23 brave Hackney GoodGymers ran an impressive 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shovel, barrow and rake 4 tonnes of special gravel to create a path around the park.

On a moon lit evening in the enchanting Abney Park Cemetery we were ecstatic to welcome 5 newbies to the GoodGym Hackney fold! Loved having Ben, Steffica, Dominique, Lara, and Ramy along!!

Setting off on through the back streets of Hackney working our way the 3k up to one of our furthest locations of Abney Park Cemetery, which is one of the Magnificent 7 cemeteries in London. Where we got stuck at traffic lights we burst into some strength building action and knocked out 2 minutes of alternating lunges. Soon enough with a little navigation from our resident free running Coach Runner rep Andreana we had run 3k in 18minutes to reach Tom at Abney park.

With military precision Tom have 15 wheel barrows, a stack of gloves and a range of rakes and shovels waiting for us to get cracking with. We hot footed it down to gravel and got to work, 4 of us shovelling away loading up the barrows while 15 barrows safely navigated the spooky path up to the 5 rakers who modded the path creating a perfect camber for the rain to wash off. We set a steady and efficient pace with the keeping everyone working hard throughout! The 4 tonne mound of special gravel was going down nicely with excellent work from Will, Ros and Rich the barrow pushers kept a high leg turnover and kept coming back for more! While the rakers guided by Tom created 50 metres of path which is a GG Hackney best effort!!

With the gravel gone after 35 minutes of action we wheeled out way back up the main road, thanked Tom for his amazing organisation and begged him to let us come back for a GoodGym Halloween dress up special on the 1st of November (fingers crossed).

For the run back 10 steady eddies came with me and got going with some Cautiously aggressive running on the 3k run back to base while 13 speedsters completed 40 Lunges, 20 squats and 2 minutes of Ab planks before beginning the chase back to base!

Some impressive running from everyone saw us arrive back to base pretty much together so our Team stretch. We relaxed the muscles, wished the Cardiff Half marathon crew of Patrick, Anna, Dan, Nico and Jack (sorry if I forget anyone) the very best of luck on Sunday! I will be following you around and look forward to hear all about your races in the next couple of weeks!!

Looking forward to a big turn out for the Hackney Marshes GoodGym Parkrun tour on Saturday! All the information is here be a fun free 5k run and if you are able a breakfast after to.

Next week we are back to the unmistakable Gillett Square to finish off our work cleaning the Pop up Kids adventure playground equipment!! Would love to have you along for another fun filled Tuesday evening sign up here.

Thank you to Ros and Rich for the pun and Michele for some pictures!

Smooth and positive

Joel

24 Illuminated Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to clear vegetation and fill graves!!

After a successful weekend of racing for Team Hackney with amazing performances from Rich and Ros in the Richmond Runfest Half marathon the group was on great spirts and couldn't wait to meet some GoodGym newbies!

Knowing that the darkness was descending quickly and that we had one of our longer runs we got going sharpish!! Navigating our way through the back streets towards Stoke Newington we even had the pleasure of a ride by from Paul the Camden trainer (if you are still feeling fresh why not try out Camden tonight? Just make sure you come back to Hackney next week!). Keeping the crew together was made easier than normal with the amazing poor run of luck we had with the lights! I would like to think it was the ghosts of Abney Park Cemetery just making it a bit darker to add a little fear for the grave task ahead!

After a strong 3k run we arrived to meet Tom where we grabbed a wheel barrow donned a head touch (if we had one) and got to work! Great to have the unmistakable Hackney Coach Runner Rep Andreana back in the fold and reminded us all why we had missed her much when she abandoned the wheel barrow after 100m as it was going to slow her down and went for the single shovel of earth sprints method (for a little while anyway) in its place.

We created a few great working pods with shovelers making huge digging dents in the huge pile of woodchip loading up the wheel barrows before the pushers doing a running loop tipping the woodchip into the Sunken graves before looping back around and loading up again! We also had a few runners on vegetation clearing, especially excited were Lucy and Annie who got to clear logs from a grave site while searching for frogs!

