Wood you believe it?!

It was the second group run in a week as Sam had setup a group run to TRAID the night before. Yet, this was a special group run as we not only had a new contact to run to (after doing a community mission with them on a Saturday about a month ago), but we had Emily come back to a group run after a hiatus over the pandemic.

It was great to see Nelly and Benjamin sign up and come to the group run as we were waiting for a newbie to come, but never came! Still, within four we could achieve the task set for us at Elmington Estate.

Firstly, we started with a two-minute or so warm-up session, which was followed by tonight's ice-breaker question: On Friday is International Waffle Day, what is your favourite breakfast item?

Everyone was going with their fancy brunch items of garlic mushrooms on toast with a poached egg or avocado on toast with a poached egg. Ben is currently enjoying kippers and Sam went for the traditional full English.

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Too mulch of a good thing

Running in four meant we could run closely together and didn't need a backmarker, but Emily as the most experienced GoodGymer out of the others took on that responsibility just in case. We ran up Grove Road (which is hilly) and down towards Camberwell for the shortest 3k route, which took us 20 minutes and we made it on time to start at 19:15.

Within 45 minutes on the clock, Alice (task owner) told us what the main task for tonight was. It was to shovel woodchip mulch into tonne bags before transporting them to two different locations. As we started shoveling we had the lovely assistance of Alice's son who held up the lights for us as it was quite dark despite the street lights.

After filling one bag, Sam and Benjamin dragged the tonne bag about 200 metres to a spot where tree saplings and flowers had been planted to put more woodchip mulch down to ensure their growth is not affected by weeds growing. Once they dragged the first bag over by the time they got back to the Wildlife Triangle, Emily and Nelly had filled the second tonne bag for Sam and Benjamin to drag over.

Once one bag was emptied, Benjamin, Nellyand Sam went back to fill that bag before transporting it to Elmington Estate allotment as the woodchip mulch on the ground their needed to be topped up. Emily stayed behind in the first location to help spread the woodchip amongst the flowers and tree saplings.

All of it was done with ten minutes to spare! Great effort from the team! 💪 🙌

After our group photo, we said our goodbyes and dashed along Peckham High Street to get back to Old Spike Roastery! Only Benjamin made it all the way back with Sam as Emily and Nelly departed all the way.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came and powered through Grove Road hill as we took the shortest run to Elmington Estate. Thank you!

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Thank You Alice

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alice for coming out in the dark with your little one to ensure we could help out with spreading woodchip over weeds and in your allotment area. I am sure this is just the start of many group runs to your community garden!