No smoke without GoodGym Desire

8 runners ran to a community garden to do some weeding

GoodGym Newham social was yesterday...a scribble of ink in my diary that I look forward to fondly. Healthy numbers in the Aquatics Centre. A special cameo from GG colchester, the lovley Angela - came to do lots of my job for me. Superb!

This week's GoodGym was a milestone for me as a trainer...having been with you guys for over 6 months, a real pleasure it's been to do good with such a nice bunch of people. For this - I applaud YOU.

We ran the short journey to Mobile Garden City, roughly a mile. I was carrying/clutching coal, sausages and a few other pieces...a useful drill in realising how important your arms are for running, it's tough without them!

The 8 person dream team cracked onto work. Weeding was the job of the day...the garden was being viewed for a landscape competition the next day, so needed us to fine tune the aesthetics. I reckon we did a pretty splendid job.

Justin went rogue and did another section of the path, ripping weeds out of the ground bare handed like The Incredible Hulk pulling trees from the earth. I let the maverick roll solo...wary of his wrath.

Alex joined us again after her trip to Portugal. Good to have her back in the team. But a shame she couldn't join us for the BBQ after..you were missed! In the midst of her training for the Royal Parks Half Marathon, looking forward to hearing how that training run goes from Angel to Hampstead. Here's an intermediate GG race to sign up to Regents Park 10k...a lovely flat lapped course. Sign up!

We finished up weeding, Rodrigo and I got the fire roaring, evoking our inner cave men...very easy to just stare aimlessly into a fire. I got on the train stinking like a Guy Fawkes effigy. After waiting for the fire to ease off...we chucked our meat onto the grill...and settled in. Watching the sun set on a gorgeous garden with the bbq going, freshly harvested salad, a cold beer and lovely company - I'd say that's quite a terrific combination of things.

A few beers, burgers and quorn sausages later we decided to call it a night. Not after admiring our weeding, it was a challenge to spot any weeds at this point. But as someone pointed out, it was dark..and we were a couple drinks in - maybe not the most comprehensive way to judge our efforts - but i'll go with it!

Great work team Newham - until next week!

B