Tonight, a remarkable 17 runners ran 7km to help tidy up Grangewood Park

Before talking about the run and task, I'd like to give a shout out to Lawrence , Vicky , Ben , and Carl as it was their first group run. It was great having some more runners join us, and it was great to see how much everyone was getting on and welcoming each other.

Quite a few people brought documents along as they're keen on missions and coach runs, so after checking those quickly, we talked through GoodGym and the task that lay ahead of us this evening. While doing so, I thought it would be nice to chat about missions (since a couple of people have recently tried their first!), and the distances Croydon runners have covered; Rachel currently in the lead with an impressive 98.1km! Tonight was also Jamie's last GoodGym run for the foreseeable, as she's soon heading off to Hong Kong to work; of course, the way we chose to celebrate this was by adorning Jamie with a lovely lei (and our usual end of the month social!).

The run

We split into two groups for the run; a more relaxed pace, and a more intense pace. I looked after the intense pace group (with the fabulous Amatare leading the charge!) and the brilliant Anna and Jamie looked after the other group. Being perhaps the longest run we do, we headed straight to the task, and savoured the remarkable incline coming into Grangewood Park.

The task

At the task, the first group met Chris with myself, and we quickly went through what needed doing in and around the walled garden. We prepped some equipment for those just about to arrive, and got started ourselves. Some of the equipment we were going to use had gone walkies, so we got a little creative; some runners were raking paths clear of leafy debris, some were litter picking, and others were tidying up the edges of flowerbeds and trimming some shrubbery that was hanging over the paths.

We did a cracking job, and in a short amount of time made the garden a lot tidier and welcoming. Our contact at the task, Chris, seemed very impressed, and when asked what GoodGym could help with in future seemed quite excited about the possibilities (though I'm not sure we've got the lumberjack skillset required for felling the oak tree he pointed out).

Wrapping up

After a quick tidy up, we split into groups again; some felt they wanted to speed up or slow down, so there was a quick shuffle, and we set off. Again, a smooth run back, and we gathered for stretching and a chat at the start location.

Here we chatted about races and events we've got going on, and about other GoodGym stuff going on; there's an unofficial socialising page that's well worth a join, and there's going to be a fab social at Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden @ Southbank Centre on the 10th August.

Our Next Run

Next week we'll be heading back to the Railway Park to help them in the garden, and with some other bits that need doing.

In the meantime, well done! Set yourself a goal if you haven't already, get in touch if you have any questions about running or GoodGym, and keep on being excellent!