Testing our nettle.

13 people ran with GoodGym for the first time on Monday

We had a cracking run this Monday. It was a special run for new runners in Camden and 12 intrepid runners started as they meant to go on...jogging a paltry 100 metres from our start point in Somers Town Community Centre to Plot Ten in Somers Town. It wasn't our only run of the night to be fair, we saved that for our main course, after a starter of light weeding, chopping and clearing!

Community Play Project

We were off to help Plot Ten, an amazing Community Play Project in the heart of Somers Town. They have offered breakfast club and after school clubs, holiday playschemes and a girls clubs to local children aged 5-17 for the last 30 years. Its a mainstay of the community with thousands of local children benefiting from its services. It relies on its volunteers to keep afloat but they don't have time to halt the encroaching nettles around the adventure play area.

Shear enjoyment

After a little trouble getting into the playground (sorry!) we armed ourselves with all the tools the Plot had available- a few sets of shears, some gloves, a spade and the piece de resistance, a strimmer. The tasks were relatively simple however. One team headed into the sensory garden and starting pulling up anything that wasn't supposed to be there (nettles, dandelions, crisp wrappers). The other grabbed the strimmer and sets of shears and started chopping back anything that had started encroaching on the play area. It was mostly nasty stuff- nettles, thorns bushes, ivy and takeaway containers. In around 40mins we had transformed the area. The nettles had disappeared, the unruly ivy had been chopped back, and the sensory garden was looking plush again! Nice work all.

The running bit

After a few light warm up exercises we set off on our run. We head off towards Granary Square and the canal- covering between 3-4k on a nice loop around the canal and Camley Street. 3k is the sort of distance we usually cover to and from the task on a Wednesday evening, and everyone passed the test with flying colours! It was a cracking evening for a run actually, with the sun slowly going down as we dashed along the canal. Let's hope there's more to come this summer, both from this group of runners and the weather!