Garden of Weedin'

An ancient burial ground for Roundhead soldiers killed in the Civil War battle for Battersea Marshes. This was the where Wandsworth GoodGymers spent their Monday night. Because of course it was. There were also baby frogs, honeybees, consecrated land, batman notepaper and the Garden of Eden.

It all started, as it always does, at our lovely home in the Battersea Arts Centre. We cheered our heroes – shout out to Laura, Matthew and Sophie who are topping the Wandsworth leader board for the number of good deeds done in our gorgeous borough. Good job, lovely people! Dany is covering the most distance at the moment – keep it up! We welcomed some new buddies to the group, a huge hello to Sarah and David.

A few quick dynamic stretches later and with the weekly CoRUNdrum announced (What is it illegal to do in the Houses of Parliament?) we set of for the Eden Community Garden in Clapham.

The gardens were beautiful, hidden next to a church on consecrated ground just a short run away. We arrived to find the knowledgeable and enthusiastic Benny, community gardener (and former marine biologist!) armed with task notes for our runners written on some excellent batman notepaper.

The gardens act as a sustainable habitat for wildlife, promote recycling and biodiversity through the planting of native British species and organic gardening. There is even an apiary for honey bees and a wildlife pond full of frogs. Volunteers are welcome on Saturdays to help out in the garden, so if you fancy doing your bit in this beautiful sanctuary, then pop down then (edengardenclapham.org). Our runners were certainly keen to get stuck in, and set about skimming the pond, shifting compost, weeding raised beds and sorting out the wooden edging of flowerbeds. There was some nibbling of the gorgeous fruit in the garden along the way, some planking smacktalk, and according to Cath and Maddy, a ‘Giant Turnip’ moment.

A quick run to Clapham Common, we used the last of the light to buddy up into teams of two. It was a tough challenge this week – a series of strength exercises were completed by one runner while their partner sprinted. There was no recovery in between the sprint and the conditioning exercises, but the pairs smashed it. Congratulations to the dream team of Roshan and David who, with some heroic sprinting, finished up first. Impressive work! But it wasn’t quite over, and the group launched into this week’s plank challenge, holding the gruelling position for as long as possible. Maddie was the stand out planker this week, with a huge four minute hold. Apparently pilates is the answer - and we’re going to learn more about this in the coming weeks.

With an easy jog back to the BAC to finish up, we discussed the bizarre answer to this week’s CoRUNdrum – apparently it is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament. Good to know. Next week we’ve got a special GoodGym session. The BAC will be closed, but we’ll still be meeting outside the building at the same time. We’ll leave our bags in a safe place at a local pub (but try and avoid bringing them if you can), do a quick task and a fitness session, then we’ll be celebrating Wandsworth’s month birthday with a social back in the pub afterwards. Join us one and all!

https://www.goodgym.org/group_runs/banking-on-it

PS hat tip to Tom for this week’s top pun :)