DOING GOOD

Yesterday we headed out from the Jurys Inn through Derby City & enjoyed an undulating route to Osmaston Park Allotments, where we were met by the delightful Sharron from Derby City Council & Terry from the allotment committee. Even refreshments had been laid out for the GG Derby tribe this week (winning!) & after sipping on an ice-cold beverage & enjoying a fizzy kitty (fancy sweet FYI) it was time to get stuck in!

Our task this week was in preparation for a bigger revamp of Osmaston Park Allotments, scheduled for the end of September where different volunteer groups from across Derby will work for a day to improve & renovate this space. As the heroes in red tees, we were coming in early to make a head start on two of the plots; one of which is owned by a younger couple whose plot had fallen to neglect after they'd sadly experienced health problems & the second plot owned by an elderly gent, who had grown some impressive pumpkins on one half, but where the other half had grown too unruly for him to manage.

On looking at our wild-work stations we almost lost the plot (hehe) as we were a little unsure of how much impact we could have in 40 minutes, but we need not have worried. With our red tees & Cath Kidston gloves donned & tools in hand, we set to work in two highly rotivated teams & dug, raked & weeded the heck out of those plots! The before & after shots do our hard work justice; taming the wild in the name of home-grown produce.

Sharron - delighted by our hard work - has already been in touch to say:

It was fantastic and they are amazing!

Mission Achievements:

• TWO plots raked, weeded & dug to perfection

• ONE huge spider saved (or maybe one Tracey saved from the spider?)

• A total of over SEVEN hours of volunteering

WHILST GETTING FIT

This good-deed took us to a different part of Derby & there were definitely a few hills along the 10km route there & back (the give away was the faces as red as the GG tees on arrival at the allotments!) To maximize time at the task we incorporated the fitness session into our run, covering approximately one mile in speed-work, using Fartlek training as our torture method. We sprinted to one lamp post & then jogged to the next, catching our breath before the next sprint effort.

As well as a tough run this week, we shoveled, pulled & raked those plots, getting in a work-out as good as any session at the gym! Who's aching today?

Fitness Achievements:

• Approximately ONE-HUNDRED-&-TEN km covered on foot (combined effort)

• ONE mile of speed-work bossed per GG member

• FORTY minutes of raking, digging & weeding

AND WE VISITED THE MOON!

On our run back, we stopped our Garmin devices just before the Jurys Inn, at the Derby Cathedral to check out the amazing touring moon (happy dance from Emma!) Breath-taking... literally, as we'd just ran up a hill to get there.

Thank yous...

• Alistar for joining us for the first time. We hope you had fun!

• Peter, Ashley & Steve for the puns, some of which I've tried to include in this report... comment any I've missed!

• Sam for back-marking (& limping through the run on post-ironman legs)

• And to everyone else for smiling, getting in stuck in & being awesome

See you all soon!