Mulch Ado about Nothing

Oh what a beautiful evening,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I've got a wonderful feeling,
Goodgym are coming to play.

"How can it be hotter at 6pm than it was at lunchtime?" That was the question on all of our lips as we set off to run to the Little Peeple Centre. It was one of our longer routes, with an uphill section, on our warmest Goodgym night so far, so we knew we'd be arriving at our task looking a little disreputable!

Lindsey and Malcolm were at Little Peeple Nursery to greet us with some very welcome glasses of water after a hot 2.5 mile run to the Oxford Academy, and didn't seem too horrified by the sight of 8 hot runners sweating profusely!

The nursery opened in October 2018, and is a lovely space on the edge of the Oxford Academy site, offering childcare for children from 6 months to 4 years old.

Our tasks for the evening were to help in the garden, so following Malcolm through to the back we set to work.

First we grabbed gloves and, lifting from the knees, moved some large wooden pallets which had been gifted to the nursery from the delivery point into the garden. Malcolm, who is clearly handy with woodwork, is going to turn these into a bridge in the garden for the kids to play on. Task one accomplished, we followed Malcolm over into the grounds of the Oxford Academy, and tooling up with spades, wheelbarrow and bags we set to work shifting some of the large pile of woodchips into the Little Peeple Garden.

20 minutes, 3 wheelbarrows, and 24 large bags-full later we had amassed quite a pile of woodchip under the tree in the garden.

The woodchip is going to spread out in various sites around the garden, including around the mud kitchen and under the tree, where there is a seating circle made from logs. The kids are lucky to have such a dedicated team at Little Peeple Nursery working to constantly improve their play spaces. We felt really happy to have helped them out a little.

After a second glug of water (stay hydrated in the heat people!), we reluctantly waved goodbye and set off to run back to base. Having slogged uphill on the way we were looking forward to a lovely downhill run on our return journey, and swooped down towards Florence Park ducking into the shade whenever we could find some. Stopping for a breather under the trees in the park the group probably thought they were just being given an opportunity to cool down, but no....never under-estimate a Goodgym trainer on a mission....it was down onto forearms and tiptoes for a planking session. Who can hold for a full minute?! Abs feeling tight and six-pack-y it was just one more mile back to base, with dreams of dinner and icecream motivating us to run faster.

Welcome to Nick, who completed his first Goodgym Group Run tonight. Good to meet you!

Well done to Mark for completing his 10th good deed, and therefore getting to wear the Garland of Joy!

Thanks to Mack for the Run Report title, and GOOD LUCK with the move!