15 Runners came out to sow broad beans, run 6km and talk about mental health on a mild autumnal night in Ealing!

This week's group run was a #RunandTalk special and we kicked things off by talking a bit about the campaign and trying to break down the stigma around mental health. Myself and Larissa both started proceedings by explaining how running and socialising through exercise has helped benefit our mental health in the past few years and then we went around the rest of the group talking about the different reasons we run. So many for us said we run for headspace, to relive stress and to take the time for ourselves as well as socialising and being part of a group. It was great to hear all the positive reasons we run and come to GoodGym and we all agreed we ALWAYS felt better for getting out there for a run!

'I feel really bad after that run...' Said no-one ever!

And with that in mind we were off to meet Rosie from Cultivate London down at the DIG site for Mencap in Hanwell. This week we were working on a new plot doing a bit of weeding and planting up lots of broadbeans, October is the perfect time to sow these and hopefully they'll be ready next spring and we can come back and see our handy work! Working in rows we planted the seeds a foots width apart to give them space to grow with some of the group tidying up the weeds in between.

Grow grow grow your beans, gently via the beam...

We had lots of head torches of the go last night so working under the beams we managed to get the full plot sown in just over half an hour between us, great work everyone!

A few special mentions last night:

• Thank you to Larissa for her help with leading the discussions about the #RunandTalk campaign, I find her openness about mental health inspiring and I'm so happy to have her as part of our team, read her piece from earlier this year here.
• Michelle completed her 25th good deed with us last night, half way to that ninja tee!
• And finally Steph is 2 deeds away from 50, we hope to be celebrating her 50th good deed at our November social which will also be another bake off special to coincide with the finale of the show!

Happy Running!