Another cold snap hit us this Wednesday night, but that did not deter 11 GoodGymers from showing up for tonight's task.

Sam has earlier been informed that Simon (task owner) was feeling under the weather, but had arranged for the keys to be passed over by Ruth.

As Old Spike started to be filled up with runners, the temptation of staying indoors was real as we decided to do our intros and ice-breaker question inside. Tonight's question was related to the fact it was Blue Monday on Monday and Sam asked: How do you beat the Monday blues?

We had Daryl opting to sleep it off and thus, why he went freelance to avoid Monday mornings...others found ways to lift their mood through "to-do" lists, comforting food for breakfast, getting on their bike and texting/calling friends to see what they were up to on the weekend.

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Many hands; big impact

With Lindy, Magdalena and Rebecca meeting us at Thorlands, we had everyone ready to warm up outside in the alleyway before Daryl took charge of backmarking the 2.7k run to Thorlands via the uphill that is Chadwick Road turn Grove Park...

We arrived within 20 minutes and bang on time for 19:15 to collect the keys off Ruth. The team gathered the wheelbarrows and tools from the Walled Garden before proceeding to the Forest Garden.

The task was simple - weed, put down cardboard (as it's compostible and to block out the sunlight for weeds to grow) and add a layer of mulch/compost on top. We had 30 minutes to do the task, so everyone took a tool or used their gardening gloves to rip out the weeds with some banging tunes from Sam's speakers in the background.

After a good 10-15 minutes, we were ready to split the team to start putting down both the cardboard and mulch as the other half continued with weeding. Clare and Magdalena helped Sam with tearing up and putting down the cardboard whilst Katy, Rebecca, Emily, Lindy, Nathan and Daryl all picked up a shovel and started the quick operation of getting the mulch in a wheelbarrow and onto the cardboard where Benjamin was waiting to rake it.

With limited time left, Sam urged the gang to work double time to get enough mulch on the cardboard as otherwise the foxes dig it up and play with it. Rachel, who had been weeding, jumped in with the mulching team to ensure we could get a few more barrows in before time.

And....we did it all on time! Well done to the whole team for a great session - well coordinated and you made a massive difference. We just need to ensure we keep it all up in the future monthly sessions as well as the Saturday sessions as it can be disheartening to see it grow back wildly. 2023 will be the year we shape Thorlands into the vision Simon sees it!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It's was a cold and longer run (for some) than last week. It was great to see Rachel come for her second group run and good deed! We really smashed that task in 30 minutes and those coming on Saturday will continue where you left off.

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Thank You Simon & Ruth

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon and Ruth for arranging the keys to be dropped off as Simon was feeling under the weather.