7 runners met for a lovely lunch time outing to Newham City Farm for the first GoodGym session taking place in the Beckton area

A few regular GoodGym members from all across London were joined by first timers Kaya and Deniz, students from the university, who were keen to find out what it means to do good and get fit in the area.

After a brief warm up and introduction we took a leisurely one mile route along the Capital Ring and Beckton Corridor, lovely green spaces that were new discoveries to us all. It was lovely to chat to everyone on the way and find out all the reasons we run and what everyone has got planned. Good luck to Sarah who is running a the Hampton Court half marathon on Sunday and good luck to Tom who is running The Great North Run in September and is fundraising for The National Autistic Society.

Time flew by and it wasn't long before we arrived at Newham City Farm where we had some fun tasks and lots of animals waiting for us!

"I had no idea this was here!" - Basically everyone who took part proclaimed!

And that's what GoodGym is all about, connecting you with the communities you live, work or study in. Boom, mission accomplished.

The task:

So our job for the afternoon was all about making the pigs a bit more comfortable in their pens. With all the recent rainy weather the mud pits (they love so very much!) had become a bit too boggy and needed a bit of mulch to dry them out and help the pigs enjoy them even more. It was a case of collecting wheelbarrows of mulch and working in a team to spread it in the muddy areas.

With lots of extremely cute animals distracting us along to way it's a wonder we got anything done but in no time at all we'd covered all the muddy patches needed and the pigs seemed very happy with their new baths!

After some very diligent hand washing we headed back to where we'd originally met for a quick stretch before parting ways.

It was great to meet so many new, friendly faces and hope to see you all out GoodGyming in other areas soon. The full list of group sessions can be found here and you can filter by area and join in anywhere you'd like!