Weed In! Veg Out!
9 Goodgymers helped their local community in Islington
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Monday 16th January 2023
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Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
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9 Goodgym running folks braved the potentially icy terrains for our Group Run to the ARC Centre last night.
Our crew included first timer Rachel (welcome!) and Alison, John and Simon after their adventures at the Met League cross country on the weekend. Louise has been attending loads of tasks across town as well (including our Christmas Tree pick up task in Elthorne Park last Sunday) and Charlie has been starting to build new guide running opportunities at Lordship Rec parkrun.
After a warm up along the Emirates Stadium slopes, we ran together past Highbury and Islington station and Canonbury Square Gardens (where we will be visiting on Saturday morning- see below!), and down to Essex Road (just under 2 miles). Upon our arrival, we met with Kelly, the new gardening and food coordinator at The ARC Centre, who had a great list of varied tasks for us.
Group 1 started with some green waste clearing from the kerbside and immediate entrance of the centre. The planting boxes we built during the pandemic are still going strong, and are ready for new bulbs, and our plan was to give the new plantings the best chance they can get during spring time.
Group 2 made their way to the Packington Gardens, down St John's Street, with trowels, spades and brushes in hand. First task was to illuminate some huge planting beds with our portable flood lights, and to separate the chick weed away from the newly planted bulbs. Chick weed is a sturdy and pervasive plant, but grows so quickly and can overpower a planting bed in no time! Our weeding teams also swapped roles at 10 minute intervals with our other runners, who took it in turns to litter pick the park, removing glass bottles, plastic debris and metal cans from the children's play area.
Group 1 joined the rest of our team in Packington Gardens, and helped with sweeping the children's sand pit with brushes, to keep the area from getting too slippery, and ready for more youngsters to visit. To finish off our evening of tasks, we all came together to give the chick weed beds a 5 minute blast (a much larger future job) to the amazement of a local family watching from afar. A lot of excellent work completed in a relatively short amount of time- great job Goodgym crew!
We switched our route back to The Emirates to involve a detour near New North Road, passing a beautiful old ghost sign for "Night Time Rejuvenation Remedies", The Alpaca Pub and a taxidermy shop. We also took on the Highbury Fields slope to bring us to Drayton Park, in time for us to take on our monthly Emirates Stadium Time Trial. Well done to Charlie, Louise, Alison, John and Claire for giving it a go- results will be listed in the follow-up email!
NEWS
Achilles International VI Guiding Sessions
On Thursday (depending on the icy weather), our crew from Achilles International (an all-abilities sports and engagement charity) will be hosting their weekly time trial at The Emirates Stadium (starting at Arsenal station at 6pm). Guides and potential guides are welcome to join- very friendly, super social. One of our favourite tasks!
Canonbury Square Gardens (Saturday 21st January)
The resident team of volunteers at Canonbury Square in Islington will be hosting their monthly open volunteer gardening morning from 10am-12 midday. A great task to pop in to after parkrun at Highbury Fields or Finsbury Park!
Sign up here:
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/friends-of-canonbury-square-volunteer-morning-january
Victoria Park Time Trial- January Edition!
Area Activator Simon will be starting the ever-popular Victoria Park time trial this Sunday (22nd January from 11am), but this time with a twist!
The challenge is to complete a "blind handicap" 5km time trial to the best of your personal pacing abilities. The objective is to run our 5km time trial course as close to your projected time as possible, without the use of a watch or pacing equipment to guide you!
Read more about this session here:
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/track-attack-january-2023-victoria-park-blind-handicap-challenge
January Starter Session 2- Highbury Fields junior parkrun and Penn Road Gardens
On Sunday 29th January, we will be hosting a special group run and the opportunity to complete double good deeds!
Task 1 will be to volunteer for Highbury Fields junior parkrun, a free weekly timed 2km run designed for 4-14 year olds to run independently and safely. The volunteer team will be looking for marshals, funnel managers, time keepers, barcode scanners and tail walkers.
For more information, see the event page:
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/january-group-run-starter-session-highbury-fields-junior-parkrun
Penn Road Gardens Open Volunteer Morning
Following our parkrun volunteering, we will then run 2 miles approximately as a social group over to our next task location, Penn Road Gardens, between Caledonian and Holloway Road.
This little idyll in the middle of Islington is maintained purely by local gardens and helpers. Expect some great fun composting and leaf gathering tasks with other neighbours!
Sign up here:
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Islington
Joining the lovely resident gardeners at Thornhill Square Gardens for an evening of composting, watering and maintenance
