GoodGym International XI

11 runners met this Saturday and ran 5k to help weed and shift soil for a community project

On a overcast Saturday morning a team assembled at the UCL Campus near Euston. We were running a special GoodGym run as part of the University's International Students week. Runners from a host of countries took part; Poland, Brazil, USA, France and..Dorset were all well represented.

Ministry of Silly Walks

After some slightly embarrassing warm-up exercises in Tavistock Square we ran roughly 2km down to the Calthorpe Project on Grays Inn Road. This is a great community space- offering outdoor space for 'garden-less' local residents. They run a host of activities for children and offer space for local people to grow food.

P is for Perserverance, T is for teamwork

We were tasked with three jobs; filling a raised bed with soil, weeding a disused bed, and pulling creeping weeds from the pathways. We broke into three teams and raided the tool shed for anything that looked useful! Glen, Alex and Rebecca took on the mammoth disused weeding job, Patricia and Hana tidied the pathways, and Stephane, Margaret, Wojech, Phil and Iona grabbed the wheelbarrows a started filling soil. With the added motivation of shouts from the nearby children's football coach (P is for Perserverance, T is for teamwork... apparently) we smashed through the tasks, finishing them all in under 40mins!

Bin Fartlek

We packed away the tools and made for home- taking a slight long cut to run around a few of the local squares. We tried a bit of fartlek (loosely translated as 'speed play') using the park bins as markers as we sped up and slowed down on our way round the park. Stephane's turn of speed around Russell Square was particularly impressive! We arrived back at UCL at 1.30pm- sweaty but elated. Nice work guys.