This evening we ran around 4km to Birdhurst Community Garden

16 of us headed out on a lovely evening from Solutions to Birdhurst Community Garden near South Croydon Station – a lovely task set up for us by one of our regular runners Amatare. Not so long ago the area surrounding the houses and garages around the top of the avenue was wild and overgrown and not very inviting. The residents decided to improve their environment and with some local muscle and help from local grants they transformed the area into a beautiful garden. Our job tonight was to provide some hard graft to clear along a side pathway so more work could be done in this area, An amazing array of tools, gloves and bags were provided and the runners dug, pulled, lopped and swept with great enthusiasm until the area was cleared and we had filled around 10-15 bags with green waste and could see a previously hidden path – great job. Maria was running late but managed to find us in the fading light and we became 17.

We were given some freshly pulled, strangely shaped carrots as a thank you - Alicia did get a few funny looks on the run back ! We’ve even been invited back to help clear the autumn leaves and help with the hanging baskets in a few weeks time – really looking forward to that.

Two new runners came along tonight so welcome to Joana and Kastriot – hope you enjoyed yourselves and look forward to seeing you again soon. Good luck to Joana this Sunday as she takes on Tough Mudder,.

After the task we ran halfway back then found a long quiet street to have some non-competitive(!) relay races. While the runners headed off along the street their team mates had to squat star-jump, press-up, lunge and attempt “running man” until it was their turn to run. We did provide entertainment to a lady in a nearby flat who was watching up with interest – or maybe she was about to call the police – who knows!

During the cool-down we chatted about next week’s session at the Salvation Army and also having a look for any clothes we could donate while we are down there – men’s in particular. There are also the two final Starter sessions for this month – one this Sunday at 2pm in one of our favourite places, Saffron Central and then the following Saturday around 11.30am the final session will be starting in Queens Gardens helping the annual Celebratory Walk. They are great opportunities to introduce friends, family and colleagues to GoodGym and also for regular runners too.

Almost forgot – it’s the last Tuesday of the month next week which means a social at Boxpark after our run.