The Camden GoodGym crew covered 2 group runs this week. One group made the mammoth 12k journey up to West Hampstead (a current record distance for us), while the other group made the no less worthy but slightly shorter 5k run down to St Pancras Church. We all headed towards Regents Park where the long run group split and flew up Primrose Hill on their way westwards.

On the way to St Pancras we mixed it up a little- dashing past scores of softball teams with some short sharp running intervals. We challenged ourselves to run to and from a series of landmarks- trying to beat our times on the return journey.

"dashing past scores of softball teams with some short sharp running intervals"

Audrey the Church gardener has been unable to work in recent weeks so there was plenty to do. St Pancras Church plays an important role in the community- housing art exhibitions and running a foodbank and homeless shelter. She asked if we could spread a 3 tonne bag of gravel, rake the dead leaves on the lawn and picking litter from the hedgerow.

" the hedgerows were strewn with detritus ... beer cans, stolen purses, and 'lady of the night' calling cards"

The hedgerows were strewn with the detritus of the Euston Road, but Chris quickly fill the bin bags with beer cans, stolen purses, and 'lady of the night' calling cards. Spreading the gravel was a little more difficult- especially as the wheelbarrow tyres were flat! Rachel's biceps certainly got a workout pushing it across the carpark. Eventually we resorted to the 'grab sack and drag' technique, finishing the job just in time to jog home and meet the other group as they arrived Somers Town.

" the wheelbarrow tyres were flat...Rachel's biceps certainly got a workout"

On the longer run the team headed to West Hampstead to help the Gardening Club from Kingsgate Community Centre. Its a great project- attempting to bring the community together in taking 'pride and ownership' of the available green spaces in their estate. The GoodGym team did a fantastic job- completely clearing a garden inundated with weeds in little under 30mins!

Here's a report from Sam who joined us for the first time on the long run;

The Goodgym run was 12k in total, to Kingsgate community centre, where we did some gardening as a group. The group atmosphere was great, with everyone running there together in an open and welcoming group, but then on the way back we split into two smaller groups to allow the faster runners to up their pace. Everyone got involved in the gardening, and we cleared an incredibly overgrown patch in no time at all. Although not the hardest run I've ever done, the whole experience was great thanks to the people taking and participating in it.