Clearing up at Stompie Garden!

It was a beautiful afternoon in Bermondsey, a lot nicer than it was this time last week when this visit was initially planned for!

Due to a few injuries and bouts of forgetfullness, the group was split into runners and walkers. The walkers set off a little earlier and we met them there a few minutes later!

We knew we had arrived at the garden because of the ginormous tank sitting in the middle of it.

What's the story?!

The tank is thought to have originally been used by the Czech military during the fighting of the Prague Spring reforms in 1968, but was then brought to London for the filming of the movie, Richard III, and later purchased in 1995 by local property developer, Russell Gray. He had wanted to build on the empty lot, but his proposal was shut down by the city council. Gray, who initially bought the tank as a toy for his son, following the council's rejections placed it in the empty lot with the cannon pointing rather conveniently in the direction of the Southwark Council’s planning offices.

Steps were taken by the council to have the tank removed from the property, but Gray had actually obtained legal permission to keep it on the land. The city council approved the permits thinking he had meant “septic tank”!!! And it still sits there to this day, often being decorated or painted by various local artists.

The garden has recently been transformed into a lovely community space which is what we were tasked to help with! We were greeted by Peter who we met on our previous visit at Tabard Garden Allotments. He looks after a few spaces in the area and this one in particular needed some work.

There was a big patch at the back which was totally covered in weeds and a huge overgrown bush of ivy that was covering the fence and beyond. We split into to groups and started clearing as much as possible. Bags were getting filled at lightning speed. It is always quite easy when everything is a weed and you don't have to tiptoe around potential precious plants.

After 40 minutes, the place had been transformed and it was all hands on deck to bag up as much green waste as possible. Matt wheeled the bags to the corner on his little trolley and it was time to go!

Those in running gear joined me for a little core workout in Tabard Gardens. A circuit consisting of 3 exercises - slow mountain climbers, bicycle crunches and dead bugs to get all the different muscles in the abdominals working. A strong core is super important for running as it enables you to keep a nice upright posture and run faster for longer. As soon as your core gives up, you begin to slouch and hinge at the waist and you quickly lose running efficiency so it's certainly worthwhile including a few little core moves a few times a week. Doesn't have to be much, we literally did about 6 minutes worth and you can't say you don't have time for that! Just finish your run 6 minutes earlier and come home and do a few reps.

A little jog back to the office followed by a stretch and we were done!

Great work everyone! Peter was absolutely DELIGHTED with all the work you got done! The garden is now ready to have some new plants put in for the summer. Well done and see you next time for our last GoodGym run!

11 awesome runners ran 5k and helped out at the Tabard Garden's Community Allotments!

Yesterday was the fourth installment of GoodGym runs! So far we have helped at a charity shop, cleaned up the Thames and packed up Christmas presents for those in need... so many good deeds! This time, we kept it very local, just around the corner in fact, at the Tabard Gardens Community Allotments.

Since it was a stones throw from the office, we ran around the block a bit to add a bit of distance and then shortly arrived at the allotment. We were greeted by Peter who helps with the upkeep of the place. He explained a few things that needed doing, the main one being to dismantle the fruit cage and dig out all the plants.

Everyone made their way over to the cage and started untying the net. Within minutes it had been removed and it was time to start digging everything up! Everyone grabbed a fork or a shovel and got stuck in! After about 15 minutes, all the shrubs had been removed and set aside for safekeeping. They will be replanted elsewhere in a few days time. Then it was all hands on deck weeding, clearing leaves and picking litter.

Amazingly you guys managed to fill 6 of the big brown bags full of weeds and leaves. It would have taken Peter hours to do that himself so really well done.

He was quite a shy guy but later in the day I received a lovely message from him saying how thankful he was for all of your help. It's not often that he gets volunteers down at the allotment so when he does it makes a huge difference. Nice work!

Need for speeeeeed!

After 40 minutes or so it was time to head off. Sadly we said farewell to the cyclists while the rest of us headed to Bermondsey Spa Gardens for a mini interval session. The circle is about 340 meters all the way around and hardly anyone there so perfect for some fast running! We did a little ladder of 1 lap followed by 1 minute rest, 2 laps 2 mins rest and finally 3 laps 3 mins rest with the aim being to try and keep a consistent pace throughout each interval. It was great to see you all push yourselves and open up your stride a bit! Lots of extremely speedy people in the group! After 6 fast laps it was time for a nice easy cool down jog back to the office and a stretch!

Until next time....!

13 awesome runners ran 4km to help clean up on the River Thames!

It was the second installment of the GoodGym & For Goodness Shakes collaborations and this time it was all about clearing up our London river!

It has been in the news so much recently about single use plastic and how so much of it ends up in the oceans harming the wildlife. Since plastic never decomposes, it just gets broken down into gradually smaller and smaller pieces called micro-plastic and sadly that is the kind of stuff that gets eaten by seabirds and marine animals resulting in millions of deaths each year. Apparently there are more pieces of microplastic in our oceans than there are stars in our galaxy.... CRAZY!!!!!!

We met at the office, distributed some gloves, litter pickers and bin bags and then made our way towards Rotherhithe where I knew of some good unlocked entrances down to the Thames shoreline. Before we were even half way there, loads of stuff had already been collected. Plastic bottles, coffee cups, straws, cigarette butts, carrier bags, crisp packets, cans of drink.... the list goes on!

We arrived at the steps to take us down to the river where there is usually a lot of rubbish that gets washed up at low tide. The team headed down, split up and went different directions along the cobbly river bed. After 20 minutes, the tide was starting to come in and it was time to move on. We went to another location a little further down for the last 10 minutes to collect more stuff. By this point, the bin bags were nearly all the way full and getting heavy, especially with the amount of glass there was lying around!

After 30 minutes it was time to head back so we went a slightly different way to the office, to try and maximise our pickings! All the full bin bags were disposed of in nearby bins and the last two fresh ones distributed! It was all hands on deck on the way back trying to fill them with as much stuff as possible! And it didn't even seem like a struggle! There was so much waste hidden in bushes, in the carparks, on the streets next to the curbs.. just loads when you go looking for it!

The last two bags were filled and we called it a day! A nice gentle jog back to the office to finish off the run!

Great work everyone!! You collected so much waste which is amazing! Lots of people were really appreciative of all the work you were doing, especially the residents near the carpark we did at the end so really well done! See you in a few weeks time for the Christmas special!