A task of many parts

This Monday's run was a good 5.5k round trip, taking us to Stepney City Farm where 3 different physical tasks awaited us. One team concentrated on spreading a pile of woodchips over the paths while two others tackled different heaps of rotting waste...Photos by Culainn ShanahanSarah Galbraith writes:Seven members of the group spend their 40 minutes tending to some Stepney City Farm paths. Everyone worked together, shovelling wood chip into wheelbarrows and spreading the wood chip along the pathways leading to the compost site and animal pens. Team spirit was high, and we finished our task early, some of us running, sprinting and shovelling wood chip to get the job done in record time. We were then set a new task moving a large pile of soil but before long, our time was up. We all enjoyed a ‘fluffy bunny moment’ before heading back to Bethnal Green.Kate Hyde writes:Feeling exhausted after another excellent GoodGym evening!Ran this evening to Stepney City Farm - for me a new destination. Very excited to meet some friendly goats and quacking ducks upon arrival. Couldn't see much of the farm due to the darkness but did notice baskets of some pretty fine looking produce; asparagus, mushrooms and potatoes. Was it worrying that at this point I was already thinking about dinner!?We split into groups and my small team was assigned to the movement of a big pile of manure from one spot to another.  Definitely the smelliest job I have encountered so far with GoodGym (pretty sure that the manure was literally steaming) but hopefully helpful and certainly a good work out for the arms! We tested out several methods of manure-transport: standing on top of the pile and pushing was effective but you got the feeling you might sink in and never return. Use of the wheelbarrow proved a bit less stinky.A bit of a cuddle with a nice fluffy rabbit was a treat for the end of the task, and some sprinting on the way back made sure my legs were as tired as my arms! All round pleasant evening that felt a million miles away from the office - can't wait for next week!Lauren Garland writes:A group of eight of us were banished to the furthest corner of the farm to tackle the big compost heaps. There were four bays & they all needed work so we grabbed some forks & spades and got stuck in.  The contents of the first bay needed to be moved into the second bay and turned, so four people tackled that and made impressive progress. After about half an hour two swapped to the 4th bay that was almost fully rotted & just needed a bit of a turn. The third bay had a layer of straw that was overflowing & needed piling back into the bay and then the pile also needed turning. The straw pile was deceptive, the initial 6 inches was quite easy to move & then we hit the proper compost. The under layer was a much harder workout to turn and was extremely smelly! 40 minutes hard digging later and we'd pretty much finished the 4 bays & could head back to the farmyard for a handwash and a little bunny cuddling before setting off back to the Arch Gallery.