No sign of Ciara as runners bundled into Daveena's cafe around 6.20pm ready for another night of it!

Great to welcome back from holidays Jane and Patricia who both only got back in the last 48 hours from exotic locations (well Iceland and Eastern Europe...!)

It was also super to see Ali join us again tonight after a few weeks break - Ali is very much part of the Goodgym family here and has been missed! Nicola you are definitely rocking that Goodgym top!

Briefing was a little earlier at 6.25pm due to the longer run with a quick warm up on the garage forecourt before heading up North Road. Marie led the group on the up along with Tim who is looking pretty strong at the moment!

The only way really was up, North Road followed by Ringwood Road and onto the School off Herbert Avenue. It was the first time we have visited Manorside and it was great that the on site manager, Jay lives next door to the school to greet us at the task!

Jay had a skip ready and a load of different waste to be collected from various parts of the area to all go in it. Splitting off into sections there was a team on plastics. Turns out they were pretty long - I have seen the footage and Ali you really did get the 'long' straw when you carried it over! Sian took a serious view on the task in hand - and jumped quickly into the empty skip, attempting to ensure all items were placed in order. That was forgotten around half way through when bits of carpet, leaking containers and old toys were getting launched at her feet!

It was pretty dark at the school but random items from various places were all getting thrown into the skip - although on reflection we cold have done with some thicker gloves for a few items. One small casualty was Robert and his finger but it was still attached on leaving and no signs of blood so all good I hope!

Jay let us into the school to get cleaned up, although sign of the hard work and earning of our stripes in mud! The half an hour was already up but the skip was full and all items inside it. Jay was a happy site manager and I hope we can support the school again in the future.

Thanks to Patricia for taking the back marker post - it was good to be on the down on the way back - such a wind chill had appeared so we kept moving to return back to base for a quick stretch!

Tonight we also had an open social for anyone who wanted to come - so onto the local Sloop 8 of us went! We will be making it a bi-monthly or so affair so Easter will be the next one!

Ps Thanks to Liz for extra photos including the return of the random Kettle!

21 runners ran 5km focus on hip position to shift a tonne of Compost for Dalston Curve garden.

This session focused on hips. Good hips means good running.
We had to shift a mound of earth for Dalston Curve Garden. Home of Becky Greenwood's Pizza oven.

We jogged over to Dalston at a nice steady pace lead by Mark. Mark has great hips, and a nice light running style.

When we arrived they were not quite ready for us so we strengethed our cores and hips on the sand, in front of a band who played us some delightful music.

purple tunnel of "buddleja"

By this point we had a lovely load of spades and shovels ready for us to start shifting the mound of earth hidden behind the purple tunnel of buddleja.

Those not digging did more work on their hips, strengething with some flutter kicks, planks and mountain climbers on the sand.

"Space for a van"

By the time the reps were over the mound of earth was moved leaving ample space for a van.

"hip partners"

We headed to Hackney Downs for some more hip interrogation . We got ourselves some hip partners who kept their eyes on our hips to give us some feedback.

HIP INFO

If you're interested in little bit more hip stuff, here's a short video of Americans talking about good hip position, and here's a longer article about why it's important.

MISSION REPORT

While the rest of GoodGym Hackney headed to the Curve Garden, Ros and I did our best Charlie Dimmock / Alan Titchmarsh impersonations at a Groundforce-style mission in Stokey.

"rolls of astroturf"

We ran 4km to visit the friendly Rachel, who was ready to meet us in the front garden with rolls of astroturf and a selection of paving slabs. It soon became apparent Ros had been a Landscape Architect in a previous life, as she talked Rachel through her “vision for the space”.

"climbing into the brown bin"

We set to work clearing the space of garden waste, with Ros climbing into the brown bin to maximise capacity. With light rain falling, we laid the astroturf, pinning it in place with carefully arranged slabs.

"a very generous round of applause"

We all agreed the finished article was a lovely sight – and if Groundforce were rebooted, Ros would be top pick. We said our goodbyes and made a speedy run back to meet the others for a very generous round of applause and some much needed stretching.