31 Buoyant GoodGymers feed of the Hackney Half Energy to dominate 90 minutes of GoodGym excellence!

Flying high after our 21.1km of Running fun on Sunday we had a bumper group this evening!! Great to have Goodgym first timers along for their maiden voyage as well as everyone else who came out for a top session!!

After a bit of a longer chat than normal we headed off negotiating the Hackney backstreets to take us to Clapton Square to meet Hackney Park Ranger Bruce who had the tools ready for us us to dive straight in!

Dividing up into two groups we gloved up grabbed a hoe and got weeding! Making great progress in the almost Jungle on the Southside of the park we have the flower beds a though weeding with expert hoeing, take out every weed in side before bagging the weeds into 1 of the 20 crammed oversized bin bags we filled.

With 40 minutes of solid weeding literally in the bag we had a treat as Chima had scouted out 2 Strava segments for us to hunt the records for! As a warm up for our bursts of speed Chima hit us to the core and got us fully engaged in some tough core exercises with 3 back to back moves in 3 toning minutes!

We then zoomed back to base registering very well on the Strava Leaderboards with turn of Foot!

Next week is a very special celebration as Eva hits her 100th GoodDeed and Clair her 50th needless to say we will head out after the Group Run!! A triumphant return to Spoons on Mare Street awaits which will double up as a craft workshop to make the Hackney Team flag for the GoodGym Olympics!!

Struggling with GG website at moment so might take a day or so to get Group Run up but as always it will be going ahead so see you there!!

Smooth Running

Joel

27 sunshine filled Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shift a tonne of mulch to an enchanted secret path.

Welcoming a bumper summer turnout of energetic GoodGymers we had big celebrations this week!! With Anna reaching a perfectly paced Century of GoodDeeds! A massive congratulations to Anna for all her hard work, positively, and consistency!! A huge thank you to Clair for her expert and very tasty special Edition celebratory Cake.

On we went to Abney Park and a speedy pace this week to spread out the tribe on our way to Stokey to avoid too many bottle necks along the way. Meeting Tom we armed ourselves with tools a-plenty and delved into the overgrowth of Abney Park!

We a team of strong Shovellers and our endurance bunny team on the wheelbarrows we got into a nice rhythm filling and running the 400 metre loop to tip out the mulch.

Our team of precision rakers had the mulch under control to sculpt it into a perfect springy path way in the depths of the park!

With an seemingly ever growing mulch pile we had to really pick up the pace to complete the path in 40 Energised minutes of GG action!

With time tight we swept up the last of the mulch to leave it tidy for a film crew on Thursday and even a little chat with a UK Jazz legend before we dropped the running hammer dashing back to back in record time!!

Stenches out, 11 of the crew headed out to Tad Turkish restaurant to enjoy a celebration meal with Queen Anna!

See you next week

Smooth Running

Joel

p.s pretty please sign up for the session even if it is 1 minute before you arrive, makes my life much easier! but if you forget please still cone along!

16 Hackney GoodGymer ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to clear 160 ivy covered grave stones so that that a comprehensive grave database can be mapped.

Great to have a strong crew along for the run, lovely to welcome our GoodGym first timers along for their maiden outing to.

Zipping away lead by the energetic Katie along our well trodden 3k path to Abney Park to meet Park Ranger Tom. With a choice of tasks for the evening we decided to explore into the far reaches of the park as for the first time since September we had a light fuelled task in Abney.

With Tom’s words of precision clipping and watching out for the highly unlikely birds nest in the Ivy. We set off to explore a new wild and overgrown area of the park!

Splitting up and heading deep under ivy cover we got clipping! Taking off just enough vegetation so the grave stones can be read and even slipping off some ivy that hadn’t grown on tight. Making great progress as we went, getting to fell a few trees that were starting to grow in the wrong place before Eva made the ** Bird Call!!** a nest had been discovered!! With Eva’s amazing eye of detail on full show she had found a Black Birds nest nestled between the Ivy and Grave stone. As we had found out from Tom it was a Criminal Offence to knowingly remove a birds nest, punishable by prison time Eva made sure not to trouble the eggs (after a picture or two obviously).

Picking up the pace as we used every second of time this evening we cleared over 160 grave stones ready for mapping!

Only left us with the prize giving for Oldest grave stone won by Gulê and best name won by Katie who received the much coveted Abney Park eraser.

Ros led the way back to base at a strong pace to complete a top Hackney session!!

Next week GoodGym Camden/Islington Trainer Paul will be Running the show on your trip to Mabley Green. I will be back on the 24th for Group Run and Monthly Social. Catch you in a couple!

Smooth Running

Joel

P.S Thanks to Ros and Eva for nest pictures.

As we bring the Easter bank holiday to a close it seemed fitting to do some good work in a churchyard and tonight eighteen intrepid runners did just that as we headed out to the striking St. Luke's Church off Morning Lane in Hackney to clear a congregation of leaves from their yard.

The session began with warm-up in London Fields and the action then took us towards Hackney Town Hall for some drills in the shape of sprints and grapevining. There was some pretty nifty footwork on show from our runners and by now everyone was well limbered up for the next section of the 2.5 km run that took us to St Luke's.

We welcomed three new members to our group tonight, it was great to meet Robyn, Stephanie and Nowrin.

With no time to waste the group went hammer and tongs at the task of clearing a huge quantity of leaves from the churchyard. Two score and ten bin bags were stuffed to bursting completely clearing the churchyard and revealing a tranquil space that could almost have had Thomas Gray reaching for his quill and parchment.

With the sun beginning to set and the task done there was no let up for our band of sisters and brothers as we downed tools and hit the road over to Well Street Common picking up the pace before rounding the final bend along Well Street and back to our Bakehouse base. With 5 km, an interval session and a ton of cleared leaves under our belts it was a job well done.

Despite the great work, I have to end our report on a sad note and console with two of our group who became the victims of crime with a bike and a bike wheel being stolen from outside London Fields station. We all feel your pain guys, absolutely gutted for you, sadly there are some bad people out there and we all need to take every precaution against thievery.