20 runners set out to plant trees and clear ivy on a damp April evening.

Team Tree-Plant

It was a decent sized team that divided into two this evening. Task force member Bryon was heading up Team Tree-Plant who were due at the lovely local Parkview Estate Gardens to get a delivery of apple trees planted under the watchful eye of task owners Catherine and Des, and young Liam, who turned out to be an enormous task asset this evening.

The team of 8 headed around the corner to the Parkview estate, a beautiful estate and community centre which sits on the edge of Victoria Park, and which has just received a new delivery of fruit trees, as Catherine and the Parkview Residents team attempt to kickstart an exciting new community food-growing project.

It was all hands on deck as the runners got stuck in to this demanding and complex task. Trees planted, garden tidied, the runners headed back to base and were led through a gruelling – but much appreciated – fitness session by Chi.

What an achievement – your work was so much appreciated this evening.

Operation Ivy

Meanwhile, I was leading a second crew of 12 runners to the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park for Operation Ivy. This was a longer run than we’ve undertaken for a while, and brilliantly led by Sarah and Steve, who took us via parks and gardens, via the quickest, most scenic route. And they ensured we all stayed together, stopping regularly to run back for some of us! Anyone reading this, who’s toying with the idea of joining a GoodGym run, let me emphasise now, you never run alone – our runners proved that more than ever tonight. We don’t run fast – we run together. Thank you team.

And so on arrival at the cemetery, we made our way around to The Glades area to start clearing ivy in earnest. Before running bundles of it in our arms around to a larger clearing. It was a workout and a half, with runners removing rotten logs in their path, as well as mounds and mounds of ivy.

And then we were headed back to base, a beautiful route via Meath Gardens, even as the heavens opened.

Phew. What a night. It really felt like we went full Tolkien, full fellowship.

Very big thank you’s and hello’s tonight…

Thank you to task force member Bryon who stepped in so readily over the weekend to lead the second task, so that we were able to plan our unscheduled second task to Catherine and co. And thanks to task force member Sarah for stepping in, too, and taking some lovely pics.

Thanks to Sarah and Steve for wonderful navigation, and team spirit when it came to our running, and to Jo for brilliant, consistent, very reassuring backmarking. And thanks to Chi for giving everyone a mighty fine fitness finish to the evening too. You’re brilliant.

Welcome to Leila and Philippine – what a night for you to join our Group Run! Thanks for all your hard work, and for being such a wonderful addition to our two crews tonight. And we very much hope to see you again soon.

Next week, it’s Vibrant Vinyasa…

…Yep, next week we’re back to our favourite community arts centre, Oxford House, where terrific task owner Sarah has all manner of decorating fun for you, followed by an indoor yoga session led by our runner, New Jersey-based yoga teacher Christina. What. A. Treat. See you there?

Until then, have a wonderful week.

Tonight 7 cheerful runners took to the London streets, bridges and parks to help Spring Clean our local environment and get our hearts pumping!

We had an amazing effort cleaning up around London City with a few new faces and a couple of returning Goodgym runners! It was a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded people in our community!

We began our run at Bush House King's College, here we did a mini warm up, introductions and set the challenge of filling our bags before the end of the run. We ran along the lovely Thames river from Kings College collecting as much rubbish as we could before heading into Parliament Square Gardens to test our speed and have some friendly competition! We really got our heart rates up and had a good chance to get to know each other as we recovered from the race and got ready for the next leg of Spring Cleaning.

We then took to Westminster Bridge, really filling our bags whilst enjoying the beautiful sunset over the city! It really felt like a warm Spring evening.

On the way back we managed to pick up our speed along the South Bank and finished filling our bags just in time to make a quick trip back over the river via Waterloo Bridge.

Everyone felt proud of their efforts with the run and for doing our bit to keep our city beautiful and clean! It was truly a great Spring Clean with fantastic weather to match!

We were two-tasking it again this evening, and really putting the ‘earth’ into Earth Hour on both our tasks.

A secondary SOS task to Cranbrook Community Food Garden

In an eleventh hour addition to our planned activity, task force member Becky J headed up a splinter group of four to one of our longest standing, favourite tasks, Cranbrook Community Food Garden. Writes Becky, “Just a mini detour en route to Cranbrook this evening, as fellow Task Force member Bryon challenged me to attempt navigating our route without assistance (always a challenge...). This added just one small loop to the run, but I'm all in favour of a little extra (accidental) mileage.

On arrival at the garden, we witnessed Storm Gareth had indeed left a trail of destruction in his wake, felling a tree and damaging fencing in the process. Bryon and Eimear set to work removing twigs from a boundary fence, while Tom and I began the tricky task of untangling climbing plants from a now broken trellis, before pulling down the arch.

Having successfully achieved this, (and, btw, saving a tree we feared may have to be pulled up in the process), we were then presented with a flat pack replacement arch (turns out flat pack instructions are easier in daylight, with a mug of strong coffee, than in a dark garden, deciphered under torchlight alone).

But Bryon and Eimear joined us and together we got the arch standing, just in time to pose for a couple of pics alongside our evening’s handiwork.”

Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue indeed.

Potting at Parkview

Meanwhile, I headed up the Parkview crew who were Glasshouse-bound to this most wonderful community hall on the Parkview Estate. Task owner Catherine met us with two tasks – potting bee-friendly plants and leafleting for the upcoming Spring Fayre - leaving no preparation stone unturned as she presented a proposed plant production line of such efficiency, the likes of which I’ve never seen before; ditto leafleting instructions (think hand drawn maps of the estate).

Two leaflet teams were dispatched onto the estate's many blocks, while the plant-potters, headed up by Luke, and initially Dave (who was then demoted to deputy by young Connie, who joined from the Parkview residents team to instruct on best plant-handling practice) grouped in two different areas of the hall.

It was a race to the finish, but by the time we left all 800 plants had been potted, and the area swept and scrubbed down. Wow.

Tempo run and tree pose

And so we headed to Victoria Park, led by Steve, for some fabulous speedwork headed up by both Tom and Steve, and finishing with a couple of resistance exercises.

And then it was back to our beautiful hotel base, where we were lucky enough to have Christina, a regular runner and qualified yoga teacher, lead us through some fabulous yoga stretches to finish.

Another totally neat night. More missions awesomely accomplished. More thoroughly relieved and appreciative task owners. Well. Done. You.

Monday shout-out’s

A very big shout out to tonight's first time runners, Ridwan, Anais and Eirini – thanks for making such a huge contribution on your first run, and we hope to see you really soon.

And thank you to Becky, for enabling the second task to happen, and for kind of saving the day and for taking some great pics, and writing the report.

Now, don’t forget, we’re doing it all again on Saturday when task force member Bryon leads up a brand new gardening task in E3 – yes, we’re putting the ‘earth’ back into Earth Hour for the second time this week. More details and sign up are here.

Have a brilliant week, won't you all, and hope to see you very soon.