An eager group of runners gathered to head to one of our favourite tasks - Stepney City Farm – this evening where task owner Charlie was well-prepped and ready with a variety of jobs for the GoodGymers.

A new route to the farm...

We met and mingled in our usual lovely hotel room, giving a usual chatty, warm GG welcome to our new runners, topped up glycogen stores with Orange Clubs and Tunnock’s Teacakes before heading to the hotel steps for some dynamic stretching. Steve then headed up the run to the farm, opting for a slightly longer route, keeping us guessing as to which way we were heading, much to everyone’s amusement. It was a great run out, made for a nice change, and Steve kept not only a great pace, he also skilfully kept all runners in sight.

The Compost Crew, The Gazebo Gang and The Bin Bunch: 3 tasks completed at record speed

On arrival at the farm, Charlie swiftly divided the teams into three groups: one to move manure, one to dismantle gazebos and one to empty every single farm bin. As always, the runners made their way at record speed to the task. Armed with 5 pitchforks, the manure team wasted no time in jumping into the bays and began forking huge amounts of manure. The gazebo team dismantled the gazebos at such speed they were soon tasked with sweeping the yard, after having taken time out to pet bunnies and piglets. The bin team also finished early, such was the speed at which they worked, at which point Charlie whisked them off to a special secret task – pig-stroking (Mars the pig has surprisingly coarse hair, and a bit of a tum, in case you were wondering, according to Becky).

Fitness gains are made from…the greyhound game

It felt like we’d been at the farm a matter of minutes before it was time for us all to gather for our cheerio and final pics, before dividing into two teams to play tonight’s fitness game: greyhound and hare.

Bryon had willingly agreed to lead the greyhound team, while Liz and I led and backmarked the hare team. The hare team were given a 3 minute start to race up Stepney Way and Whitehorse Road before Bryon’s team headed out to catch us up. And catch us up they did. Obviously speedy running played a big part, but my poor traffic light strategy didn’t do much to help Team Hare. And so we were back on the hotel steps stretching glutes, hams and calves before heading inside to finish the last of the snacks.

Shout-outs galore…

What can I say? Another wonderful night at GoodGym Tower Hamlets. It was fantastic to be joined by new runners Sue, Amy and Mercia, and thanks for all the hard work and big, big smiles, and for being such an asset to our team tonight.

Big group thanks to wonderful task force members, Bryon and Becky, for planning the fitness session in advance, and leading the greyhounds. Thanks to Steve for leading the fab run out, and Liz and Becky for beautiful backmarking on both routes.

Thanks to Si, for some brilliant pics this evening, and to the manure group for brilliant pun suggestions and task-team names.

Next week and beyond

Next week, we’re off to Hollybush for several different tasks – both of which are undercover/indoor tasks (hurrah – let’s hear it for indoor tasks on drizzly Monday nights). You can sign up for that here, while an absolute must for next month’s diary is the GG Social, which we are co-hosting with GG Hackney! on Thursday November 8th.

Right, that’s it for now! Have a wonderful week, and see you very soon.