26 slick GoodGymers ran 6k to cut back the hedging at the Hollybush Nature Reserve.

An awesome evening in Hackney welcomed some new GoodGym faces to the gold for the first time!

With a late change to the task we had unusual adventure of heading a little South of the Hackney boarder to the multi award winning Hollybush community Gardens. A little over 2k to the gardens to meet the irrepressible Margaret.

Arming ourselves with a variety of hedge type cuters we spread out around the parameter of the nature reserve and gave the overgrown hedging a sharpe short back and sides. With some very precise cutting and done uber efficient scooping, wheelbarrowing and compost piling we made a slick unit! In 40 strong minutes of action we had totally completed the task! Always nice to compete and with a Spring in our step we said our goodbyes and zipped off!!

Wanted to up our running game we went in search our a couple of Strava segments expertly found by Chi!! The first a test of our middle distance endurance was an 800m stretch along Queensbridge Road where we put our foot down and cruised our way to glory. A short rest and regroup got us prepared our speedy end to the session with a 500metre dash to Broadway Market! Peaking at some lightning quick speedy we climbed high in the Strava leaderboards!

A little warm down back to the Bakehouse, stretch out and the Sub Quiz Masters Rich/ Phil had us in number knots working out the Drizzy Drake was the first to a Billion plays on Spotify for a single track.

Next week the crew are off to St Luke’s and are in the very secure hands of Islington and Camden Trainer and all around GG legend Paul PB Bown!!

Hopefully see you in a couple of weeks!

Smooth Running

Joel

18 GoodGymers ran 6km and helped Mabley Green clear up!

Thanks for coming along guys, it appeared like Joel was on a rare holiday but he was actually leading a special GGxLondon Marathon Run. It was lovely to lead you guys, plus run and do good in Hackney!

Welcome along to Justyna, Chris, Karina and Nom whose first time it was last night - lovely to have you along :)

In the news this week:

1. To celebrate GG Hackney's 5th birthday, there'll be social next Tuesday after the group run - come along!
2. This Sunday is the London Marathon and GoodGym has various cheering squads out and about - have a look here. Joel, myself and 20+ of GoodGymers are running - come along and cheer us on

After a quick intro we did some dynamic warm up exercises before heading east to Mabley Green. For those who are doing Hackney Half Marathon in May we covered some of the route you'll be taking, including passing Mabley Greeen itself.

Once we'd ran 2.5km to the task we met Bruce, Hackney Council's Parks Development Officer, at the back end of Mabley Green where there is lots of work to do! The tasks were to continue to remove the grass and soil which is on top of the hard standing area, tackling both sides of the underpass. There was also a bit of litter picking and raking up tons of leaves.

Not every GoodGym run you find a toilet!

Hackney wants to put Mabley Green forward for the Green Flag Award so all the work we can do to help them is massively valuable. We got into teams and over 30 minutes collected up 15 bags of debris and leaves, removed rolls & rolls of grass and bagged up lots of litter.

On the way home we played the meet and retreat game twice - lots of fun sprinting around the football field in the sunset.

Sign up for next week here, you are going back to Mabley Green and Joel is back!

PB out.

As we bring the Easter bank holiday to a close it seemed fitting to do some good work in a churchyard and tonight eighteen intrepid runners did just that as we headed out to the striking St. Luke's Church off Morning Lane in Hackney to clear a congregation of leaves from their yard.

The session began with warm-up in London Fields and the action then took us towards Hackney Town Hall for some drills in the shape of sprints and grapevining. There was some pretty nifty footwork on show from our runners and by now everyone was well limbered up for the next section of the 2.5 km run that took us to St Luke's.

We welcomed three new members to our group tonight, it was great to meet Robyn, Stephanie and Nowrin.

With no time to waste the group went hammer and tongs at the task of clearing a huge quantity of leaves from the churchyard. Two score and ten bin bags were stuffed to bursting completely clearing the churchyard and revealing a tranquil space that could almost have had Thomas Gray reaching for his quill and parchment.

With the sun beginning to set and the task done there was no let up for our band of sisters and brothers as we downed tools and hit the road over to Well Street Common picking up the pace before rounding the final bend along Well Street and back to our Bakehouse base. With 5 km, an interval session and a ton of cleared leaves under our belts it was a job well done.

Despite the great work, I have to end our report on a sad note and console with two of our group who became the victims of crime with a bike and a bike wheel being stolen from outside London Fields station. We all feel your pain guys, absolutely gutted for you, sadly there are some bad people out there and we all need to take every precaution against thievery.