Chop chop

41 runners ran 5k to clear brambles for primary school.

Bramble bashing:

40 runners ran 5km to clear the playing fields of a local primary school. We assembled as usual at City Pantry in Market Row in Brixton. As the record crowd gathered (40 runners this week, whop whoop!) we made our way inside for the task briefing: Our mission this week was to help Rosendale Primary School in West Dulwich clear some of the overgrowth on their playing fields.

Straight to work

After some preliminary ‘dynamic chatter’ drills, which took the place of the usual warm-up drills due to council restrictions, we set out as a group from the Brixton base for a pacey 2.5km run to the school. We maintained a steady pace and Ivo kept the front-runners in check by sending them sprinting in the direction of bollards.

A prickly affair

Upon arrival at the school, we were split into two groups of 20 and politely fought over the spades, pruners and loppers which had been laid out ready for our use. We were informed we had just 12 and ½ minutes to cut through the brambles and weeds surrounding the changing rooms, before switching with the second group, who were being put through their paces with Ivo on the netball court. We attacked the brambles with a sense of urgency, until a rogue piece of rhubarb diverted our attention. Quote of the evening: “Does anyone have a big chopper?".

Running drills – Baywatch style

Ivo led the non-bramble bashing group through a series of running drills on the adjacent netball courts, which, although reminding everyone of being back in school PE lessons, were actually fun. The drills began with a slow motion version of the classic ‘high-knees’ drill. This rather resembled a scene from the opening credits of Baywatch, especially as the GoodGym uniform is also red. To round off the session we learnt how to keep our hips in the neutral position and practised maintaining good posture while running.

2.5km challenge home

Content from completing the mission and armed with our improved running posture, we set off for a 2.5km challenge back to base. We split into four pace groups and set off at intervals, with the Mo Farah’s heading out last. This meant that we all finished the session feeling like we’d had a challenging workout, as well as a jolly good time.

Trend setters

Back in Brixton, we created quite a spectacle while cooling down and stretching outside the Ritzy cinema – we even managed to attract potential GoodGym-ers from the passing crowd! Register here for next week’s task and invite your friends, the more the merrier!