13 Braved all that Storm Katie had to throw at us to run 5k to create a Willow tunnel for the H.U.G (Hackney Downs User Group) garden on Hackney Downs and create an impressive turf mound in the process.

On a night not for the faint hearted we huddled together in the Bakehouse before storming down the streets of Hackney not doing a great job of dodging the rain or the puddles! Running the 2.5k to the newly formed HUG garden to get started on a big project. Meeting Myra who had unfortunately just had her gardening tools stollen, we were a little light on spades to turned our efforts to frantically sprinting the expertly cut bits of turf to the ever growing Turf Mound. In 4 small pods we soon got into a solid rytham of cutting, digging and running the turf to the mound to create a snaking Williow tunnel for the under 5's to begin their gardening journey in the HUG garden. As light turned to dark we picked up the pace with the rain easing off to aid our efforts and in 30 solid minutes of graft we had completed the first of many missions with HUG.

We zipped away into the night keeping a strong pace mainly to keep warm back to our semi sheltered warm up area where Patrick had a treat I store for us Cups vs Cones in a battle to the death the best of 3 duel was an epic emotional journey for both teams. Not only battling a solid Effort from team Cones as well as some dubious counting from Patrick, Team Cups won the hearts of the fans and take the emotional victory even if the scoreboard says otherwise!

We returned to base wet, muddy but feeling great after a run evening with a great group of Team Hackney GoodGymers.

Big thank you to Patrick for the games and pictures and Cecilia for a brilliant navigational skills leading us to and from the task.

Next week we are brightening up Daubany fields by giving it a well needed Spring clean, please sign up here for some more fun on the run.

On Jack's request Strava published their blog entry last night, take a look here. Not sure the pictures any any better than my highly skilled efforts to be honest 😉.

Until next week

Smooth Sunshine

Joel

Thirty One yes 31 Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to shovel tonnes of compost at the Rhodes Estate Food Growers group and clean the outdoor play equipment at Gillett Square.

On a fresh and breezy Hackney Evening Team Hackney were out in force! A new GoodGym attendance PB for me of 31, what an awesome turn out well played 👏🏽👏🏾👏🏻👏🏼👏🏿.

It was a very special evening as we had some double task action and some amazing visitors from the wonderful athlete connecting platform of Strava.

We took to the streets Lead by Clare on mass heading towards the beautifully lite warm up area by the Hackney Council offices, where we got to work mobilising those key running joints with a series activation drills to get us nice a warm and ready for the fun ahead! After some brilliantly balanced hip circles and leg swings we got into Hokey Cokey formation and Lunged Squatted, hopped and Jumped towards and away from each other.

With our legs pumping after some big time jumping we were lead through H-Town by another of the brilliant Hackney TaskForce team Cecilia who navigated the Squad just over 2k to our tasks in Dalston. We dropped of King Kev's compost crew for their task in Rhodes Estate Food Growers Group Before turning the corner into the Urban Amphitheatre that is Gillett Square.

We were met by Clarrisa who was excited to have Team Hackney along for the first time! We got straight to work splitting into 2 teams, the bulk of us unloading the colourful oversized outdoor play equipment from a huge shipping container. While 4 arty types began to restore the information board by cleaning and painting it, taking extra special care of the intricate lettering. The play equipment came out quick while there were a few bucket filling sprints to bring over the warm soapy water and cleaning kit. We got to work systematically cleaning the array of play equipment giving the weird and wonderful shaped apparatus names as we went, the "Cones" proved to create the most varied assortment of names (let's leave it at that). With photographer Kate clicking away to get some great snaps we got into a production line, cleaning and re loading the equipment back into the container at speed ⚡️⚡️🔥🔥. With the notice board re painted and looking gleaming in white a last push saw the equipment stashed away. 35 minutes of epic action and top job done by all!

Meanwhile the Compost crew were hard at work! Kev and the guys shovelling like crazy filling a big transit van fun of compost at a astounding rate!! 15 minutes of speed shovelling saw the van filled to the brim! Then came the glitch in the plan!! As the van drove around to the other side of the estate there was a Dalston traffic jam to contend with!! The Compost crew made up the time and even had to shovel the compost right to the back of the raised beds to add to the difficulty. To dominate a tough task in record time! A little late for the laps Kev lead the guys on a speedy 3k loop back to base to round off the evening!! ...

After a heartfelt thank you from Clarrissa we were again lead by Clare down to the World Famous De Beauvoir Track for Four of the hottest laps in town 🏃🏿🏃🏃🏽🏃🏻. In pairs we hammed a first lap with Walking Lunges thrown in then two tempo paced laps broken up by Tuck Jumps and Jump Squats before we High Skipped into a Max Power final lap which saw some Top quality effort and performance 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾👏🏿.

We then ran the 2k back to base including a final sprint finish to round of an excellent evening of GoodGym action!!

After few static stretches and huge round of applause for some top quality effort we headed home for a well earned feed.

Next week sees the Last GG Hackney Dance of King Kev before he leaves us for pastures new in the West Country. Please sign up hereand come along next week to rip up a barbershop Floor (as you do!) afterwards we will after much debate be heading to the Weathspoons on Mare Street for a Drink and Food to see Kev off in style. See you there!!

Powerfully Smooth

Joel