Weed Slayers And Pig Sprayers - No Kid-ding!

24 runners smashed a 6k run to help out at Bramble Hill Farm

A change of plan tonight after our original task had to be cancelled at the 11th hour.

No matter however as whilst we were really looking forward to a nice evening run out to St George to fill a skip (fear not - this has been rescheduled), Chris kindly stepped in to offer us the chance to head out to one of our favourite locations to help out at the farm.

Knowing what was in store for us we got warmed up with some dynamic farmyard stretches, choosing to shoo in some pigs and goats before shutting them in their pen, whilst welcoming two first-timers, Jonny and Dan, to the GoodGym gang.

The first group was led and marshalled by two of our GoodGym Olympians, Paul and Golden Girl Chloe who set off for the farm at a steady pace. My group, with Mel and Emma backmarking, opted for a more leisurely pace, but we kept up with the front group by way of some sneaky short cuts so that we all arrived at the farm around the same time.

Once there, Chris set us about our tasks, which included some weeding and digging in various fruit and vegetable beds - one of these was a patch of strawberries and there might just have been one or two fewer strawberries in the patch by the time we left.

The highlight however was the opportunity to spray the pigs with water, to cool them down in the hot weather and soon their grunts turned to squeals - not sure whether these were squeals of delight judging how they kept running away as the water hit them.

Despite having only a little time available to us, we did managed to pay a visit to the kid goats and another pig pen (with Richard proving most adept at feeding them with some of the nearby vegetation), and a rather lengthy group photo shoot thanks to a cat that couldn't quite decide whether it wanted to feature in the photo!

And then it was back to base where Paul lead us through some good stretches of our calves, hamstrings and quads, whilst we congratulated our GoodGym Olympians (Chloe, Paul, Matt and Gary), our triathletes (Alice and Jimmy) and marshals (Richard and Chloe). Back in Vivo we also cheered Mel who was featured in this months Newsmail about Coach Running.

Big thanks to Chris for arranging for us to come and visit the farm tonight - it was the location of my very first GoodGym run and is still one of my favourites.

Thanks also to Paul, Chloe, Mel and Emma for helping us to get there and back in one piece.

And thanks to all of you for coming and getting the job done - a nice run and a great task on a lovely evening!