There was some top running and good doing last night at GoodGym Lambeth with 36(!) runners turning out to visit Moorlands and Hillside Gardens for some woodchip spreading and weeding.

Big cheers to Lucy, Becca, Shauna, Freddie, Charlotte, Mac and Rachel for joining the gang!

After a quick intro including a quiet reminder that LAMBETH WON THE GOODGYM OLYMPICS🔥🎈🍾🤩🎉🎉🎉, we set off.

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Freya lead a smaller group to Moorlands park to create 2 paths out of woodchip:

After a little detour which was definitely, according to Freyja, all part of the plan, the group found Karen and were set to work creating not one but two paths from woodchip. There was a huge pile of woodchip to be moved, but with Team spade, Team Wheelbarrow , Team Bucket and Michael and John trimming the grass we had it done in no time! 💪😎👍

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And a bigger bunch of us ran 4k up Brixton Hill to Hillside Gardens to weed around the sports courts.

Lambeth Council have decided to limit their use of chemical weed killers 👏 so they deployed the next best thing: GOODGYM WEED KILLERS 😈

These were some big weeds and BIG WEEDS means BIG ROOTS so we raided the tool shed for implements capable of deep ground penetration. The GoodGym machine is a ruthless beast and in 30 minutes a serious chunk of weeds were uprooted and barrowed into a big white bag. Freddie even scaled a wall to get at some of them 😬(see pics).

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Next week we've got two tasks again! If you fancy a longer run, we're flyering for the Brixton People's Kitchen and we'll have a shorter one to Ruskin Park Community Garden. Sign up here!

What a beautiful evening of good that was. We had 2 tasks, a bonus task, 8 tonnes of soil to move, and a huge 44 runners of which 12 had never visited GoodGym before. Big uuuup Oli, Jennifer, Chloe, Rory, Jack, Holly, Catherine B, Catherine M, Dom, Kirsty, Marie and Flavia. So great to have you along!

After a quick warm up, we split into 2 groups:

Soil Dispersion @ Spurgeon Estate Vs. Weeding and Grass Cutting at PAPA's Park

Victoria had a mighty 5 staying at base to do some gardening. Valcie, who runs PAPA's cafe had provided some delicious refreshments to say thanks (guava & mango juice with some chocolate digestives mmmm...) but first they had a run round the block, including a stop off to play the piano outside a local shop!

When they returned, they split and got working on clearing the grassy areas around the trees and getting rid of weeds. Oli didn't even want to stop!

Muchas Grass-cias

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The rest of us were headed to the Spurgeon Estate near Stockwell. They've recently been given some funds to sort out a garden area they have there and Urban Growth had made some planters. All the soil however was in bags on the other side of a fence...

So it was human conveyor belt time. And oh my the GoodGym machine is an efficient one. One team delivered the bags through a gap in the fence while another team moved them to the planters. Then Team 3 slit the bags and emptied them into the planters.

LIKE A WELL-SOILED MACHINE ⚙️

And when Nicky and George arrived with the long route runners, they kicked it up a gear, throwing bags over the fence and getting the planters filled in no time.

BONUS TASK:

There was also a pile of bricks that the residents weren't going to use, so we filled the soil bags and moved them to the road to get picked up tomorrow.

THE POWER OF GOODGYM ❤️

When we got back, we had a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (and planks and sprints...etc.) and a nice long stretch.

Next week we're double deeding again - Ruskin Park (we got given onions last time...) or flyering and painting for the awesome Brixton People's Kitchen (except this is in Vauxhall). Get signed up here. Oh, and don't forget, it's pub week so we'll stick around for a beverage after the run. 🍾