29 runners wrapped up and braced the cold last night to blast GoodGym Camden into a good start for February!

We were joined by another new face joining the herd - hey Alex! - hope you enjoyed yourself in the spoof Inside the Factory tour (more on that later) and will be back with us again soon. Why not go and give him a cheer for becoming a fully-fledged GoodGym runner now?

After a quick intro speech, Louise took 10 runners over to the American International Church to make the beds, and I explained a little more about our bigger task at Alara Wholefoods before we got outside and stretched.

C4WS Report (written by Louise)

Nine runners came on our 13th visit to the American International Church, helping make 17 beds for the homeless people's shelter. It was almost unlucky, but we narrowly avoided duvetgeddon in the hunt for a rogue bag of bedding! With our human chain in action, we achieved in a few minutes what would have taken an hour for the busy volunteers at the church. Afterwards we took a longer route to Granary Square for a quick fitness session and to take in the new light displays.

Alara Report

17 of us arrived at Alara dreaming of mulch and granola. Alex was there to greet us and, boy, was there a bit to get through tonight, even if we were so many.

Two types of mulch needed to be shoveled (by hand and spade - see pictures!) and moved into two different areas with buckets and wheelbarrows - one of the types was fresh and was used in the permaculture garden and the other was a bit more ripe and needed to be shoveled onto the beds above the tires. Another team were in charge of litter-picking the gardens outside the front of the warehouse. It's lovely to see how much difference about 20 minutes of litterpicking can do to brighten up an area that was otherwise dotted with crisp packets and gum packets. One last team was tasked with lifting and lugging the big branches that were in between the layers of the riper mulch and moving them to the back of the garden. With everyone working flat out and rotating tasks to keep warm, we got everything finished by 8pm and then the real fun began.

Alex outdid himself this time with showing us their operation at Alara; we got a behind the scenes Inside the Factory (BBC2) style tour! From seed milling (a huge pallet-full stacked up with at least twenty 10kg bags takes around 3 hours apparently) to compostable bagging, it was fascinating to see how the production line comes together to make the delicious granola we all know and love. After the factory tour had finished, Alex wizzed us over to the warehouse and gave us all a box of their new fancy product; acai bowl powder!

The extended factory tour meant that we didn't have time for a few laps of Granary Square, but instead ran home via there so we could catch a glimpse at the new light displays. Very Canary Wharf of them, don't you think?

NEXT TIME

Community, Community, Community: Liz has set up a few tasks for us next weekend at Camden Highline. There are three in total and you can sign up to all of them right here.

Next week: We're going back to C4WS next week as normal, but there'll be a bigger task that I'm working to confirm in the meantime. Should know more in time for the Monday weekly email. Get your name down for next week's run here.

LET'S GET SOCIAL! As I mentioned at the end of the run, we've got a Camden Socials WhatsApp group. John has organised a pub quiz for us on the 20th February (Thursday night) that you can sign up to there. The next social after that will be axe-throwing in March (organised by yours truly), so plenty of variety on top of our regular appearances at the pub after Wednesday runs.

See you next week!

Happy running in the meantime

34 GoodGymers hit the ground running in Camden last night as the final of the Christmas Tree Run loomed large.

We tried an slightly-earlier-than-normal intro speech so we could set the American International Church team off to avoid a crossover. From the good feedback we got from it, I'm going to keep doing this until our runs to C4WS finish at the end of next month.

N.B. If you can, try and get to us at St Pancras & Somers Town Living Centre for a 6:55 start (not the normal 7pm) for the next 6 weeks, it would be really appreciated. This is to minimise the crossover with the homeless shelter users and us. I'll keep reminding you about it in the GoodGym Camden weekly email on Mondays, just in case.

Tonight was also a special night for me as I - finally - hit 50 Good Deeds! Dear runner, you'll be pleased to know that I have - with all the haste of a thousand winds - ordered my black t-shirt and will be wearing it at least once before going back to the Trainer Red t-shirt. Thanks Abi for the shout-out and Liz for baking two of the most delicious cakes I've had in a long time. That chocolate one just melted in my mouth. Delicious. Go and give her a cheer if you had a slice.

C4WS Report (written by Beth)

10 of us ran 3km to help the American International Church with their winter homeless shelter. We made up 10 beds very quickly and then had a chat with Jonathan, the Minister. He said that they have had over 30 guests so far this season, the majority of whom have since gone on to more permanent living arrangements - a real testimony to the dedication of the team’s holistic approach to caring for the local homeless population.

Jonathan invited GoodGym to their Volunteer Appreciation Supper on 6th May - it would be great to have some representatives from GoodGym there, so do put the date in your diary and go along. We'll pass on more info closer to the time.

Christmas Tree Run (Part 2)

Tonight was the final outing of the Second-Annual Camden Christmas Tree Run and boy did we get some miles in! Collecting 23 trees this late in January was a great effort and well done all who took part.

Without further ado, the results you've all been waiting for:

WINNERS! Team Breaking and Entreeing - 8!

Team Cirque de Pine - 6 (with a whopping 9.23km run!)

Treem Tree - 6 (2.5km)

Team Januar-Tree - 4

Team Weren't We-Supposed-To-Be-Running-The-Short-Route?! - 4

It was lovely to see a mix of old and new-ish Camden runners running together in last night's teams. I was out on a Sadiq Bike (they change name with each new Mayor, right?!) checking in on a few teams as the competition was going and seeing you all sprint around, plan your attacks and lug trees to the various collection points all in the spirit of GoodGym was brill. Keep coming back - you're what makes good GoodGym so well... great!

Next time

COMMUNITY MISSIONS, AHOY! As the January Challenge approaches week three, we're cracking on with missions. Fancy volunteering at the Ally Pally Parkrun this Saturday 8:30-10? A few of us are heading up there and you're more than welcome to come along. Community missions are a good way to get a feel for what GoodGym's about without the numbers we usually get on Wednesdays, especially so if you're really busy in the weekdays as a lot of us are.

Sally's leading another community mission down in SE15 with Plastic Free Peckham from 2-4pm on Sunday. If you're feeling extra good, why not try both?

It's also the first Crouch End Open Space (CREOS) community mission of 2020 this Sunday 11-1pm. There was also talk of an after-task picnic, potentially with some cider in the sunshine. They're a lovely bunch up there and I'm sure they'd love to see even more people come along.

NEXT WEEK Normal Christmas-tree-less service resumes next Wednesday as we run back to C4WS (homeless shelter). A bigger group of us are running to Cecil Sharp House for the first time in 2020 for some weeding, clearing and tidying up of their garden spaces. Come one, come all.

Have a great week (and don't forget to get those Strava profiles linked to add your miles to the Camden January Challenge)!

Ben