After an evening of shovelling manure on the Hackney group run, the gang were unsure what kind of reception we would receive when we turned up at the restaurant unannounced and ponging.

But we needn't have worried, as there's always get a warm reception at Tad - a Hackney favourite for socials, due to the enormous portions of delicious Turkish food. As the huge piles of flatbreads and dips, salad platters, mezze, moussaka and shish arrived, we soon forgot about the whiff of our trainers and tucked in.

Tonight the group was celebrating Mireille's 50th good deed, as well as some recent great performances at the Big Half so it was cheers all round!

24 speedy GoodGymers ran 3k to Gascoyne Estate community garden and shovelled a cubic tonne of soil!!

Some new faces to Hackney this week, giving our GoodGym and Hackney first timers a warm welcome! Our returning Big Half Heroes we’re out in force after their magnificent efforts of Sunday morning, legs a bit tired but huge smiles from a massive achievement!!

With a little condensed time time to play with as the Bakehouse was closing up slightly early so we set off at pace to Gascoyne Estate, 10 minutes and we were in! Meeting up with Derek from the garden we set to work trying to make a dent in the monstrous pile of soil that the council had given them on Friday.

Thanks to Peter for bringing along extra wheelbarrows and shovels to allow us all to be as productive as possible!

Our help allowed the community garden to accept the 3 tonne soil delivery from the Council which allows not only community gardens to prosper but also residential Gardens to thrive with a little extra growing magic soil. Without the soil being moved away from pavements and parking bays it would be impossible for the soil donation to be accepted. Paying for the amount of soil to keep a community garden blooming is not viable.

We got stuck right in ferrying the soil to all corners of the community garden, using wheelbarrows, bins, big pots and anything else we could lay our hands on! Speedy shovelling and precision tipping made light work of this heavy duty task!

Making use of every available second we managed to squeeze in 55 minutes of soil shifting action before we took advantage of the local hospitality comprising of fruit and water then zipping back to base to grab our bags before they were locked in!

Great to see a big contingent head off for the monthly social to celebrate our Half marathon success as well as Mireille’s 50th Good Deed!!

Next week we will be heading off to Abney Park look forward to seeing you then!!

Smooth Running

Joel

Big shout out to GG First timer Ali for the epic pun!!