10 Hackney GoodGymers ran around the park to conquer our closest task ever with Hackney Parks at London Fields.

Enjoying the heatwave in the capital was 10 of GoodGyms finest! Working for the first time on our very nearest green space we joined Bruce from Hackney Parks to dominate the heavy lifting in the restoration of the Sheep monument in London Fields.

After a really short run, cut super short when we ran past the huge pile of soil and compost and knee we were in for a bit session.

Grabbing tools from the depot we marched over to the sheep monument which 30 years after its creation between a local artist and 3 surrounding primary schools it has been restored back to it’s original glory with a combination of mosaicing, cleaning and stone work. Our job this evening was to shovel barrow after barrow with a 4:1 ratio of soil to compost then shift it over to the monuments huge circular flower beds and tip it in. Working at a strong pace and getting into an efficient system and rhythm we fill 5 huge flower beds with over a tonne of soil ready for planting!!

With a little time left we had enjoyed energy for 2 fast 500 metre mulch runs to lock in the moisture in the hedge rows surrounding the park!

Returning the tools back to the depot just in time to heat back the Bakehouse with a Spring in our step with an hour of tasking under our belts!!

Top work team!!

Next week we are back with Cordwainers Grow to help the reviving a fallen community garden near Hackney Downs. Be great to have you along!

Smooth Running

Joel

P. S thank you to Eva for her magical pun work this week!!

28 Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Hackney Wick Community Garden.

Amazing to be back with the squad this week and a huge thank you to Katie for blazing a trail of navigational glory to and back from the task!!

3k very warm kilometres of running had us warmed up for task action and with loads of jobs to do we got right down to business!!

A forest of wood to break down into twigs, big twigs big bagged up and transported in brown Bins across the estate, virtually draining the river of water will the amount of watering that was required for a very thirsty garden (all done by buckets), ingenious work creating not only a hose pipe mini irritation system but also a nailless wood store!

40 minutes of graft rewarded by an amazing fresh fruit spread and water to fuel us up for the strong run back to base!!

Than you all for coming and best of to Deb and Paul for their amazing GoodGym tour!!

See you next week for a Hackney Downes adventure!

Smooth Running

Joel

26 slick GoodGymers ran 6k to cut back the hedging at the Hollybush Nature Reserve.

An awesome evening in Hackney welcomed some new GoodGym faces to the gold for the first time!

With a late change to the task we had unusual adventure of heading a little South of the Hackney boarder to the multi award winning Hollybush community Gardens. A little over 2k to the gardens to meet the irrepressible Margaret.

Arming ourselves with a variety of hedge type cuters we spread out around the parameter of the nature reserve and gave the overgrown hedging a sharpe short back and sides. With some very precise cutting and done uber efficient scooping, wheelbarrowing and compost piling we made a slick unit! In 40 strong minutes of action we had totally completed the task! Always nice to compete and with a Spring in our step we said our goodbyes and zipped off!!

Wanted to up our running game we went in search our a couple of Strava segments expertly found by Chi!! The first a test of our middle distance endurance was an 800m stretch along Queensbridge Road where we put our foot down and cruised our way to glory. A short rest and regroup got us prepared our speedy end to the session with a 500metre dash to Broadway Market! Peaking at some lightning quick speedy we climbed high in the Strava leaderboards!

A little warm down back to the Bakehouse, stretch out and the Sub Quiz Masters Rich/ Phil had us in number knots working out the Drizzy Drake was the first to a Billion plays on Spotify for a single track.

Next week the crew are off to St Luke’s and are in the very secure hands of Islington and Camden Trainer and all around GG legend Paul PB Bown!!

Hopefully see you in a couple of weeks!

Smooth Running

Joel

31 Buoyant GoodGymers feed of the Hackney Half Energy to dominate 90 minutes of GoodGym excellence!

Flying high after our 21.1km of Running fun on Sunday we had a bumper group this evening!! Great to have Goodgym first timers along for their maiden voyage as well as everyone else who came out for a top session!!

After a bit of a longer chat than normal we headed off negotiating the Hackney backstreets to take us to Clapton Square to meet Hackney Park Ranger Bruce who had the tools ready for us us to dive straight in!

Dividing up into two groups we gloved up grabbed a hoe and got weeding! Making great progress in the almost Jungle on the Southside of the park we have the flower beds a though weeding with expert hoeing, take out every weed in side before bagging the weeds into 1 of the 20 crammed oversized bin bags we filled.

With 40 minutes of solid weeding literally in the bag we had a treat as Chima had scouted out 2 Strava segments for us to hunt the records for! As a warm up for our bursts of speed Chima hit us to the core and got us fully engaged in some tough core exercises with 3 back to back moves in 3 toning minutes!

We then zoomed back to base registering very well on the Strava Leaderboards with turn of Foot!

Next week is a very special celebration as Eva hits her 100th GoodDeed and Clair her 50th needless to say we will head out after the Group Run!! A triumphant return to Spoons on Mare Street awaits which will double up as a craft workshop to make the Hackney Team flag for the GoodGym Olympics!!

Struggling with GG website at moment so might take a day or so to get Group Run up but as always it will be going ahead so see you there!!

Smooth Running

Joel