Wheelbarrow Of Fortune

11 runners, 2 cyclist and 1 wheelbarrow operative traversed 8.4 km to Easton Community Garden to carry out a general tidy up of the allotment area

After a week of seemingly incessant wind and rain we were thankfully greeted by a bright and sunny, if slightly chilly, morning for a glorious run along the Bristol to Bath Railway Path to visit our good friends at the Easton Community Garden.

It was a big "hello" to Tom, joining us for the first time and "welcome back" to Nick, who has been away from running for a while - really good to have you with us chaps and hope you enjoyed today's task!

We maintained a steady pace, helped I'm sure by encouragement/whip cracking from Caroline on her bike, and made light work of the gradual climb up to our destination, joined by Alex and Paul as we arrived, to meet our hosts, Sas and Garvin at the allotment.

The Easton Community Garden is a fantastic group, running a weekly volunteer day, where members of the local community come and help at the allotment and then can take home some of the produce with them at the end of the session. We always love our visits here!

It was a somewhat emotional affair as this was our first visit to Easton Community Garden since the untimely demise of the wonderful Cristina, but started with a happy moment as Paul very kindly donated his wheelbarrow to the group. This is the same "possessed wheelbarrow" that has been the centrepiece of the fancy dress themed GoodGym races in 2016 - it was a lovely gesture Paul, and the wheelbarrow certainly got some GoodGym use today!

On arrival our tasks were explained, which would involve 3 sub groups:

Team Fridge set about clearing the roadway of a pile of chippings that had been dumped there recently, before moving into the allotment to re position an upturned fridge.

Team Trimmers, armed with shears, set about trimming the tree line along the road side to tidy that area up.

Team Bramble, carted a huge pile of brambles, twigs and general foliage in barrows from one corner of the allotment out to a big ditch over the other side of the road, taking care not to actually fall into the said ditch!

Watching all this was like poetry in motion.

Rewarded with drinks and snacks, we headed off back to base, this time enjoying a slight descent most of the way, stopping on Castle Green, where Alice, Maddy and Deb gave us some yoga and strength type moves to both loosen us up and make us stronger - top work girls, thanks!

More stretching back at base, with announcements of runs this week on Tuesday and next Saturday, as well as next week's run/cycle race to Oxford, with this week's award of Red GoodGym Laces going to David for bringing along Tom.

Thanks once again to Chris for backmarking, with assistance from Jack, thanks too Jack! And well done Alice for today's pun and good to see you so excited by your offering being voted top!

A lovely task on a lovely morning with some lovely people - there's lovely! Isn't life great!