Our team at Goodgym Islington joined us for our second official group run from the Emirates Stadium since the return of social running. This time, 5 of us warmed up and ran together towards Elizabeth House Foodbank, one of our classic missions during the height of the pandemic. Paul and Hanry bumped into each other while run commuting from North London, and found out that they were going in the same direction!

Upon our arrival, we met up with the rest of the crew, who had come straight to the task from work, on foot, by bike and on electric scooter! Natalie from Elizabeth House has prepared 10 large crates of donated shopping for our goodgymmers to drop off at various walkable locations across Arsenal, Highbury Hill and Blackstock Estates- essential supplies for local families, vulnerable individuals and those in care.

As the food bank volunteers closed up the centre for the day, we were all offered some lovely sweet plums grown at the Castle Climbing Centre community food gardens, which would have been discarded otherwise (as is the nature of growing fresh fruit from trees- nothing for months, and then a year's worth of food appears out of nowhere!)

Our 5 Goodgym runners picked up their bags of plums, and scaled the mighty Highbury Hill climb back to the Emirates Stadium for our return journey to HQ. A top evening out helping out a busy community organisation.

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Next Monday

We will be back group running again next Monday- running to Thornhill Square Gardens, just off Caledonian Road. Beautiful community garden space, maintained by the Friends of Thornhill Square Gardens.

Sign up here to get involved:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-thornhill-square-gardens

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Elizabeth House Foodbank Community Missions

If you would prefer not to join the group run sessions over the following Monday evenings, then Elizabeth House Foodbank would love to invite you back to help with more food bank deliveries over the next 3 weeks!

Starting at 6.45pm at Elizabeth House Foodbank, each Monday evening.

Sign up here for the next one:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/elizabeth-house-foodbank-deliveries-summer-holiday-special

Goodgym Islington were so happy to celebrate their first group run back at The Arsenal Community Hub since 2020, and were thrilled to have 12 Goodgymmers along with us. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces from classic group runs past, regulars from lockdown community missions and complete first timers giving Goodgym a go (welcome Matthew).

After a short warm up utilising the mighty slope up to Emirates Stadium, our team run to Market Road Gardens (one of our favourite task locations) via Mackenzie Road (passing Ringcross Community Centre on the way). 2 miles total distance covered this evening by everyone involved (Thank you for backmarking, Steve)

Area activator Simon unlocked all the gates for Market Road Gardens (a lovely permaculture project), and our crew wheeled out a collection of wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, huge brushes and shovels. We even created a glorious vehicle called "Herbie" out of an abandoned shopping trolley and a storage tub found in Heyward Adventure Playground. Our primary focus for the evening was to clear a huge pile of wood chip off the vehicular access point for the playground users, and into an allocated storage bay. Many hands got cracking with shoveling and transferring the wood chip across the park, while Patrick took charge of depositing the wheelbarrows neatly in the loafing bay.

Our 2nd task involved sweeping and clearing lots of mud, green waste and debris off the pavement surrounding the entrance to the community centre. This was all strewn across the paths after the very heavy rain over the weekend, so we collected as many of these obstacles as possible.

We admired our handiwork for a bit (all major tasks completed within 45 min!) before running and cycling back the Arsenal Community Hub, and topping off our group run with a final hill rep and a bit of stretching.

9 of us then made a visit to a great local bar called "The Highbury Library", located just behind our start point for some light refreshment and a quality catch-up!

Sign up to next Monday's group run to Elizabeth House Foodbank here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/elizabeth-house-foodbank-deliveries-d4ac3696-9cf6-4492-8bd0-93ae52054178

The Goodgym Islington crew returned to Market Road Gardens yesterday evening (gathering around the famous milk float/tool shed affectionately named "Elizabeth Gertrude" or "Old Bessie") for a sunny summer community session.

Our team have been involved with the renovation of this lovely hidden green space just across the road from Caledonian Park over the past year, and the area has become a thriving permaculture garden (with over 40 species of plants and flowers growing strong).

Our task this time was to separate some discarded branches and green waste from our dedicated woodchip pile (using wheel barrows and shovels), and then to continue filling the bay as best we can. Steve and Tom also helped with clipping away some overgrown nettles and thistles from the main pathways- curating the space, while letting it go wild! Woody and Mali were the main wheelbarrow drivers this evening, while Nikki, Paul and Sam took it in turns to fill up the barrows with plants and wood chip.

Frannie from Octopus Community Network was thrilled with the progress we have been making with this ongoing project, and how these gardens have flourished with the recent rainfall.

Next Monday, we will be back at Market Road Gardens, but as part of our first Goodgym Islington group run since early 2020! How exciting!