After 30 minutes of great work helping one of London's Magnificent 7 cemeteries we had done a top job moving a huge 2 tonnes of wood chip and soil, clearing 50 logs from over grown graves and petted a couple of frogs. This helped to keep the levels of the sunken graves up and ensuring the park remains amazing and beautiful.

After a big thank you from Tom, we set off on our way back to base picking up the pace for the 3k run back. Great running performances from everyone, great to see the fitness improving from our consistent regular runners!

A series our static stretches and a silent round of applause finished off a fun evening!

It was a fond farewell to ** Kevin and Kirsty** who have been great Hackney GoodGymers but Kirsty is moving away to take over the world while Kevin is going to using is volunteering time for a new project. Thank you for all your hard work and enthusiasm, you will both me missed!! Hopefully you will come and see us again soon.

Next week we return to Abney Park for some gravel path creation! Wheelbarrows will be in full force again as we build a path using special gravel which stays firm through the winter months. Please sign up here. If you have one or are thinking of buying one a Head torch would be pretty useful thing to bring.

Until next time

Smooth shovelling

Joel

15 warm and sweaty GoodGymers ran 5k to Gascoyne Estate community garden and carried 25 insanely heavy wooden boards, 200 bricks and a tonne of gravel on an epic evening of Fun on the Run.

Meeting in bright hot sunshine was a little unexpected but made for a lovely warm evening and helped keep the effort levels really high throughout the session! We were joined by Ed, Bina and Ollie for their first ever GoodGym run and hope to see you all again next week for some more Team Hackney action!! We celebrated the great Team Hackney turnout at the launch of the GoodGym/Parkrun partnership at Mile End Parkrun, including a new GoodGym course record for our super speedster (and pun master this week) Rich.

Setting off on the 2 and a bit K run to Gascoyne estate we taking in the sites of Victoria Park Village while leg swinging, lunging and skipping elegantly our way to a mobilising dynamic warm up as we travelled down the road. Sticking together as we made our way across Well Street common we entered Gascoyne Estate to meet Cerdic who explained about the epic lifting and carrying task as well as the community garden. The garden set in the heart of the estate is run by a legion of volunteers and grows a multitude of plants, vegetables, fruits and herbs half of which are given away to good causes. We got to work by recceing the route to the skip which we had all missed on the run in, then grabbing the first of many loads of bricks and running them back to the garden. We then set about the big Challenge for the evening, Team carrying rain drenched 25 huge thick wooden boards! It was a real graft as we hauled the boards 200m through the estate to the skip. On the way back from the the board run (drag) we supper setted the workout by carrying bricks from different locations on the estate back to the garden. As the boards disappeared in to the skip we had just enough time for a quick blast in carrying 25kg bags of gravel and sand to the bins in a race against time before the bags disintegrated and exploded! We got our creative and ingenious heads on to workout the be best way to carry these heavy but delicate bags. We employed the metal mesh method, mini wooden board stretched, old fashioned over the shoulder and pray technique and with a supreme effort from Ed some monster Wheel Barrow loads.

Finishing in the nick of time we said goodbye to Cerdic who thanked us for our super hard work and set off on the run back to base! We started off by splitting into 2 groups and working a kilometre worth of Indian File running where the person at the back put in a burst of pace to get to the front and repeated. We gathered for the second Kilometre of running effort on the Fartlek lamppost intervals where we alternated running hard and easy between lamppost all the way up Victoria Park Road. A top effort and some speedy bursts saw us fly back to base in perfect time for a static stretch out and silent round of applause.

Thank you to Peter for some pictures and have a top holiday!

Good luck and enjoy all your racing and training for the rest of the week! Look forward to seeing how you are going on Strava!

Next week we are off to a favourite task of ours, Abney Park Cemetery! We will be clearing a heap of vegetation and then sewing so oh so pretty wild flower seeds! Be amazing to have you along for the session! Please sign up here

We will be off on our monthly social after next weeks run so please come along for a bite to eat and extra special as it is a GoodGym Hackney goodbye to Kirstywho will be leaving us as she moves up to Manchester!

Smooth Flow

Joel