The good weather clearly brings high spirits as an impressive 32 of us met up at the usual spot. The reguIar runners were delighted to see some new faces, both to Good Gym and to the Tower Hamlets group. To warm up, we set off on a gentle 2.5k jog down to Stepney City Farm where we were greeted by Simon who had plenty of tasks to divvy out. One group set off to shift some hay across the farm, merrilly jogging their wheelbarrows along. Another picked up some pitchforks to aerate a field, while the remaining few turned compost and shifted rubble.

On the way back, we split into three groups. Alison led the first down the canal at a more leisurely pace, Tom took the medium group through Mile End Park for some hilly intervals and Andy steered the final group at a dust lifting speed. We all met up again at base for a final cool-down stretch.

Isabel

BYE BYE, SUMMER

So, summer's over.

But that didn't stop 33 of us, including 5 newcomers who don't mind braving the rain. Welcome to Vicky, Jill, Sarah, Shirin and Katie.

Double Tasking tonight!

Barnsbury

Simon describes the trip to Barnsbury Community Centre:

It was just under a year ago that we first visited Barnsbury Community Centre to start helping with their project to transform the vacant green spaces on the Barnsbury Estate into sustainable, community-friendly gardens.

Over the last year we've paid several visits. We've hammered in stakes, we've dug rings and circles, we've shifted tons of soil, we've filled raised beds, we've hammered in nails, we've painted, we've weeded, we've stapled, we've watered and we've constructed raised beds and a gigantic "S"! The project has really taken shape now and it's so nice to see such a big transformation. It was basically a big patch of grass when we first visited.

We were supposed to be doing a bit of painting and watering of plants tonight, but the rain stole the job of watering and ruined the possibility of painting. Thanks a bunch, rain! However, there was plenty still to do. The recent hot spell meant that weeds have sprung up everywhere, especially around the beautiful S-shaped feature in the garden, so a big group set about weeding and making sure that stays looking lovely. Another group had the task of transporting gigantic sacks of soil from one side of the garden's back gate to the other. Then local resident Elizabeth appeared and asked if she could have the soil transported round to the estate gardens next door. No problem. We were happy to oblige and wheelbarrowed like crazy.

We did get a little soggy, but spirits were not damp as we worked hard for 30 minutes and enjoyed a delicious malted milk biscuit.

On the way back to the pool we split into two groups. Patrick and Steve led an easier-paced group back for circuits/cones and Simon worked a group hard with lunges, high knees running, hops, skips and pogos. We discovered that pogos are even more fun if you add sound effects "boing boing boing".

WPCA

Whittington Park Community Association needed some folk to help keep the ground of their newly-refurbished One O'Clock Club weed free. John led the group up for this one and Aidan describes their evening:

9 Goodgymers took up the challenge of a longer run and with the rain and humidity it was a bit tougher than normal! Arriving at the task we were ready to start weeding, but we had a massive shortage of gloves between us. Luckily Alex had an improvised idea which led to the creation of some waterproof gloves with a sleek design (a ripped up black bag tied at the wrist) but they worked great and we set to work.

The heat and rain had brought the snails out so we had to be careful not to step on them and we did a bit of rehousing, bringing snail families back together. This led on to a question no one could answer, how do snails reproduce? After a quick bit of googling our weeding turned into a biology lesson (FYI they lay eggs, up to 100 a time!). Next we had a few Goodgymers who were keen to do some quick exercises before we headed back. But what to do first, biscuits or exercises? Lucy thought exercises, Frances thought biscuits. Most people agreed biscuits first which Lucy wasn't happy about! (see photo)

A quick round of exercises included some planking, burpies, press ups, high knees and many more with a favourite being John's karate style kicks and punches. With the rain still drizzling we headed back with Frances egging Graham on to a sprint finish up the hill before getting back for Tim Tams at Highbury Pool (Thanks Alex!)

BEING IN LOVE, STRETCHING, TIM TAMS AND IMPERIAL GETTING LEATHERED

Courtesy of Patrick's 3G and famous speaker we had a nice listen to Ivo's interview with Chris Evans (it's at 2 hours 21 minutes) while stretching and enjoying one of Alex's Tim Tams all the way from Australia. Thank you Alex!

The big question for the evening was metric vs. imperial. We had a lot of "it depends" answers, but when we limited the question to distances - actually, just running distances, metric was the clear winner. BY MILES! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!11!!!

See you next week, Simon

P.S. Tip o' the GoodGym cap to Patrick for Run Report Title

Six Brent GoodGymers ran 8k to Sufra Community Food Bank and Kitchen to weed an area of community garden.

On a bright and airy bank holiday Monday we had a evening of GoodGym firsts! With Elle away on holiday I had the privilege of leading the fine Brent GoodGym crew for the First time, on day release from Team Hackney we set about navigating our way to the Stonebridge Estate. For the First time for any of us on a GoodGym run there were more males than females and it was also the first time I had broken the 8k barrier on a GoodGym run! Top running guys!! 🏃🏽🏃🏃🏻🏃🏿

Following the 4K run to Sufra Community Food Bank and Kitchen we got to work collecting the tooling from the quickly developing community garden and were super impressed with the progressed made. We gloved up and speedily removed all the weeds from a soon to be herb garden digging out and pulling out every weed in sight. In 30 solid minutes of work we dominated the task and cleared the flower bed of 2 full bin bags of weeds.

After a huge thanks from Dina from Sufra we headed back to base with improved pace and navigation making up time as we powered our way home.

A top evening of GoodGym action was rounded off with a series of static stretches before we headed off into the night with a job well done.

Thank you for looking after me and working so hard on the task!

Hope to see you at another Brent Group run soon or if you fancy coming out East Team Hackney would love to welcome you to H-Town on a Tuesday evening.

Elle will be back next week for some more fun on the fun.

Enjoy your week, and good luck to those racing the Hackney half! See you on the start line!!

Smooth Running

Joel