There was quite a lot of excitement at Goodgym Tower Hamlets last night, because we were gathering for the first time at our brand spanking new meeting point – the plush Town Hall Hotel just off Cambridge Heath Road. Set in the heart of the East End, the award-winning Town Hall Hotel combines architectural splendour with cutting-edge design… so it’s fair to say it’s slightly more plush than some of us are used to.

Luckily, the glorious weather had brought out more than just some welcome extra rays of sunshine – and we had absolutely LOADS of new runners to help us make the most of our new surroundings (who probably now think that meeting in luxurious East End hotels is par for the course at Goodgym Tower Hamlets). Big shout outs to Anna, Tim and the rest of the newbies for coming along to their first ever Goodgym run!

And we all agreed that the hotel’s generosity in hosting us should most definitely not go unrewarded, so we plan to go back there to say thank you by quaffing some of their cocktails in the hotel bar on one of the nights when we’ve not just been to a city farm. Not sure they’d appreciate us traipsing our muddy trainers through their sparkly clean corridors!

Because, despite the sunshine, mud was definitely on the cards at Stepney City Farm where we went for our mission last night. After a gentle 2km jog down there, we met up with Simon from the farm who briefed us about our tasks for the evening. Unlike last time, when he was understandably a little bit knackered having been up almost all night helping to deliver a baby goat (more on that later), Simon was absolutely full of beans: it definitely rubbed off on all of us as we enthusiastically got stuck into shovelling compost from one place to another, bagging up sacks of compost for sale in the farm shop, and generally giving the farm a bit of a seeing to. A great upper body workout once you got used to the shovels, garden forks and hoes!

And as it was the first task this year in which we had lovely sunshine for the entire time, we could actually see the whole farm in its full glory for once, as well as enjoying a pretty spectacular sunset as the session drew to a close. It also meant that we all got to enjoy a little treat as a reward for our hard work – Simon let us visit the little baby goats that had only just been born last time we were there. We were all amazed by how much bigger they’d grown in such a short space of time, and Billy Ocean (the name we’ve given the boy kid) wasted no time in showing off to his unexpected fans by playing around on his goat-sized climbing frame, much to the jealousy of the others. We also snuck in a little bit of ‘Chicko Time’ with a visit to the three week old little chickens – including one very naughty ‘Elvis’ chick!

However, it wasn’t all fun and games as we still had the run back to contend with – and Tom certainly made us sing for our supper! Across the course of the 2km-3km run back, we split up some steady jogging with a selection of hard sprints - including one road that we definitely hadn’t appreciated the length of when we all merrily set off (before realising we’d only been able to see about a third of the length of it)! Luckily, all that just meant that we returned back to base at the Town Hall Hotel a little bit knackered, a little bit tired, but DEFINITELY knowing that we’d made the most out of our run and our evening. Can’t wait to be back!

Congratulations also to Andy on his 50th good deed!

Rosalind