21 Amazing Hackney GoodGymers ran 6.5k collecting and carrying 35 Christmas trees to the tree drop off area on Southgate road.

A warm and windy welcome to our GoodGym first timers as Storm Brendon had us on our toes scuppering our original task at Abney Park Cemetery with a pesky Yellow weather warning which kept the gates firmly shut!! We have rescheduled that task for next week!!

As last minute tasks go this was a really good one! Combining an task that will help the community by clearing pathways to improve accessibility and removing the potential fit the trees to get blown about in the high winds to do damage to people or property!

The hero moves started early with the first trees being picked up at London fields with the casual 3k carry ahead we came up with a number of ingenious carrying techniques!! From the Baywatch over the shoulder, heavy end carry, light end drag and to the team carry. All amazing and all highly effective!!

Zipping West towards the West West Hackneyish Christmas tree drop off location we had big trees, little tree, potted trees and gigantic trees!! All no match for our efforts!!

With all the trees stacked up with had enough time for a Chi special mini fitness session! Wall sits, crab walks and some jump squats got the legs working and heart racing!!

With a great task complete we ran back to base, stretched out and headed off into the night!!

Thanks for everyone for coming!

A Starter Session/ Community Mission combo on Sunday with the Starter session beginning with a little run at 10am (9:45 meet). The community missions can be done at any time until 2pm all at Hackney Downes!

See you next time

Joel

p.s thanks to Eva and Chi for the extra (not blurry) pictures!!

29 Happy Hackney GoodGymers ran 3k to help Wilton Estate Community garden in a mega weeding expedition!!

Amazing to see so many fancy to kick off 2020!! Loving the bumper GoodGym first timer crew, hope the session is the first of many with both Hackney and GoodGym!!

Remember we run the same time and from same starting location for the next 49 straight weeks so make it a habit and join us as regularly as you can for some community minded running fun!!

The task!! One of Hackney’s longest running tasks with GoodDeeds having been collected here for the last 6 or so years it was great to have Wilton Estate Community garden there to start off the year!

After a indirect 2.5km run to the gardens with everyone catching up and meeting up after our Christmas break! Thanks to Toyin for backmarking!! We arrived at Wilton ready for action, meeting task owners Gilly and Ulus who guided us through the tasks. We split up Into 3 groups and got straight on it! We had the mulchers who were finishing off the last of the huge mulch pile we decimated just before Christmas. This time shovelling, barrowing, tipping and raking the smaller garden that we previously cleared.

A high quality mini group got stuck into a smaller flower bed with a few prickly tangles to contend with to rid the over grown bed of the big bad weeds ready for planting!

Then a major task of the evening, the massive jungle like bed that we tackled in the rain 2 years ago got it’s just deserts. With a monumental clearing effort from 16 grafting GoodGymers!! In 50 minutes turning the Jungle into a clear flower bed ready for some Spring time bloom!!

Completing and exceeding the tasks we filled a massive 8 tonne bags of garden waste and dragged them to be collected in the morning. With 8 minutes to play with Chi asked if he could start the year with a little most conditioning and got everyone’s heart rate up and core muscles working with a short bit very effective fitness blast!!

With time short we zipped back to base in the nick of time before we stretched out and disappeared into the night with a smile on our faces and a big impact for a great community garden!

Next week it is a 3k run each way to Abney Park Cemetery where we will be dominating another great physical task!! Sign up and see you there!! If you have a head torch it’s a good one to bring it along for.

Joel

p.s Thanks to Chi for the extra pictures and Liz for the WhatsApp group Admin!!