked secateurs. Being a Saturday we had a bit more time so really get into the task. Everyone put in a great shift and we made more cuts Edward Scissorhands juggling origami swans. By the end we could really see the difference we had made and Paola was very happy with our efforts.

We grabbed a quick team photo before taking on our 5k run back to Roll for the Soul where we stretched out and went for some well earned lunch. Great running guys, you lot put loads of effort in today and should be ruddy proud of yourselves.

Gary