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20 GoodGymers ran 5-7km to help St Lukes & Ramsey Flowers N1 with some SPRING gardening!

Thanks to everyone who came last night, SPRING had SPRUNG and halle-frikin-lujah! Running in light evenings is probably one of my favourite things, made all the better by running with you guys.

In the news this week:

1. IMPORTANTLY we are meeting at the Arc Centre next Monday (2nd April), on 9th April and 23rd April. Don't come to Arsenal, we won't be there then. We will be meeting at the Arsenal Hub on 16th April and 30th April though.
2. Well done to everyone who ran, raced and got a PB at the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday! Kike got a 15 minute PB, Graham smashed it with 1.22 and James ran well on no breakfast (everyone please eat before running/racing)
3. Come along on Wednesday to GG Camden when we will be doing the Biggest Task of the Year Part Two at the Southbank Centre - lifting the turf for the roof garden up all those stairs!

St Lukes Report by Aidan:

8 of us set off to St Luke’s. Well... 7 runners and 1 cyclist. Even injury doesn’t stop Steve C doing good!

We briefly entertained the idea of forming a race, Beat the Bike, but then realised we would certainly lose. So we headed off down Liverpool Road in search of a good deed. After navigating our way around the busy Angel area we arrived at St Luke’s and of course Steve had beaten us, it was an easy win for him, but at least he was happy.

Beat the Bike

St Luke’s Community Centre have been transforming their car park into a food garden for the community to use, we’ve been helping them with the heavy lifting since the start and it has truly transformed over that time.

Tonight we had two planters to move, one to empty and a nice mountain of compost bags to move into the shed. Both planters were hefty tasks, but with the combined strength of 8 GoodGymers nothing could stop us!

All covered in mud, with smiles on our faces, we enjoyed some of Steve’s Scottish shortbread (love a bit of alliteration). Some of us were good and washed up before snacking the lovely biscuits, the rest of us were too peckish and went for a lovely mouthful of biscuit with a side of compost. Yum.

To finish us off Graham led back via Upper St for a change of scenery. Beautiful. Good deed done.

Ramsey Flowers N1 by PB:

12 of us headed east to help the amazing Ramsey Flowers N1, we went via Highbury Fields and Balls Pond Road - arriving earlier than planned. While waiting for Natasha to arrive we played the demonstration game doing tons of conditioning, including - squats, backward lunges, star jumps, mountain climbers, planks and MORE.

We met Natasha from Ramsey Flowers N1 who told us that the Ramsey walk and nature reserve is now looked after by volunteers and used for local events. Any help that we provide is massively appreciated as many of the volunteers are older residents and cannot do as much of the heavy lifting.

Spring Flowers

Collecting up the tools (some brand new!) we split into the following tasks:

• Roisin, Kike, Nina and Roz swept the pathways - collecting up any dead leaves, twigs and debris
• Steve and Chris litter picked and spread compost around newly planted flowers
• Meg, Claire and Alison cut and trimmed back some bushes and ivy that was coming on the pathways
• James and Constance cleared an area for planting

As each group finished their tasks we focused on clearing an area of ivy and roots, then planting some flowers and composting it so it grows!

Heading home we stretched and distributed the party bags Paola had kindly given us from Ramsey Flowers N1 :)

Next week we are meeting at the Arc Centre and painting the Arc Centre - sign up here.

PB out.