When the going gets tough, the turf gets growing

Great to see the GoodGym gang out in force last night, doing good and working hard despite the drizzle in Wandsworth. We had so many reasons to be cheerful last night, including having some great new people come for their very first GoodGym run. Say hello to Rosie, Ellen, Katie and Alice and give them a cheer!

Lots of exciting things coming up, starting with a lovely long training run this Saturday. There are two groups going from Cheshunt leaving at 10:25 at two different speeds. 9-10 miles will be followed by pizza so sign up here to start your weekend right.

If you're doing the London Marathon don't forget to put your name down on the spreadsheet so we know to cheer for you. Speaking of cheering, if you're up for giving team GoodGym and all the other amazing runners your support on the day, details of our cheering stations are here.

We talked about volunteering at the upcoming Hackney Half, for which you will be rewarded with a shiny free place at future races. You can sign up on the virgin sport volunteer portal here, then let Alyx know on alyx@goodgym.org so she can add you to the GG water station. You don't need to select a role when signing up.

It was a special milestone run for one of our runners last night - give Sophie a cheer for reaching that magic 100 mark. That shows an awful lot of dedication to making Wandsworth a better and kinder place - well done Sophie!

We had a big task at the beautiful Doddington & Rollo rooftop community garden last night. This special place was once a disused carpark roof before it was taken on by a bunch of volunteers and run for the use of all the local residents who don't have access to a garden themselves.

Before we set off we did a quick warm up, and a Dog v Cat debate. There was one abstention, several who voted for both, but the overwhelming result was Team Dog. They do make very good running companions after all.

After a short run down to the garden, stopping along the way for a quick superman competition, we arrived at the garden and got stuck straight into the jobs. While one team got cracking shifting several dozen heavy bags of compost up the stairs and across the garden, another group took several fruit trees to plant elsewhere on the estate. There were also weeding and mulching jobs to do, and before long we were a hive of activity. Great work everyone!

If you can't get enough of the green stuff, don't forget that they're hosting a big dig event here at the end of April, during which you will be fed a fine free lunch.

Jobs done, it was starting to rain harder, so we took ourselves off to the square next door to tackle a tough tabata session. The idea behind it is that, with 20 seconds of high intensity work followed by 10 seconds of recovery, your body burns fat and increases anaerobic and aerobic capacity in a short window of time. 10 minutes later we had worked hard, and split up into two groups to run home.

Lovely running last night, and a big pat on the back for the top effort you put into a huge task. Next week I won't be there but you will be led by King's trainer extraordinaire Alyx for the coming couple of runs - don't miss out on some fun tasks by signing up here.