5 runners ran 3.5km to plant pompoms and pansies at Holly Bush Estate

Big cheers for all four new runners Laura, Clara, Victoria and Christina who joined me last night for their first ever taste of GoodGym. They made it out in spite of the less-than-promising weather earlier in the day. As a group we went outside to warm up - skipping and side stepping our way to a higher heart rate. We ran 1.3k to Holly Bush Estate where Margaret and Michael explained our task to us - planting pansies and pompoms in planters built by previous GoodGymers in a communal area in the Estate. We were careful to avoid the bulbs that had been lovingly planted by GoodGymers before us and whizzed through the task. We tried our best to keep the beds alternating neatly between pompoms and pansies but the last few planters ended up quite pompom heavy!

Margaret and Michael then took us round the corner to their community garden which has a water feature and a hand-built shed. The garden is planted and maintained entirely by volunteers and provides a learning space for local children amongst other things. The community centre that backs onto it is used by all kinds of groups - from Irish dancing to exams and everything you can imagine in between.

Margaret was thrilled with our power-planting!

We waved our goodbyes to the pair and set off for a gentle lap of Middleton Green. We then spent some time exploring our running ‘gears’ - easy, medium and hard. Once out of breath we worked on bringing ourselves back to a resting state focusing on breathing into the belly. This also expands the diaphragm and is my sworn-by remedy for stitches. We headed back to the Town Hall with a stellar sprint finish totalling 2.2k for the return run.

Great work team! I hope to see you at our next group run on Monday :)

Keep running happy, Lucy