24 GoodGymers ran between 3-7km to help Thornhill Community Garden and Caxton House:

Report written by Caroline and Aidan.

Caroline - Operation Twig:

11 Goodgymers went to Thornhill Square and helped out Anna to remove massive ELDER (weed) trees. We managed to remove quite a lot in a short amount of time, release a good amount of stress and got to use some quite cool tools. Doing it in the dark adds to the challenge! After the task we did some gradual intervals around the square before heading back to base.

Tonight's debate was if you had a two course dinner what would you prefer out of starter, main and dessert? All combinations were mentioned depending on whether people prefer savoury or sweet. Also having a cheese board option could be a deciding factor as well.

Paul forgot the biscuits again. However, Aiden and Caroline brought the same type of biscuits for both of the groups without having spoken to each other first about first. It's like they can read each other minds... or simply get the same thing on offer from the co-op. They were caramel chocolate digestives. They didn't go down as well as the double chocolate digestives.

Aidan - Operation Speed Gardening:

13 of us set off to Caxton House led by Patrick with his musical lantern blasting the tunes.

Enjoying the music and the slightly up-hill run we made it there in great time but sadly the lovely people at Caxton weren't expecting us this week. Luckily after a few phone calls Rose, who lives close by, was able to come and meet us with tools in hand and got us set on task.

Two tasks were set, one group tackled one of the mighty bushes with secateurs whilst another worked at de-weeding the flowerbeds.

The time flew by and after a clean up we celebrated with a biscuit and a group photo. Everyone enjoyed the run back a bit more as it was all downhill. Lucky us!

Meeting up with the other group we stretched out and called it a day. The thoughtful Caroline had spare biscuits for us (little did she know we had already had some) and by sheer coincidence she had bought the exact same delicious caramel digestives...spooky.

On Monday evening 20 brave Islington Good Gym-ers gathered in the cold to jog and do good. Oh, and because it's Islington, eat biscuits. In fact that was the subject of the days run debate. What biscuits should we have? Results later.

Paul warmed everyone up with some high knees, lunges and other associated exercises, and we were off! A faster group led by Patrick and Graham shot off sprinting around the park, before heading to our destination. Whilst Paul, Caroline and myself took a slower group, I say slower........in fact, it was like a herd of wildebeest charging across a busy Upper St, past the tube stop and to the relative quiet of the streets behind. I'm pleased to report that no pedestrians were trampled.

Wildebeest

Disappointed by the lack of trampling, as we neared our destination of Barnsbury Community Centre, Caroline dramatically threw herself on the floor mid-jog, in the hope she would get trampled. What a team player.

With both teams having arrived, we set about our task. Well, first we had to interrupt some sort of religious ceremony by all quietly charging through the middle of a room, like tip-toeing wildebeest, so as not to ruin the nice gospel singing going on around us.

'Dunk'

Like the previous week, half the group were banging stakes into the floor, and half shifting mud. Graham took the brave task of holding the stakes as people whacked them with hammers. You could see him physically vibrate every time a hammer went 'Dunk' on top of a stake.

The mud shifters stood around for a bit pondering where to put the mud, as all the bags were full. Then someone had a brainwave of clambering on top of the mud bags and stomping like they were making wine. it worked a treat and the mud shifting could commence.

Caroline nipped off to get biscuits, and despite the debate results being chocolate hobnobs or tim tams, came back with double chocolate. To be fair, who can resist double chocolate? One Good Gym-er had 5 biscuits!!

Double chocolate!

After the task we gathered for a nice group photo, and then set off back in to Highbury & Islington. On the run back Anna displayed her evasive skills, in panic jumping over a big black dog, only to find it was a bin liner (easily confused).

With everyone back Paul led the group through a few stretches, and then we departed, content with a good evenings work.

(Run Report by John Chyriwsky)

Caroline Townsend (Taskforce Member) wrote the lovely run report below:

This week we returned for another sequel to Barnsbury Community Centre. We got up to a range of awesome tasks there. Sadly Simon couldn’t make it but Paul flew in (Camden Trainer and ex Islington taskforce) like Batman to save the day. Caroline was Robin for providing biscuits (oreos) at last minute.

On the way we split into two groups; a mega fast group who did an extra lap of Highbury fields and the philosopher’s group who talked about cake. We all arrived at the same time.

At the centre we had a party due to Patrick’s awesome tunes again. We split into 3 teams… team paint, team heave soil and team stick poles.

Team Paint

Team paint struggled to open a paint can and nearly bent a few keys in the process. However, Patrick had a tool kit (his backpack is a TARDIS) so it was opened in the end. The team then painted flower pots.

Team Soil

Team heave soil continued to remove soil from the circle of dirt. We have been working hard on this area for a few months now and it’s nice to see that it’s nearly done. It helps with team stick poles with their work as well.

Team Stakes

Team stake poles, led by Steve, stuck poles into the circle of dirt at specific heights in the shape of an ‘S’. This sounds complicated and it was. They made a lot of noise and sounded a bit like a tribe due to one of the tools sounding like a bell when it pushed poles into the ground. An installation in being put in this space in the near future.

On the way home we split into 3 groups and continued to talk about cake. A few things we heard was cupcake mix served in a jam jar and what would an iced carrot taste like instead of having carrot cake.

Thank you very much again guys for coming. We hope that you had a groovy time.

Yesterday was Frances 50th task. Congratulations Frances!