A Perfect Monday Evening Pick-me-up

5 Goodgymmers joined Area Activator Simon for our slightly drizzly Monday evening group run session yesterday evening (Alex and Paul ran over, and Benedict and Zoe arrived on bikes). Great to have Benedict back after a few months away in Mexico! We performed a warm-up together on the Emirates Stadium slopes (involving dips, lunges, springs and twists), and run together towards the Hilldrop Estate, Camden Road.

Plogging

Plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter (merging the Swedish verbs plocka upp (pick up) and jogga (jog) gives the new Swedish verb plogga, from which the word plogging derives).[1] It started as an organized activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting and stretching to the main action of running, hiking, or walking.

"Plogging Wikipedia entry"

Our task this evening was one that AA Simon had planned for quite a while- a guerrilla litter pick on the roadside between the Camden and Islington boroughs. This particular spot, located near Hilldrop House outreach, the former Holloway Road prison site and The Cat and Mouse Library (named after the "Cat and Mouse Act to prevent force feeding of hunger strike protesters within the suffragette movement), has become a windblock for litter and refuse from the connecting neighborhoods. A lot of the roadside is lined with hedgerows as well, habitats for the wildlife around North London.

Luckily, we had some excellent folding litter pickers, sturdy gloves and refuse bags to hand and committed to 35 minutes of picking along the roadside. 6 large bags were collected within a short time, and we were so happy to take a lot of this debris from the streets!

Upon our return to the Emirates Stadium, we hosted our monthly Arsenal Stadium Time Trial, a personal challenge to run around the 700m loop of the stadium concourse as fast as possible. The rain had stopped just early enough to make the conditions perfect for speedy running. Excellent work everyone!