For this week's Saturday starter session, 6 runners braved some grim weather to run 2km and help sort out the pond at Surrey Docks Farm

It was a motley crew, with Chiara and Becky runners joining us for the first time. We were also joined by Elizabeth, who had enjoyed the Lewisham starter session last week, and Michael and Nina.

All these runners are superstars; we had some less than ideal weather, so it was wonderful seeing the commitment on display here. Fortunately, the welcome we got from the team at Surrey Docks Farm was far more hospitable!

Getting warmed up!

We gathered up, briefly taking shelter in the cafe, before popping outside to do our headcount. Here we picked up each other's names and each said our favourite farmyard animal (though it was hard to get much inspiration, most of them had decided to stay inside today!). After this, we went on a brief run along the river, and worked in some strides, skips, high knees and heel flicks to get us warmed up and ready to go (Nina: I 100% support your plan to skip 13.1 miles at the big half). To keep us all moving in different ways, we stopped off for some fitness; here we used the toss of a coin to shake up what exercises we were doing, with lunges, squats and more thrown into the mix.

Diving into the task!

We then did some chain running back to the farm, thinking a bit about our form as we went back taking turns to overtake the group. Once we were back, we met Brandon who got us geared up and ready for our task. Becky and Michael needed no encouraging to leap into the two spare sets of waders, and the rest of us got forks, rakes, and gloves.

Brandon explained the the pond has long been collecting debris and vegetation from all of the plants collected in there, which has led to it being full of nitrites which has a negative effect on the pond's residents and ecosystem. Since the young volunteers who help out and learn at the farm would like to use the pond for some growing projects, we were going to spend half an hour clearing out some of the icky plant matter!

Michael and Becky hopped in and were chucking out all decaying plants they could scoop up, the rest of us worked at the sides piling up what they were scooping, and tidying up the sides of the pond. Elizabeth's corner seemed to be home to some fairly adorable frogs, who seemed a bit confused about all the fuss. Half an hour passed quickly, and after that time it looked like we (and the two other volunteers who were in there as well) made a big difference!

Wrapping up!

With the task finished, we exchanged thanks with Brandon and had a quick chat before going off our separate ways; I chatted about coach runs and missions, they can be a great way of getting involved if the group runs are difficult to get to. I also spoke about the Big Half, an amazing London half marathon coming up that GoodGym are involved with; there are more details here. A great effort today, and well done to all who made it along!

GoodGym Southwark starter session; we smashed it in Surrey Docks Farm! 😀

A post shared by @ domtooze on Jan 20, 2018 at 8:35am PST