14 runners met last night to clear a huge patch of brambles on behalf of Ealing Transition Community Garden!

Lovely to see lots of regulars and some returning faces but we also had one new runner with us, welcome to Emily who got stuck straight on her first GoodGym task!

We started our evening off with a short run through the parks, we'll soon have to say goodbye to our beloved Walpole and Lammas for the year as the nights quickly draw in so we took the opportunity to squeeze an extra lap before the task while we still had the last of the fading light. And beautiful it was! There's something so lovely about catching the final bit of sunset when the parks are empty, very therapeutic! It was a great opportunity for the group to open up and run at their own pace with both mile and half mile loop options to suit everyones fitness level too, ah I do love a bit of Lammas!

A ramble for a handful of bramble

We then met Vanessa in the community garden which is situated at the top of Lammas Park, she was armed ready with all the tools we needed to tackle the big patch of bramble we had in store! Double gloving was advised and we all grabbed our weapon of choice and got snipping! Working in little teams it was time to shine with our head torches lighting the way task at hand.

It didn't take us long before the patch was clear and all the remained was a huge pile of briar, a great centerpiece for a triumphant victory group picture! I'm sure we'll be back again next spring as these brambles don't scare that easily but we can rest safe in the knowledge that we've tackled them as best we can this year. Now the garden is a safer space for the groups of children that come in and use it as an education space, great work everyone!

Witness the fitness

Just a short jog back and a quick stop off to get our hearts racing and legs burning with a brief fitness session. We had lots of options and variations for everyone to work at their desired level and we kept all the half marathoners safe ahead of this Sunday's Ealing Half race! So all the remains is to say good luck to everyone running on Sunday and I'll see you in the pub afterwards!

The nights are really drawing in now and we are firmly in the needing head torch territory but that didn't stop 12 of us coming out to give the garden at St. Mary's Church a really good trim!

We were joined by one new runner last night, big welcome to Anna and thank you to Steph for bringing her along. Speaking of Steph she's edging ever closer to her 50th good deed, last night was number 45. Only 5 to go until she gets her hands on that black tee!

Weaving round Walpole

Making use of the parks while we still can we started by weaving our way around Walpole in file sprint formation arriving at the church to meet Vicar Steve who was ready with an array of tasks for us to tackle. Going into the Autumn it was all about getting as much cleared as possible, pulling ivy off of the stones and trees, chopping down all the overgrowth and pulling up the unwanted ash trees which have seeded all around the gardens.

With the light fading and a few head torches between us we got cracking and hacking!

Surrounded up grave stones, the sound of screeching foxes and lots of spiders it felt a little spooky but GoodGymers are a hardy bunch and we were undeterred and got the job done! Steve was so grateful of our help and we will organising a trip back very soon so watch this space!

Just a short jog back up to the Broadway with a little stop off on Ealing Green for a fitness session with resistance bands and we were done for the evening.

We finished up by embarrassing Chris with a nice loud rendition of Happy Birthday before heading to the pub to celebrate with him, have a good one Chris!