A lovely group of 10 runners came out tonight in Waltham Forest to lend a hand to get on top of the weed and bramble situation at George Mason Lodge Care Home.

Two new members joined us for the run this week so a big warm (and it was a warm run!) welcome to Julia and Niki, you both did great on your first GoodGym task! We also had a couple of GoodGym tourists, Danny was doing the rounds as usual on his epic GoodGym journey and then there’s myself, usually the trainer for GoodGym Ealing I had a great evening getting to know you all in Waltham!

Starting with a warm up and some introductions we got to know each other a bit better by discussing our bank holiday plans before heading off on what was described as the ‘scenic route’. As a Walthamstow virgin my knowledge was limited to the main streets suggested by google maps so I put my faith in the group to keep us on track through the quieter back streets. A minor misjudgement led us to overshoot a road slightly (no harm in extra running!) but we soon arrived safely at the task raring to go shortly after!

Bonus Mileage!

At the centre Karen was eagerly awaiting our arrival and had some weeds and brambles (aka briar as myself and Danny learnt!) for us to tackle. Everyone quickly donned their gloves and got pulling and snipping away and the unwanted growth over different parts of the garden.

During our time we were visited by one of the residents who was very impressed with our efforts and rewarded the team with some very much appreciated cold glasses of water. It’s really lovely to meet and talk to the people who directly feel the impact GoodGym make in these spaces!

A few stops for photo opportunities (they have a great selection of props in the garden!) before bagging up all of the trimmings and it was time for our run back to base. Sticking to the (busier) main roads this time meant no errors and a slightly shorter run back to get you all home for dinner, hurray!

Until next time!