Abbey Natural

29 runners legged it through Camden this week - running between 4 - 9k to help two community groups with their gardens.

What a night - a long run and a short run, 29 lovely people, a cracking sunset, and a run up Primrose Hill. What could be better?!

The short run

A small but perfectly formed group of four took the short option of a run up to Kentish Town to tidy up the garden at Clean Break. It may have been done recently but we still found stuff to keep us busy, sweeping up cigarette butts and scraping out the weeds from between the paving stones, a strangely satisfying task which Tierney got so engrossed in that we had to drag her away when it was time to leave. While we worked we chatted about upcoming races (Beth and Tierney are doing a women’s 10K in Victoria Park on June 21st, give us a shout if you want to join us) and told newcomer Mandy about how wonderful GoodGym is.

The long run.

The Stats

9k

One of our longest runs for a while - with a climb up Primrose Hill. Everyone took it in their stride, breezing up the climb on the way to Abbey Community Centre.

25

The number of people who we crammed into the community centre garden. Cosy.

5

The number of jobs to cover.

They were; Painty - painting the back wall white so a youth group can paint a lovely mural. Weedy - pulling up some horrible weeds around the beautiful 'garden club' area. We provided the compost for that on a different run. Nice. Cleany - tidying the veranda, wiping down the tables and chairs and shifting a big pile of leaves. Roofy - getting a ladder up on the roof and clearing a huge pile of detritus...including a pair of air max trainers, loads of twigs and a pile of rotting leaves. Coily - uncoiling and sorting through a big pile of unruly hoses ( we've never done that before).

30mins

The time it took us to complete all those lovely jobs. Special mention goes to team 'Painty' for their quick fire brush work (Alex, Becky, Lucia and Josh) and team 'Roofy' for climbing up and getting stuck in (Dan, Paul and John).

15mins

The time we had left to get back before the centre started closing at 8.30. We would have been Olympic hopefuls if we covered it that quick but a few gave it a bash! The rest kept it more relaxed and social - arriving back late but pleased with a good evening's work.