Mulch ado about nothing

The promise of staying around for a drink after tonight's session obviously convinced enough people to run with us this week and we had a bumper turnout. 32 runners were part of our amazing crew, including Leah and Suzie who both joined us for the first time. Go and give them a cheer!

This week's task was in aid of 'The Lost Plot', who use gardening at their allotment to offer an alternative to traditional talking therapies for people in sustainable recovery. We were tasked with collecting as many leaves as possible which the group could then use to turn into leaf mulch. There was no task-owner on site with us, which meant trainer Aron went wild with the power.

The whole group was split into 5 teams with their tasks as follows:

• To collect as many leaves as possible in their teams, and deliver them up the hill to the allotment before the time ran out.
• To come up with an excellent team name - as it's GoodGym, ideally a pun.
• To take a great team photo.
• To come up with an inventive exercise that they could demonstrate to the group.
• Bonus points would be awarded for excellent teamwork, camaraderie and general excellent banter.

There was also the promise of a fabulous secret prize for the winning team, which really got everyone's head's in the game. After a quick warm-up demonstrating some potentially inefficient leaf collecting techniques, we were off.

The allotment is in Hyde Park/Woodhouse moor, which roughly 100m away from our start location, so we took a slightly scenic route to the allotment to make sure we were all thoroughly warmed up for our task. We pointed out where the leaves needed to be left and headed down to the edge of the park where there were loads of leaves and a bit more light.

Armed only with gardening gloves and some bags, the teams were free to collect leaves wherever they wanted, and on Aron's shout, each group raced off to claim their own patch. With the 30 minutes of frantic leaf counting underway, it looked like the breakneck pace might prove unsustainable.

"It's like the crystal maze!" Goodgymer whose name was lost in the melee.

Bags were being filled quicker than we could count them, and they were stuffed full to the brim. After realising we definitely weren't going to have enough bags to last us the full 30 minutes, the decision was taken to start running the bags up the hill before emptying them into one gigantic pile, and then refilling them.

After the initial buzz started to fade, thoughts turned to the other tasks the groups had been set. Here's what they all came up with:

• Team 1 - Don't stop beleafing

Exercise - frog squat/leaf collecting

Photo - team frog squat with added leaf throwing

• Team 2 - The Unbeleaveables

Exercise - erratically falling leaves with wide stance fast feet

Photo - Team tree, with a two person trunk, and everyone else as leaves.

• Team 3 - Mulch ado about nothing

Exercise - Tree pose

Photo - group tree hug

• Team 4 - Don't stop beleafing (again)

Exercise - choreagraphed workout (The Monster Mulch) with 3 exercises set to the music of Journey

Photo - Boomerang of leaf throwing with added musical accompaniment

• Team 5 - Mulch ado about nothing (again)

Exercise - Curtsy squats (another gloriously inefficient leaf collecting technique)

Photo - leaf throwing action shot

By now, a huge pile of leaves was forming and with 5 minutes to go, teams started collecting closer to the allotment gate, with everyone congregating around the two trees that were closest. As the final countdown commenced, everyone raced into the finish line to make sure their leaves counted. The final pile was enormous, and even though Team 1 tried to keep their own pile separate, eventually common sense prevailed and all the leaves were piled in together.

We got a quick snap of the whole group before heading down to the corner of the park where the teams demonstrated their exercises. There was wonderful mix of strength, endurance and even flexibility, and so obviously this had to be a group workout. We started with the Monster Mulch's high energy, before running through each of the exercises and finishing with the relative calm of the tree pose. All of the exercises were 'creative' and left people surprisingly tired. Awesome work everyone.

We jogged back to our start location for a stretch and the big reveal of our winners! Despite picking a team name that was shared by another team, the judges were impressed by their commitment to a theme, and with everything either about or set to the music of Journey's Don't Stop Believing, there could only be one winner. Team 4, Don't stop beleafing took home the Curly the Caterpillar cake, and more importantly the glory!

We all then moved inside to the warm of the pub for a drink and a chat to fully debrief the day's evening's events, and the winning team even shared their spoils! What a team.