This week 4 red tees (well 3, Nish must have left his in the wash) joined forces for a big challenge at INUF - The Independent Newham Users Forum.

We scuttled down to the other side of Stratford via the two shopping centres, old & new until we arrived at the charity on Romford Road. We met with Chris our lead for the evening and Dez, the man with the cam who wasted no time in snapping our sweaty mugs.

We followed hastily behind Chris who led us outside to the soon to be 'pride and joy' of the centre. The outdoor area has started to take shape in the form of various gardening patches around the entire perimeter of the centre: our task was to clear one of the largest areas in order for it to be used for a new gardening project. The pile of debris that awaited us was vast and we had a large empty skip ordered just for us, and we had every intention of filling it to the brim.

We got to work clearing, moving, lifting and shifting the pile of debris that had been sitting there for half a year. I spotted several beasty spiders the size of small tarantulas but did my best to play it cool...success, I think
The guys battled a large RSJ with a bit of concrete still on the end to make it extra authentic. Large, thick tree branches and some trunks were all tricky to shift too but the biggest challenge came in the form of THE WHITE SAND BAG.

2 tried to load it in the skip at first, then all 4 teamed up taking a corner of the bag each to get it in. Several deep breaths and position changes later we realised it was futile, the bag was just not having it.

End result: the heaviest bag ever had to be unloaded shovel by shovel to get it in.

We wrestled on for a good hour until the patch was clear, then we headed back to the park via route B for our routine stretches.

Great work guys, see you next week

Kirsty

A small but perfectly formed group of 5 gathered in the Olympic park for a mellow task

We have been doing a lot of physical, back breaking work across gardens in Newham lately so this week we switched it up to Librarian duties. After a pacey 3k run to Durning Hall Community Centre in Forest Gate we were greeted with two tasks:

• The first was to unpack stacks of books that have been donated and sort them into fiction and non fiction.
• The second was to replace several notice board cork tiles across various rooms in the centre.

Me and Andreana got to work upstairs with the tiles whilst the others started sifting through books. On the way upstairs we bumped into a new organisation 'Feeding the Homeless' that has literally just set up, and who we will definitely be joining forces with in the near future.

Once in the Hostel we quickly realised there was much more than meets the eye with the job. Armed with nothing but tiles we were unequipped to remove the current tiles and cut and glue up new ones so we aborted the mission.

Instead we rejoined the others who had made huge progress with the sorting (slight advantage in the team with Lauren's past Library experience), plus some great finds - in particular Cheryl and Ashley...thanks for that Sajid.

We got through most but not all of the books, because quite frankly there just wasn't enough room, even after disposing of some that were worse for wear.

Our time was up!

We started making our way back to the park with partnered interval runs through the quiet residential areas and then coasted back after. Not forgetting the sprint up the Rocky stairs.

Thanks for coming guys, back to the hard stuff next week as we visit INUF Mental Health Charity for the first time to take on a big clear out.

Kirsty

Another park session was on the cards this week with every intention of a beach volleyball 'cool down' at the end.

Fresh from the anniversary games the park was a bit more alive than usual, with virtually no signs of obtrusive building work around the stadium....Whoop!

We did our intros, welcomed Newham newbies Allie and Nick and set off towards our garden project. Buzzing from our last visit and soil manicures we were ready for some fast paced wheelbarrow action and plenty of lifting.

Once in we were briefed that our job this time round was to start filling the planters with soil. We quickly realised this was a lot more tricky than just topping them up. The first release of soil was oh so important. The female duo of Ros and Allie mastered the technique of precision pouring and after a couple of test runs they repeatedly achieved 0% spillage. The other duos were not quite as neat but still did a wicked job.

As we worked we had a chance to admire the progress in the garden; plenty of edible plants rising up from the beds, a Spoken word/workshop shed fresh from a project in Hackney Wick, newly built compost bins and new signage to name a few. The site has had plenty of help from team building events and volunteers so development is fast. (particularly when we're there).

After our task we got ready to do a 1km fartlek lap and some group planking where the main words of encouragement were...

'Don't kick one another'.

Post session it was time for one thing......BEACH VOLLEYBALL!!!

Luckily Beach East was open this time round so we quickly migrated to either side of the net, put on our game faces and played volleyball until the sun set. By far my favourite end to a GoodGym session.

Same time and place next week.

Kirsty