22 Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to Gascoyne Estate communty garden to shift 2.5 tonnes of compost in 40 minutes of heavy lifting action.

After welcoming the squad for the evening we set off on our 2.5k run down to Gascoyne Estate. A little running stare down with the Victoria Park harriers on the edge of Well Street Common. Meeting up with Derek who has any number of barrows, pots, bins and wheeliebins ready to be filled. Whipping off the cover on the remaining 3 tonnes of soil and manure. We got stuck right in loading and piling at a furious rate! Working a lighting speed with loads of techniques to transport the soil we manoeuvred 3.5 tonnes to free up most of the pavement, car park and keeping the landlords happy.

A swift tidy up and grabbing some refreshments before we powered back to base throwing in the magnificent 1k lamppost fartlek to take us back to base with perfect timing!

Great effort last night, hopefully Spring will show up next week for our task with Hackney Parks!!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

thanks to Mireille for the Pun!!

27 Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to get it Spring ready with Bulb planting, ivy chopping, path mulching and Lion cleaning.

Great to see the Bakehouse bursting with energy ready for our run!! Nice to nearly be running in the embers of day light to, not to mention the double digit Spring warmth creeping through.

After a brain teasing Question of the day from Quiz Master Ros which we didn’t get around to answering. Or no one really understood the question??

We were off on our well trodden path to Abney Park lead expertly by Katie. 3k of pretty speedy running up to Stoke Newington to me Park Manager Tom at the enchanting Abney Park Cemetery.

After we were locked into the cemetery to got to work, marching the tools down deep into the Park. Splitting up into 4 groups to get the most out of our energetic endeavours. We had Ivy clearing from grave stones to allow the 2 year grace mapping project to keep going at full steam. Wild flower bulb planting along the main paths edge to look pretty and to encourage park users to stick to the paths which helps to keep the park growing in the right places. After the snow the first path we mulched in January was looking worse for wear so we had a 100 metre sprint to re mulch it with half a tonne of Hackney’s finest mulch. And finally the historically listed Lion from a very famous and some would say unforgettable local hero’s grave. Needed to be gently cleaned to restore Larry the Lion to is shimmering glory.

This was an all action no stop furious 40 minutes of portable light action!! We had snipping, pitch forking, wheelbarrowing, roping, planting, scrubbing and of course a lot of singing to Larry!!

We really used every possible second to get as much work down even requiring a super Bolt like sprint finish to get the mulched path complete with expert mulch manoeuvring from Patrick!!

With the task complete and time slipping away we said our good byes to Tom and zipped back to base at Pace!! Katie spearheading the charge to finish off the task perfectly(ish) on time!!

Great session everyone!!

Next week we have the second half of Soil mountain to contend with and we need all hands on deck to complete the task! Be great if you could come along for more fun on the Run Hackney style!!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

P.S not sure who to credit but thank you fir the Pun!!