WOODEN YOU KNOW... we had heaps of wood to shift at Urban Wilderness this week and due to a great turn out we were able to make light work of it all.

Stepping outside we opted for a circular warm up this week, once everyone’s temperatures had risen we set off. Several existing GoodGymers joined us for their first Newham run tonight, a huge welcome to you all! (I do think that should be a new challenge: see who can do a good deed in each borough over the shortest period).

A busy run straight through ‘The Street’ in Westfield and the forgotten older shopping centre saw us on our way to Plaistow. Once we hit the quieter roads we paced and spread out. 25mins later, we had arrived at the community garden, our only other visit here was via a morning run in broad daylight so we knew we would have to be extra careful in the darkness.

Those with torches switched them on as the group let out some ‘oohs…and…aaahs’ as the scale of the garden was revealed. Our first (warm up) task was to remove any waste from the flower beds; unwanted sticks, pieces of wood and dead plants.

After 5 mins of removing and dumping giggles erupted in the corner after the ‘My what a big piece of wood you have’ line was uttered in Andy’s direction.

Next was the bigger stuff; several picnic tables, 1 large shed toilet and 1 large boat (HMS GoodGym). All had to be shifted across opposite ends of the garden, so it was literally all hands on deck. This proved to be the best upper body workout in a garden EVER!!! Forget calisthenics, navigate a large boat and a shed across 30m+ of uneven surfaces in the dark and you’ll be sorted.

To me....to you, to you....to me...

After a healthy 45mins we left a transformed Urban Wilderness and made our way back to the Aquatics Centre for a bit more ‘camera running’ and a cool down. Thanks to the New Balance film crew who captured the epic events of the night and thank you to the runners who stayed on to do a little extra running around the park.

Also congratulations to Alice who took home a lovely jar of GoodGym Nutella as a result of having the highest number of good deeds last month in Newham. Spread it wisely.

Same time next week folks

Kirsty