GoodGym x Earth Hour - Wildflower thing, you make my heart sing!

As March draws to a close, 27 runners took on a 5k round-trip to help at Hither Green Station embankment.

A big welcome this evening to Lucy and Sean joining us for their first ever GoodGym group run, Lewisham Love to you! It was also lovely to see some familiar faces returning after a little break, it's always good to welcome people back (with open arms).

If you have been part of this GoodGym magic for a while, you probably know all about coach running, missions and community missions, but if you're new, or need a reminder, have a look here to see how you can get involved in some extra-curricular activity. Three of our runners did exactly that on Saturday morning, by working on a very special task at Torridon Primary School. At the school there is a lovely garden, featuring a pond. This pond is home to frogs, toads and some rather gorgeous newts and was in need of a really good clean. Well done to Clare, Darryl and Stephen, who worked hard, but with great care, to restore some freshness to this habitat. Read all about it and check out the photos here.

As if all this wasn't enough for one weekend, Clare then went on to race in the London Landmarks Half-Marathon, as did Nadine and Anita - well done racers, show us your medals (Clare did and it was epic!).

This week's task was taking us back to Hither Green, this time to work on the other side of the tracks. Here the local community are working hard to establish a wildflower meadow and it was our job to rake the area and to sow the many thousands of seeds that will make this happen. A big thank you this week to Kim, for leading at the front of the run out, Conroy for leading the return leg and to Marta for back-marking and joining in the party at the back.

On arriving at the task, Anne-Marie very quickly gave us our special railway-safe hi-vis vests and a rake or fork, then pointed everyone in the direction of the 800sqm of ground to be raked. That sounds like a lot...because it is! We're not put off by such challenges though, so set off in a methodical line, working with focus (and a bit of chat, well, a lot of chat). As always, I was buzzing around taking photos and making sure everyone was working safely and happily, but I wasn't paying full attention to where I was and wasn't supposed to walk. No worries though, because I was soon TOLD!

Once an area had been raked, it was time to scatter the mix of sand and wildflower seed, making sure each section was covered. This pattern of activity went on until we reached the top of the bank and it was time to tramp our way back down, pressing the seeds into the surface. Depending on how vigorously you tramped, this could be quite an effective fitness session! Gathering our rakes, we continued the tramp all the way round to Springbank Road Community Garden, so the kind people who had lent tools to us could pick them back up.

If you enjoyed exploring Hither Green and want to come back soon, we have the opportunity to join in a river clean up on Saturday, sign up here.

At this point I should maybe have mentioned that we would be giving the Monthly(ish) Time Trial a go on our return to Glass Mill. There were some who pushed super hard coming into Cornmill Gardens and might have saved a little something if they'd known! Our time trial is basically four laps of the area outside our start point, which is just under a kilometer (though it's perfectly fine to go for one, two or three laps if you prefer). There was some very committed running going on, with that competitive spirit showing through at times. If you want to check out the Strava segment and see where you are on the leaderboard, have a look here.

Next week we will be off to Crofton Park, to help shift a ton of gravel at Beecroft Garden Primary School - come along! In the meantime, we have a community mission to help at GRACE's charity shop 50p sale on Saturday - sign up here.

See you soon!