Thistle Do It

9 do gooders took on a 4k run and task at the Lordship Rec and a quick fitness session

Well done to all GGH crew who took part in the 5KYW.

As I left Finsbury Park, where 158 council staff took on a 5k your way run (of course there was some shameless GGH PR here), I waved goodbye to the staff who would usually join us at GoodGym of a Wednesday and dashed off to reach HQ in time to greet the GGH squad. It was close but I just managed it. Well done to all who took part in the 5k. Look forward to seeing some of you at GGH soon.

Shouts out to Jools and Rudrajoy

On arrival at Tottenham Green Leisure Centre, I had o moment to scoff half a banana, some almonds and take some water before Dashing Dave arrived. The rest of the gang shortly followed him and we were happy to welcome two newcomers. Shouts out to Neota and Rudrajoy. Great having you join us! After a quick briefing and warm up we were off in search of this week's light at the rec where we’d be pruning some thistles that attempt to over grow the meadow at the rec.

it’s really nice to see people getting active

Our run to the rec was a pretty brisk one as we’ve had some nippy runners join the group so as usual we split up and Dashing Dave took the back. We all arrived in one piece to meet Joan the task leader – we had seen the light – Joan lead us toward the meadow but unfortunately, we were unable to take our usual route over the bridge as there are works going on, we did, however, walk past the new outdoor gym. This area is always busy nowadays and it’s really nice to see people getting active. After a quick mess around on the beam we got to the meadow and work began.

managed to fill 10 big green bags with unwanted thistles

Everyone got straight to it attacking the thistles at the root and either cutting or yanking them out. Protective gloves were, of course, key here. As time went on you could see mini mounds of thistles gathering ready to be bagged up. Conversations were in full swing and before long I was calling out the “10 minutes remaining”. That said everyone did a great job and managed to fill 10 big green bags with unwanted thistles. We even had a little kick about with a football we'd found in the undergrowth. Joan was super happy and so was the team until I mentioned that they now had to run with the bags (arms outstretched) to the bag drop off. Dave made a great suggestion here that the groups should split into two groups for a race to the bag drop off. As they all dashed off I was left with a little crow feeding in the meadow. That done and the bags dropped everyone did a round of burpees, walk out planks and some baby crawls before a round of high fives. We then headed back to HQ for our warm down and a few went on to Chicken Town for din dins.

Shouts out to Andy for the run report pun!

Until next week folks – stay fit, do good and look out for the light.