The sun was shining, making the perfect evening to volunteer at Hackney City Farm for quite a unique experience!

The group of 8, a mix of first timers (huge welcome) and regular faces, were equipped with goggles, hammers and hoes to smash up pottery pieces for drainage in the flower beds. Smashing pottery was surprisingly satisfying and great for stress relief, especially for those who had come straight from work.

With time to spare, the group then grabbed the shovels and wheelbarrows to ferry eucalyptus wood chip across the farm to spread on the ground surrounding the flower beds.

4 Epic GoodGymers ran and cycled there ways to Springfield Park to help with the Park refurbishment.

Running our way strongly up from London Fields to the North of the borough finishing up 3.5k later in Springfield park.

Then we hit a bit of a hiccup as i firgot the padlock codes (sorry). A call and txt message search later and we were in to the depot to grab our kit for the evening.

We had the task of clearing the muddy build up around the edge of the lawn to prevent further build up which could get pretty slippery for the park users.

With a multitude of tools we got stuck right in perfecting a top quality dirt removal team technique.

Scraping it out, shoveling it up and sweeping the path clean!

45 minutes of quality chats and physical graft and we had filled the barrow to the brim!!

A satisfying job complete we tidied up and headed home with a great task in the bank!

Thank you so much fir coming along!

Joel

Five jolly Goodgym-ers (Katrina, Rachel, Rowena, Sarah and Tony) braved the cold temperatures and hit the streets of Walthamstow to deliver community news magazines for William Morris Big Local, a fabulous, resident-led community initiative that supports, runs and funds projects in the William Morris ward to make a positive difference to the area and its people.

We pounded the pavements for an hour or so, going door to door until our fingers went numb, and we covered some good ground. We all gained a bit of extra respect for our local posties, and the community news looked so interesting that we each took a copy home for a bit of bedtime reading!

Special kudos and a huge welcome go to the amazing Rachel, who moved to London a mere FOUR days ago and joined Goodgym immediately as a way to get to know people in her new community. That’s the spirit, Rachel! We sincerely hope that tonight’s chilly mission didn’t put you off, and that we’ll see you again very soon!

Well done to everyone who joined – together we made light work of our task. This was our last Wednesday group run of the year, so Merry Christmas all, and let’s hope 2023 brings some more brilliant missions our way!

One of those delightful crisp wintry nights yesterday, with participation well into the twenties - a statement of intent from our volunteering collective.

Welcoming Giacomo, Stewart and Andy to our midweek madness. Kicked off the show with a round of applause for Alice, Jade and Olly who ran a half marathon on a very tortuous Olympic Park course. Alice straight off her death bed and onto the start line, Jade and Olly getting their first 13.1 mile distance under their belt. Gotta love it. Shaz, Siobhan and Kev getting a canal mission done on the weekend too. Phwoar all this activity is infectious. We finished with a random weekly question of "What's your favourite breakfast?" as it turns out there's a multitude of foods that fuel you lot. From porridge, frosties, full english, eggs royale, continental, peanut butter and bananas on toast and even a sickly american brekkie in there. Two cups of tea and a seedy, oaty, nutty mix for me today - i'm literally turning into my dad.

So onto the adventure playground we ran, all 23 of us, down a dark canal and over a bridge. Neville covered for Ange this week. Essentially two tasks: moving mulch to pad out areas where the fearless young fall (yes, you basically saved lives). And removing more poles/beams rooted deep in the earth's molten core. Great effort all round, the mulch (potentially imbued with some tangy manure) gave a steamy atmospheric quality to the night, albeit with a potent smell. The beams all got removed bar a stubborn one - we'll be back... with a JCB in the night.

Couldn't call it a night without some anaerobic speed work, 6 or 8 x 30secs, aiming to move through your gears, and finish as strongly as possible. Shake up your pace and remind yourself that you've got more speed than you know. Oh, and you certainly did.

Next week we go to the Docklands for the first time since Burn's Night, sign up here, another smooth canal run with diverse volunteering work awaits you.

Till next week

B