Mulch Magic

Last night's 7km run saw us return once again to the incredible SkyWay's Blue Hut to help build their community growing garden. This was our third visit to this great project, and once again the progress made since our last visit was awesome.

Meeting at Coffee Is my Cup of Tea by London Fields Station, we had a healthy group of 12 of us, including some lovely new faces. It was good to see lots of GoodGym t-shirts donned too!  

The familiar route to our task felt great - it wasn't too hot and there was a cool breeze as we set off on our first 3.5k of the evening through London Fields. We then headed west along Regent's canal, through Shoreditch Park and finally over to SkyWay.

They provide essential activities for young people in the area, and they are building a community garden to grow veggies, herbs and even their own scrumptious tea!

"they are building a community garden to grow veggies"

Gabby, the landscape gardener, greeted us and delegated the different tasks to be done. We quickly split up into three groups to efficiently tackle them.

One group shovelled load after load of mulch in to wheelbarrows and sacks and transferred them to the new paths being built between the flower beds. Another were laying said paths and unloading the mulch. The last group were tearing up foliage from two sites where a new potato patch is blooming, clearing space for a new patch.

We had all the tasks done in 25 minutes, and saying goodbye to Gabby we headed off for the second 3.5k leg of the evening's run. 

Tonight we had a really great mix of runners, ranging from beginners to advanced. For some, just settling in to a comfortable sustained pace was the key; and for others they ran back faster and really gave those legs a good push. We definitely saw a few sprint finishes this evening!

"We definitely saw a few sprint finishes this evening"

Back at Coffee is My Cup of Tea, we had a satisfying, all be it tired stretch (and even had a man take photos of us).

No doubt we'll be returning to the Blue Hut soon for more hard work! It's so brilliant to be supporting a community space from start to finish. And as we've previously stated, we really can't wait to try their teas!

Rachel Manns