Monday 5th February 2018
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Find out about GoodGym TaskForce
Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
It was a freezing night in Wandsworth yesterday, but still 29 runners turned up to clear a rubbish-strewn area next to a beautiful community garden, run over 5k, tackle a fitness session, and wave goodbye to one of our longest-running members, Jack.
But first, some much-deserved cheering. Hello and welcome to Emily who joined us for her very first run! Great stuff. Well done to Paul 'the machine' Gray who continued his racing streak at the Olympic Park, to Tom and Emily who both smashed London races, and to Brian, who did a 10k in Marrakesh - amazing!
We had a quick reminder that this month's GoodGym social is happening in Holborn on Thursday at 6:30 (see you there I hope!), before heading outside to warm up.
During some much needed exercises to get our temperature up, we honoured our outgoing task force member Jack, by listing our favourite things about him. By far his friendliness and lovely smile topped our Jack-list, with his love of a party and dance move of choice also making the cut. Our alternative poll question was to find out what we'd win medals for if our chosen activity was an Olympic sport. It would be golds across the board for procrastinating, sitting on the sofa, playing Temple Run on our phones and slamdunking things in the litter bins. All very useful skills, team.
Our run tonight was to Paradise Cooperative garden, an amazing space just outside Wandsworth prison. It was once an overgrown and derelict site but volunteers have turned it into a gorgeous farm used for education, participation and bringing the community together (just don't ask about the pigs!). Sadly, next to this beautiful space is a much-neglected car park for families visiting people in the prison opposite, so our job tonight was to clear it of litter.
Armed with binbags, litter pickers and gloves, we set to work, finding treasures such as handcuffs, a fiver and an old mattress. Before long the space was clear, so we set off to do our fitness session in Spencer Park.
Dividing up into groups of five, we tackled sprints, side planks, plank high fives, squats, skaters and so much more. That didn't stop us making good time on the run back. Perhaps we just wanted to get out of the cold, perhaps it was the thought of drinks at the bar for Jack's farewell (sniff sniff), but before we knew it was time to stretch and get in the warmth of the BAC. Great work everyone, same again next week?
Wandsworth
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