Nine dynamic GoodGymers ran 3k to help the Hackney Downs HUG garden move 5ish Tonns of soil and wood chip.

To round off an amazing National volunteer week Team Hackney enjoyed a Super Starter session to help the Hackney Downs User Group (HUG) to continue their great work creating educational and fun gardening experiences for the under 5's. Was great to see some brand new faces to a GoodGym session as well as a few ever improving runners not forgetting a couple of hard core GoodGym regulars.

We started the session we a dynamic warm up to activate the key muscles needed for the session as well and mobilising the major joints that help us perform our slick and efficient running actions. From there we ran a kilometre around the park at a nice steady pace including a few times around the mini roundabout and a final pick up and dip after a lap of the grass track saw us warm and ready for action. Splitting into two groups we attacked the two jobs with lots lots of enthusiastic energy. The first group got shovelling 5 (well near enough) Tonnes of soil. Using a slick wheelbarrow to bag technique a solid pace was set and maintained. Trip after trip saw the huge bag of soil gradually empty. Balancing acts to keep the soil upright and lots of stamping to compact the soil down were vital in this mission. A final monumental effort to drag the last 250kg of soil to its new home where it can be used to plant all the wonderful flowers and shrubs in the garden.

The second action unit had their work cut out shovelling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of wood chip from the pavilion to create a soft bed for the Willow tunnel Team Hackney had dug out in April. Taking the tough wheelbarrow pushing in turns the group make great progress shovelling the woodchip in and out of the wheelbarrow and smoothing it out to create a perfect base for the children to play in on their next visit. With a final push the tunnel was filled and was great to complete two physically challenging and rewarding jobs in 45 minutes of action!

To finish off the session we fed our legs some speed and played a little game of Lampposting. For 2k of running we run alternately hard then easy between the many lampposts of Hackney Downs, even kicking it in to overdrive for a sprint finish!! A series of revitalising static stretches and a elegant ballet spin rounded off a great mornings Fitness Fun. Well done to everyone and really hope to see you all at a Tuesday evening group run soon!!

Our next Hackney Group run is on Tuesday starting at the E5 Bakehouse at 6:45 please sign up here.

Another way of joining in is coming along to the GoodGym London fitness sessions I run on Thursday Evenings in Central London. All the information and sign up is here.

Thanks to Patrick for the Pun!

Smooth summer running

Joel