25 Bold and bright Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Patk Cemetery to shovel, carry, pour, jump on and rake 13 tones of special gravel to create a foot path.

On a oh so rare lovely summers evening in Hackney we had a brilliant turn out to light up the streets and bring some GoodGym shine to East London. Great to have so many GoodGym newbies and Hackney GoodGym newbies aboard the Tuesday evening Running Fun bus. We even had a special visit from Ken the trainer of newly opening GoodGym Chelmsford.

After a never to be attempted again new runner briefing and a not that informative pre run chat (sorry will do better next week). We got jogged around the corner to London Fields and got mobilised and warm with a dynamic warm up before heading out on the streets of H-Town brilliantly lead by Hackney Task Force members Clare and Cecilia assisted by the all important route map print out. Gliding through streets keeping a silky pace we reached Abney Park Cemetery to meet the super knowledgeable Tom who got us tooled up and gave us a interesting history of the cemetery and what happens there today.

Tonight we were starting the processes of creating/laying a footpath on an always hugely muddy path that runs through the cemetery. The idea is to create a path which is useable all year around this no need to walk to the sides of the path. The cemetery is a nature reserve keeping the nutrient levels down on the sides of the paths is key and this will allow wild flowers to grow instead of only brambles and weeds.

Starting at a ferocious pace the team split into 4 teams to get the most possible work done! Diggers, barrow runners, path rakers and path smoother's. The special cement composite gravel was being shovelled at a pace while the barrow runners tore up and down the path tipping the gravel out for the smothers to get smoothing by jumping up and down on it to compact it down then raking it smooth. While the path rakers formed a non chain gang and reduced the camber height in the middle of the path. A super sustained effort with everyone having a go at most jobs saw the pace stay high, particularly from the magic barrow that was being shared between Andreana and Holly. Big shout out must also go to Amy for her jumping up and down dance skills!

After 35 minutes for action we had laid 13 tonnes of gravel and turned it into about a 50 metre stretch of path! Top work team 👏🏾👏🏼👏🏻👏🏿

For the run back Team Sexy set off first on the race back to base, being lead by Cecilia the crew set a strong and steady pace. While The Speedy crew set off 3 minutes later and the Supersonic team lead by Rich waiting another 2 minutes before heading out after finishing off the post task tidy up. An epic race back to base with an impressive Supersonic long cut saw all three groups arrive back to base having completed an awesome run and an quality task!!

A few stretches and silent round of applause rounded off a top evenings Group run!!

Next week we are off to the Bikery for some painting action please sign up here.

On Saturday seesGoodGym ParRun tour come to Hackney Marshes ParkRun. Be great to see you there for 5k timed run. All the information can be found here.

Good luck to Ken as he starts on the Chelmsford GoodGym adventure next week!!

Thanks to Rich for the pun this week!!

Smooth Speed

Joel

19 Hackney GoodGymers ran a speedy 4.5k to the Wilton Estate community Garden to dig, cut, plant and water our way to a stunning running victory.

On a night of almost ideal running conditions we were lucky enough to welcome back a few regulars from holidays, 3 amazing GoodGym newbies and an array of GoodGym glitterati.

We started the evening after a pressurised head count and pulse raiser with a series of mobilising dynamic exercises to get our key running muscles and joints ready for action. Once the joints were fully WD40ed up we moved onto some running form drills mixed in with a range of important lower body strength exercises. With our form tight, our core engaged, strength amped up and our running efficiency off the charts we ran 1k to Wilton Estate through the Hackney backstreets.

Arriving we were met by the always amazing Debbie who tooled us up and divided a range of great tasks to help maintain the ever expanding Wilton Estate community garden. With groups cutting back tree suckers, watering entire gardens by watering can and a hose, lifting and repositioning huge wooden planters, filling them with compost, trimming the orchard and finally planting hundreds of bulbs.

The gardens were a buzz of activity with the GoodGym crew flying around get Good done well, completing all the tasks in 35 minutes of top draw action.

A quick tidy up and we were ready to head on our way, but not too far as we explored the Wilton nearly 500 raceway. Lap 1 we got our running legs back under is, Lap to we ran hard along the short sides, Lap 3 we worked hard for half a lap before collecting ourselves for a monumental full lap timed effort on a super speedy Lap 4. A top lung busting effort by everyone and hope that we can see some speed improvements when we go back the the Raceway later in the summer!

A short chilled floaty run back to base followed by a series of static stretches saw us finish off a top notch evening of running fun!

Next week we are off to Bootstrap to lift, shift and team manoeuvre some big barrels. Please sign up here.

As I said in the into be great to have you all along to Hackney Marshes ParkRun on 9th of July to test out our Saturday morning Speed! For all the info and to sign up click here.

Until next week

Smooth Sprinting

Joel