Today is the spring equinox. Technically, this means the centre of the sun is in line with the equator but as far as I am concerned it simply means spring is here. Okay, there is no sudden and dramatic change in weather or anything but I ran to Walthamstow today along a canal in daylight. What is more, the clocks change soon and GoodGym will be tasking in the daylight. I can't wait, it's been a long dark winter and although I have loved the tasks and the runs, I have missed the extra scope we get in the daylight to do stuff like drills and time trials in the lovely Lloyd Park.

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves there is still a few weeks of after dark volunteering to do. There was tonight's task at St Mary's (more on that in a mo.) and next week we have a very special assignment; GoodGym is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund to mark Earth Hour. We will be doing a related task at the lovely Willow Brook Primary School. In view of the fact that today's children may be living in a dramatically changed planet due to human activity, it seems appropriate that we are doing an Earth Hour task at a primary school. You can read more and sign up here If you are a Twitterer then use #VoiceForThePlanet

Right then, on with tonight's labours. We were at St Mary's Churchyard today. The church has recently established a lovely little pond in the yard, I think I saw Raymond sizing it up for carp potential! This lovely water feature meant a mound of earth has been displaced and needed relocating so this is where the hardworking GoodGymWF crew came in. Our task was to move the earth to another part of heaven, or a small corner of heaven with this being a churchyard and all that - hence my pun!

With the recent wet weather the earth, let's call it mud from now on, was heavier than lead. Kudos to the crew who worked like navvies shifting the lumpy loam from the pondside mound to a newly prepared flowerbed nearby.

After packing away our tools we went on a short run before hitting some slow - medium - fast reps of part of the churchyard 3x3 and some great running form on show by all

Great work everyone

☮️

Brrrrr! It was colder than a polar bear's toenails tonight but even as the temperature dropped to the low single figures we managed to reach double figures with our participants this evening. I am sure digging weeds in a freezing graveyard was a huge draw and it was nothing to do with the promise of some delicious banana bread and a chance to wish bon voyage to the wonderful Jo Stevens before she embarks on an Indian odyssey for the next few months.

After a slightly late start as we plucked up courage from the warmth of our base to get out into the cold night air we soon warmed up with a 2k undulating run through Walthamstow Village and to the outskirts of Epping Forest where we armed ourselves with various tools and did some great work clearing bracken and so forth from the gravestones at St Peter's in the Forest Church.

With noses turning red and hands calcifying around garden tools, we returned out armour to the potting shed and hit the drill button with some sprints and returns. For some reason, my grapevining was the source of some mirth. I can't imagine why. Anyway, with our blood now flowing again we headed back to Mirth and tucked into Jo's delicious banana bread.

I am sure I speak for all GGWF runners when I say good luck Jo, you are heading on a fantastic physical and spiritual journey. We will all miss you but look forward to seeing you when you come back x

☮️

If you watch or listen to the news at the moment, you would be forgiven for thinking that the country is falling apart with all the Brexit shinanigans and division in Westminster. So it is a huge tonic to me to turn off the telly and head out of the door on a Wednesday evening to meet a group of people who build community, do something constructive and who work together to achieve a common goal. Thank goodness for GoodGym.

Anyhoo, before I get on with the deets of tonight's task, here is some news. This Saturday we have a one-off special run taking place to Willow Brook Primary School in Leyton. This is a great opportunity for new runners to get a taste of GoodGym and for regulars to meet up for a lovely Saturday daylight run to a charming school. If you fancy an extended run, Ercole, Ramon and I will be running Walthamstow Parkrun first (5km), then running to Mirth, Marvel and Maud (2.5km), Willow Brook (3km). Anyone is welcome to join at Parkrun or Mirth.

We will be setting off from Mirth at 10.30 am. Please turn up ready to run as Mirth will be closed.

As well as going for a great run and doing something good, participation will boost GGWF's league standings in the January Challenge good deeds target. We are currently in third so with your participation on Saturday, we will end the week on a high.

You can sign up for Saturday's run here

After a rainy day, it was nice to sit in Mirth, Marvel and Maud and see plenty of GoodGymers arriving one after another. We were also delighted to welcome first-timer Sophie to the crew tonight, great to see you, Sophie. I hope this is the first of many. I should also extend a special welcome also to GG founder Ivo who also joined us this evening. All in all thirteen of us set off but after picking up a few chums on the way, we were fifteen altogether shortly after arriving at St Mary’s Church.

Tonight's task was one that is close to the hearts of many of GGWFs regulars as we were filling some planters with compost. Previous tasks had seen us build these very planters and help to establish the compost we were using to fill them.

With such a good turnout, I decided to split the group into a running drills half and a task half, swapping over after some slow, medium and fast circuits had been done. Everyone beavered away at the task and we moved a mountain of earth completely filling the planters before we were treated to a great core workout by Chi, who was visiting us from Haringey for the night. Great work from Chi and even better work from the crew. I suspect there will be a few aching abs today.

Chi is organising a few activities for GoodGym and you can read about them and get involved here:

1. Spartan Race

2. Training Session

Before I go a word on next weeks run. We are visiting St Peter’s In The Forest Church to tidy up the graves. We will also be saying au revoir to Jo Stevens who is soon to be embarking on a trip to India to study yoga. Jo has been an amazing member of the GGWF team, not only joining in plenty of runs but leading some wonderfully relaxing warmdowns post-task. Jo will be missed so come along and say goodbye. This event will also include some of Jo’s delicious banana bread. Sign-up here

☮️

It was our first outing of 2019 at GoodGym Waltham Forest tonight and on what could accurately be described as a jolly cold night it was fantastic to welcome such a big group of hardy souls to our base at Mirth, Marvel and Maud. Fourteen altogether including new to the crew Katie Moore as well as a hat-full of our regular stalwarts and old friends making a welcome return. We were also celebrating a fantastic fifty, yes FIFTY good deeds by all round good egg, Francis Bradley. To celebrate this milestone Francis supplied generous quantities of cake. Sadly, that had to wait until our return as there was important work to be done.

The Run My personal favourite of our regular task outings. Admittedly better in the summer but nonetheless a pleasant outing as the hurly-burly of the metropolitan world gives way to the semi-countryside via the yeast infused scent of an industrial estate dominated by a Kingsmill Bakery - I'm not really selling this, am I?

The Task Arriving warm and ready to get stuck in we armed ourselves with bags, gloves and litter pickers. I had planned to split the group into a litter picking section and a running section but after such a long run, we decided to just get stuck in. However, the plunging temperature soon took its toll on our fingers and toes. There was also slim picking on the litter front. To get the blood flowing again we headed to a different section of the pathway and struck gold, or more to the point struck crap with a veritable dumpsite of detritus languishing in the rough. The team wasted no time in filling their bags with wellington boots, flattened cans, pie dishes and all manner of single-use plastic containers. Sadly time was short and lips were turning blue so we had to leave the litter to be picked another day and get back on the road.

The Cake Picking up the pace impressively we were soon warm again as we headed home and back to the boozer to celebrate with Francis and a trio of yummy cakes.

The Future Next week we are keeping it local as we head back to St Mary's to fill the planters (wot we builded) with the compost (wot we dug) so if you have been involved in any of these projects before, or if you haven't, don't miss out as we are coming full circle with this. Sign-up here.

Also, and sorry I forgot to mention this but do sign-up to the starter run on Saturday 19th January at the charming Willow Brook Primary School

☮️