I spent an hour transferring and chopping garden debris from one compost bin to the next and took the very woody material up to the ‘fedge’. After the couch to 5k run. Happy to have helped a little.

The group Couch to 5k went well. We started week 6 ( already ) and are starting to see small signs of stamina building up.Two went together, sadly I arrived too late, so run doggedly by myself, arriving at Horn Park a little later than advertised 😀

HOWEVER.....what a session ! 4 Goodgymers, 2 members of the public ,plus the regular Friends of Horn Park made a mega WoodChip Shovelling/Laying Team. The original woodchip pile, the teamwork, and the extra support was truly a thing of beauty. The "before "and " afters " don't show the pace that was worked. GoodGymers having done the Couch to 5k run just before, didn't shirk from buckling down with fully laden barrows , shuttling back and forth laying woodchip along a path which was seriously muddy and a potential slip hazard.

How great is it that 2 members of the public, one a regular dog walker ( the dog, a golden retreiver, was a sweetheart), in the park, another returning from a local Park Run, who, upon learning of the task at hand literally piled in and helped . The pace of work was super quick, thus the task was finished in record time.

Superb bonhomie throughout. Human beings really can be a force for good, - especially when they see others having a go.It's nice to see Friends of Horn Park look especially gratified after our departure. A job well done, as always. We love Good Gym 🏋️‍♂️

Friends of Horn Park left a decent pile of semi rotted leaf mould and compost for today's GoodGym team of 4 to shift downhill ( thank goodness ) where a colleague of theirs awaited to spread this glorious tuff on some bare looking grassless patches . On a bright and sunny winter's day such as this, it was an absolute delight to undertake this task. The sun really was blazing ( with brightness, mind, not with heat ).

Hope you'll agree from the ''before'' and '' after '' pictures, that we did a fair job of moving not some, but all of a deceptively tidy looking pile, which proved to be sort of matted and compacted throughout, and proved dastardly difficult to get the spade under. But did the Good Gym baulk ? Oh, no !!

Considering that most of the Good Gymers had run approximately 3 km straight off the back of our Couch to 5k Training session, the pile was cleared in under an hour . With us having to be almost torn away from the site, the team work again, was hugely impressive.
After a Mark ensured we cooled down with a highly beneficial cool down, we took our weary but satisfied selves off to our various destinations.

Must mention here my appreciation of being personally escorted to the local train station by a team member, who realised I hadn't a clue where I was, and who put me straight. What a great group of people Good Gymers are ! All being well, see you on another one !

I was even personally escorted to the nearby train station ( thank you, A , appreciated ) as I had no idea where i was .

After a nice little jog, Rochelle, Marco, Alison and I joined Rich outside Elmstead Woods Primary for a quick bit of weeding and tidying up in a little play area/courtyard bit. We met head teacher Cat who had prepared a bunch of tools ready for us to get cracking.

It was super chilly so we gloved up and got straight to it;

🍂 Rochelle and Marco were pulling up weeds and gathering leaves in a couple of the beds

🧹 Rich was sweeping up

✂️ Alison was trimming back the bushes

🌱 And I was mostly weeding between the slabs

After 30 minutes the space was looking much tidier! We popped our bin bags out the front and took a quick selfie.

Top stuff everyone - It was nice to kickstart the weekend with you!

Shout out to Marco, Rochelle and Alison for their first GG sessions! 🙌