Today's mission was an attempt to answer the perennial question as to whether it's better to do weights or cardio first, albeit we had no choice as the first thing Hilary and I needed to do was lift Miss T's 25 kg running machine (box) up a flight of narrow stairs to the room that she wanted it assembled in. Fortunately with two of us doing the heavy lifting, this proved to be reasonably painless, and we made sure we kept our form throughout the full range of motion...

Once unboxed, the running machine proved pretty straightforward to assemble, and Miss T had sufficient space that we could position it where she wanted it (and give her a good view of the garden whilst exercising too).

Of course we couldn't resist at least giving it a short test drive (just to check all was in order...), and it proved to be surprisingly quiet. Miss T has big plans to use it to get fitter, and we wished her well in taking on this challenge but cautioned about not getting too ambitious too quickly...the treadmill marathon can wait.

Lots of unexpected highlights greeted us at the Fields this morning - the best being a hint of blue sky and sunshine, which was most welcome, as there were still huge puddles on the ground and the going was definitely soft to muddy - unfortunately this meant an area of the course had been fenced off, which we neatly solved by putting the route flags around the fencing...

We welcomed GG regulars Rue, Sarah, Hilary, Nick, Louise and Nicolas today, who were all dispatched to various corners of the course to do their relevant marshalling duties in their hi viz, and Rue as RD then successfully filled the remaining marshalling roles with enthusiastic parents and we were good to go.

Highlight no.2 was welcoming Wendy Pallant to London Fields, who told us the story of Boomerang B16 which is one of ten boomerangs that started off a long journey in Australia, and been on tour in the UK for the past few months being passed each week from parkrun to parkrun around the country. Wendy led an entertaining Australian themed warmup with today's runners, which included boomerang throws, squats to pickup suitcases, kangaroo jumps and so much more...

Out on the course we were all impressed by today's first finisher, who crossed the line in 8:01, over 45 seconds ahead of the second placer - we witnessed 2 PBs, 2 first timers, and one runner collecting her half marathon wristband, and we had no fallers in the mud - another successful Sunday morning on the wet and muddy fields then!

Today I had the pleasure of helping an isolated resident in Hackney to do a follow up with the wonderfully big garden she has.

The weather wasn't the best today with rainy spells but I got to test out my up cycled rain coat...

And of course there was lashings of coffee and cake today.

Smashing!

The recent rain had inconsiderately left large puddles and muddy areas all around the course this morning, so inevitably anyone wearing their shiny new(ish) trainers to the Fields was going to find they were going home in a slightly darker, more mottled, pair.

However the conditions didn't seem to keep the crowds away, and it was great to welcome 49 runners under the big tree this morning (including at least 4 first timers), along with 13 volunteers keen to don the Hi Viz, including GoodGym regulars Rue, Hilary, Louise, Sarah, Sooz and Nick who all performed their respective roles perfectly to ensure everything ran to plan (and received a number of high fives from our runners by way of reward).

The conditions underfoot also didn't seem to be a hindrance to performance, as we saw a super speedy winner, 5 PBs and 49 shiny happy faces cross the finish line - a great way to start the new month. More of the same next week under the big tree - join us if you can.

Another glorious day at Mrs A's lovely garden .... Not too cold and the sun shone to brighten things. An abundance of cuttings to be bagged and some more stumps and weeds to clear but the coffee and biscuits were plentiful.

Epic ! 😎

Volunteered at Hackney Night Shelter