(Time) Trial Blazing

Kenyan-born Bernard ‘Kip’ Lagat was once asked during the Sydney Olympics what the secret to his record-setting times was, and how his country had produced so many amazing athletes. ‘It’s the road signs,’ he replied. ‘Beware of lions’!

We don’t have many lions in Wandsworth, but we do have some amazing charities and social organisations, and that’s good enough motivation for us on a Monday night.

Our incentive tonight was a run to Caius House, a youth centre in Wandsworth that is committed to giving young people in the local community a safe place to go where they can try new things, develop their talents and have fun. They had asked GoodGym to distribute a huge pile of flyers in the area to help spread the word about the amazing work they’re doing.

But before that, we needed to say hello to our lovely new runners. Victoria and Iona, it was so good to have you with us! (And way to go super-recruiter Sinead). Huge well dones also to Matthew, Jack and Sarah who all stormed through Park Runs at the weekend. We tipped our hats to Jack, Matthew and Dani who covered some serious miles last week, and to David and Jack for doing the most good deeds for their borough. You make us all proud!

Then it was over to the lovely Jenny for this week’s CoRUNdrum, and it was a corker. What is it that makes somebody a true Cockney? Thanks Jenny!

Off we set to Caius House, where we were met by Charlene and Tameeka, who took us for a whistle-stop tour of the facilities. It turns out that Prince William had visited a couple of weeks before us, and no doubt he was as wowed with the basketball courts, recording studio, gym, dance space, meditation room and kitchen as we all were. The young people of Wandsworth are really lucky to have something so special as Caius house to use, and GoodGym Wandsworth will be back to support them as much as we can.

After the tour we were given our flyers, and split into teams to deliver them before racing each other back to a designated meeting spot in Battersea Park. It was Team Roshan v Team Win v Team Penny, and, after a mass sprint hitting all the letterboxes in the area (and a few wrong turns) it was TEAM PENNY that made it back to the park first. Way to go! It meant they had the longest breather before we headed to our starting point for our mile time trial. We’ll be doing this regularly to see how our times go down, and to talk about changes we can make if we’re not seeing the improvement we want. However, after a, ahem, minor glitch in communication (#trainer fail) the distance covered was actually only half a mile. Except for heroic James, who was the only one of us to do the whole distance. Well done James!

It was a gentle jog back to the BAC for the team, who managed to cover a huge amount of ground overall. That was no excuse not to finish with one hill sprint which took us back to our starting point and the answer to the CoRUNdrum. You are a true Cockney if you were born within earshot of the Bow Bells.

Next week, we won’t be anywhere near St Mary-le-Bow, but we will be doing a task in a churchyard – this is, of course, for our Halloween Special + Social. That’s right, we shall be getting dressed up in a finest spookery, running up to Eden Community Garden to transport logs for their upcoming bonfire, as well as a few other jobs for them. Then we’ll be heading to the common to play some Halloween themed running games before jogging back to the BAC for a big spooky social. How can you resist? Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/it-s-halloween

Ps A few of the Wandsworth crowd have been laid up with injuries this week. Wishing you all a very speedy recovery.