13 goody goody toe (running) shoe goodgymers ran 3k, did a great task and smashed out some tabata.

warmest of welcomes to Dymock, Sacha and Phoebe

After waiting for a short time at our Tottenham Green Leisure Centre HQ two fresh-faced newcomers Phoebe and Sacha joined me, they seemed a tad nervous but game all the same. After some chitter chatter we were joined by another new face, now this man meant business, no messing, Dymock turned up with a pair of push up bars. Absolutely love the fact he was all set and ready to get stuck into the keep fit aspect of GoodGym. So huge, warmest of welcomes to Dymock, Sacha and Phoebe. Bigger than big big ups to the core crew too – Much love guys!

My heart sank

After a quick briefing followed by a warm up consisting of a few press ups, star jumps and some high knees we did some dynamic stretching. Oiling the joints with synovial fluid and warm muscles, we hit the streets in search of this week’s light – the lovely Sandra at Living Under One Sun. As we arrived at the L.U.O.S allotments I noticed Sandra’s car wasn’t there and the gates were locked up. I had a very unsettling feeling for just a moment as I thought of previous weeks were we had been left hanging. Out came the phone with Sandra’s number on speedier than speed dial I waited for an answer. Sandra picked up and the first thing she said was “Varon I’m so sorry”. My heart sank. Her next words were “the traffic’s been so bad but I’m two minutes round the corner, see you in a minute”. In all fairness the traffic was atrocious around Tottenham Hale. Anyways, the panic was over and happiness flourished once more – we would soon be doing good!

unearthing a humongous ball of earth

Once we gained access Sandra told us what needed doing and I assigned two teams to take care of business. One moving mounds of compost to a new grow patch. The other pounding the earth (with tools not feet) to break up boulders of mud, some of which were pretty huge. They needed to be broken down, turned and spread evenly over another new growing patch. Everybody got straight on it shifting, bashing, pitch forking and flinging mud while the others took up their wheelbarrows and raced from one end of the L.U.O.S section of the allotments to the other moving pile after pile of the good stuff. With the compost part of the task done with breakneck speed (not literally of course) everybody banded together and got stuck-into the mud shifting. One of our newcomers nearly outdid herself by unearthing a humongous ball of earth. When I congratulated her she then nobly honoured her fellow do gooders in saying “it was a team effort” Good on you Phoebe. We love a team player. Just after that we had sadly reached the end of the task, time waits for no woman or man of course and we had run out of it. We covered the earth, put all tools back, returned the wheelbarrows to their home and got rid of some of the mud on our shoes before bidding Sandra farewell and heading back to HQ but not before a round of well-deserved high fives.

Everybody of course looked so happy when I mentioned we’d stopped off real quick to do some reverse dips

En route back I stopped at the bus depot to let everyone do some reverse dips, I could just tell they really wanted to do them but then Ali decided to take a seat and everybody else seemed to think we were just sitting down for a rest while bus spotting. I let everyone catch their breath before letting them know why we had stopped. Everybody of course looked so happy when I mentioned we’d stopped off real quick to do some reverse dips. Nah, to be honest everybody lapped em up. Off we set again. A few of us got split away from the group due to the traffic lights. As I caught up with the group ahead Aidan spotted me on the opposite side of the road and showed me a grin, the kind of race ya grin. It was on. We sprinted to the end of the busy road with clear pavements ahead of us. Good shout Aidan. Love a little bit of competition. Then came the sprint finish as we got back to HQ. Shouts out to Sacha who came from the back to beat her little group to the finish. Great effort! A quick tabata session, some warm down stretches then followed before we all set off to feed the bellies.

Next weeks task Here

Until next week folks – stay good, keep fit and look out for the light

Pun by Sam Godfrey (PT in the making)