Wet, Weedy and Speedy

Wet

Despite the rain - and even more rain - 22 GoodGymmers appeared on Highbury Fields last night ready to get fit by doing good. Among us were quite a few newcomers: Adam, Helen, Heather, Terri, Sarah and Annie. Annie's been travelling all over the place as part of a challenge to complete 52 challenges in 52 weeks and decided to pay us a visit last night with a couple of pals. Check out exerk

Following a warm welcome and a round of applause to Danica for completing her 50th good deed with GoodGym last week, we headed off through the football-loving crowds to Barnsbury Community Centre to get started with our task for the evening. There is a project underway at the centre to transform the area round the back into a community garden. It's been designed by various disciplines of students from UCL and we're one of several volunteer groups who's helping to get it going.

Weedy

The plan tonight had been to do some painting, but the poor weather scuppered our plans, so instead we had a good old tidy up and did a spot of shearing, a bit of soil sifting and a lot of weeding. Oh, and a tiny bit of Stickle Brick removal. Remember Stickle Bricks?

Greedy

We worked pretty hard for 35 minutes, but of course stopped for a biscuit break. This evening's were provided by GoodGym hero Sarah, who had spent the day baking a GoodGym-themed batch. See pics for example. They were definitely delicious. And nobody's complaining about this bring your homemade biscuit trend that's overtaken us.

Speedy

A run back to the fields as a group and we finished up the evening with a time trial. Emirates was busy with football or something (thanks Patrick for the warning) so we decided to attack course B on Highbury Fields. The only problem was that we couldn't quite remember the route for course B, so we ended up inadvertently creating a course C. Oh well, the more the merrier.

It was wet and dark , but nobody hung around and Aidan was first over the line in 1:49, closely followed by Patrick L in 1:51. A 2:01 for Xavier, 2:02 for Adam and Annie was first lady home in 2:02. Other times available on request.

Our debate topic for the evening was DRUGS. Should drugs cheats in athletics be banned for life?

How was Islington divided? Well, a few of us reckoned a life ban was the only solution, and it should be made very clear that this would be the case as a deterrent. There was also the suggestion of fining people (hit them where it hurts). Others felt that you should receive a life ban after being caught a second time (having served a more lenient sentence on the first occasion). Nobody thought that they should get away with a warning, but there was the suggestion of a special league for drug-fuelled athletes. Isn't that just the 100 metres?

Well done all. See you next week when we should be back at ze centre for Bank Holiday Monday madness.

Simon