NINE amazing runners braved the heat and joined me to help Harlesden Town Garden and unbeknownst to them take part in a 1km time trial too!

What a Monday - it had reached 30 degrees in central London earlier in the day and it was still super hot as we met at the Queensbury for this edition of GoodGym Brent.

We said welcome back to Amy who was joining us for the first time since January - welcome back!

With everyone hydrated, we gathered for a brief intro in the sun, I explained that we'd be doing a 1km time trial this evening so that we'd have more entries to the GG Olympics and that we were off to Harlesden Town Garden to help them out with more clearing work.

Task!

With that done we set off on the run. The heat was extremely oppressive but we stuck together and got there in good time. Gabriel then explained what we had to do. There was some chopping back of a hedge but the main work was in clearing the path around the garden. Various bits of ivy and plants had been chopped down and we were clearing it out and chopping it down so it could be bagged and taken away.

With some hardcore efforts from Caroline, Scott and Claire to remove some very strong ivy roots - we reckon we're going to come back to tackle the rest - we all gathered for a group photo and the headed off for the time trial!

Trial!

We gathered in Roundwood park which is handily 1.07 km long around the perimeter. After an unnecessarily long intro and explanation of the route and with much strava-starting we got the first five lined up and off they went! While we waited for them to come round we discovered that the 1000m world record is 2m11s - crazy! It didn't take long for the first group to get back and then we swapped over and the next five went around...and Uthman went for another lap - now that is crazy!

Times are below (extrapolated 1km time in brackets) - great effort from everyone! (strava times may differ)

• Amy - 5m32 (5m10)
• Caroline - 5m48 (5m25)
• Clare - 5m50 (5m27)
• Claire - 4m56 (4m37)
• Ellen - 4m54 (4m35)
• Liz - 4m48 (4m29)
• Lucy - 5m49 (5m26)
• Pritesh - 4m12 (3m55)
• Scott - 4m11 (3m54)
• Uthman - 4m25 (4m07) ... and 6m08

Amazing

With that we recovered and then jogged back to base, stretched, marvelled at the football results and a few of us stayed for a drink and some GG Brent Olympic torch planning! Top effort from everyone, and whilst we may have wilted in the heat we showed our speed in that time trial!

Thanks and sign up here for next week - we're hopefully off to the canal!

Cheers, Pritesh