GoodGym and MIND in Camden at Castlehaven

Brightening up a grey day in Camden, three eager people took to the streets to cover 1.5km of power walking and cleared litter and leaves at Castlehaven.

Today was the start of our New Year activities, with two people turning up to join in. Hello again to Alex and welcome to Matthew, who joined us for the first time. We started off with a few dynamic stretches to warm up before we set off towards Castlehaven. Matthew was keen to find out when we might be jogging, but we decided a good power walk would be plenty to start off with (you don't want to jump into running too quickly, building up slowly with walking/power walking then jogging is the best way to go).

We soon arrived at Castlehaven, where Paul wished us a happy new year and took us round to the sports court to see our task for the morning. The leaves were piled high against the edge of the fence and all along here were discarded drinks bottles, it looks like football is thirsty work! Choosing our litter-pickers, we also grabbed a couple of bags and got stuck in, working our way along the edge and chatting as we went. We very quickly cleared the whole court, filling three (!) bags with bottles and other random bits and bobs! Good work!

This cleared the way for us to rake up the leaves, so I demonstrated the best technique (though Alex is a pro these days) and we worked as a team, raking, then scooping the leaves into the big sack. It's amazing how quickly time passes and we were very soon collecting all our tools and taking everything back to the storage area, popping our gloves back and gearing up for our return leg.

A bit more power walking and we were back with enough time to try out some wall press-ups - these are a good way in to press-ups, building up slowly instead of going straight in to full press-ups, which are really hard work! A few stretches for aching backs and we said our goodbyes until next week.