18 people ran between 5 and 11k to help 2 local groups tidy up communal gardens

On another beautiful summer evening in Camden 18 people ignored the lure of pub gardens and World Cup action to get fit and do good.

We had two tasks to help out with this week. One group run to local estate to help tidy up some run down communal gardens for local resident Jon. The other group ran 5.5km all the way to Kingsgate to help out Kingsgate Gardening Club dig over some raised beds for planting.

Team 1- keeping it local

Team 1 were taking it a little easy- we had a short run this week in prep for some people running this weekend Run Hackney Half Marathon. We made our way to Drummond Crescent to a local estate. When we arrived Jon gave us a history lesson- the estate was built in the 1920's and is one of the oldest areas of social housing in the area.

Communal clear up

The communal gardens around the blocks could use a spruce up- so we gave Jon a hand cleaning and weeding in the beds, planting some roses and weeding an elderly residents garden. This is the second time we have been in a month or so and things are starting to look good! Hopefully we'll be back to check out the roses progress in the next few weeks.

Stride to Regents

We finished the night with a nice run to Regents Park in the late evening sunshine. Many of the runners on the short run will be running the Run Hackney Half this weekend so to put us in the right frame of mind we ran some strides- 50m-60m runs where we tried to run tall smooth and fast. Hopefully they'll have a great time on Sunday!

Team 2's Report from Pritesh

A little explanation to begin with…for anyone that is not a GG Camden runner (why not?!) at the start of the evening before we set off we all say a number and our names to introduce ourselves and to do a headcount. I joked with Steve one evening that I should note down everyone’s name and their number and do a run report using numbers rather than names…well that day has come…sorry!

What a run!

Today there were two tasks one long and one short! A few brave souls signed up to take the long run, a whopping 11.46km! In all honesty though that wasn’t the reason they were being brave...the reason was that the run was being led by 6 and 11…this could only spell trouble!

Dodgy Map

My fellow runners and I set off in trepidation. I was armed only with my phone and a cunningly put together map (it went off the page!) and really wasn’t that sure where I was going. The brave souls tonight were 2, 3, 12, and 19 with myself (6) leading the way and 11 holding fort at the back.

We had a good old run in the evening sun, a great effort by the whole group to power up Primrose Hill where we posed for the obligatory group shot and then made our way all the way up to West Hampstead with not a wrong turn in sight!

Quick fire effort

At the Community Centre we met with Ajay who coordinates the Kingsgate Gardening Club and he showed us the task he had for us. Due to the slightly late start and the long run there we only had around 25 minutes but we all grabbed tools and started to work with great enthusiasm on the raised beds.

After a great effort by the group we had turned the soil over in half of the bed (great work 3 and 11) and cleared most of the weeds and rubbish (nice one 19, 2 and 12). Ajay and Diana thanked us profusely and we told them we couldn’t wait to come back to finish the job. After politely refusing Diana’s offer of some drinks, we set off for the long run back to base.

Negative Split (faster back than there)

With a couple of big hills to take in and Primrose Hill again (kodak moment) we did fantastically well to get back in a faster pace than the initial journey and despite a few route issues (aghh, where’s the pavement gone?!) we managed to knock 5 minutes off our time…negative split!

Big shout out to 3, 12 and 19 who came for their first runs and 2, you’re always welcome over at GG Camden!

Today’s ‘report by numbers’ featured: 2 – Drea, 3 – Melinda, 6 – Pritesh, 11 – Steve, 12 – Hazel and 19- Rachel.