Patch 22- to beach or not to beach? What wood you do?

Not quite a Catch 22 situation but a dilemma nonetheless. To beach or not to beach - that was the question facing tonight’s Goodgymers. To litter-ally go where no Goodgymer had gone before and clean the beach with the wonderful Piertopier beach clean crew or go long and head to Hove to the gorgeous allotment of Plot 22 to sort out their wood pile.

Tonight we welcomed 4 new runners, it's good to have you on board Angela, Kate, James & Gareth. And a big Brighton welcome to Joanna joining us from Goodgym Wandsworth.

6 runners chose the longer option (9km round trip in 53 minutes) including new runner James. We set off at a good pace and arrived at Plot 22 on schedule. Task owner Emma quickly showed us round this wonderful little oasis of loveliness. What a gorgeous place! It’s a community garden on an allotment with a fig tree a damson tree, lots of veg and flowers growing, a compost loo, a big pizza/ bread oven and a delightful little shed with a wood burner. Plot 22 hosts gardening and outdoor cookery sessions for various groups including people suffering from dementia so its a very good fit for Goodgym. Our task tonight was to sort their wood pile into wood to burn and wood that could be used for construction i.e to make raised beds and makeshift seats and tables. There were lots of rusty nails to hammer in to avoid injury when picking up the wood. Some of us got quite hammered and that was before tonight’s social! (thanks Martin!) Some of the wood was sawed into smaller pieces so it wood fit into the wood burner. We got loads done and doubled their burnable wood stash and made big progress on generally sorting. I hope we will return to do more for this great charity.

The remaining runners, led by Helena , set off on a run out to Brighton Marina and back to the pier. (5.5km in 31 minutes). They were met at the pier by Amy & Dean from ‘Pier to Pier Beach Clean’ who are on a mission to keep Brighton beach squeaky clean. Of course this makes the beach a nicer environment for us all to enjoy but more importantly it prevents loads of plastic getting washed out to sea and entering the food chain of all the sea creatures. Sterling work was done by all, especially Beth who was definitely on a bit of a solo mission, picking more rubbish than the rest of us put together! We had time to practice running up a hill, concentrating on our form and driving our arms backwards to help with the up hill momentum.

After tonight’s fabulous work we had built up quite a thirst and enjoyed celebrating our first month in the business of getting fit by doing good at our first social at our start location of the YHA. These will be happening on every second Tuesday of the month so clear your diary! If you can’’t wait another month and you happen to find yourself in London this Thursday then here’s another one for you! https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/don-t-be-aloof-we-re-heading-to-the-roof

A few people asked me tonight how we get our tasks. The answer is we go looking for them! Emailing has got me so far but the best way is to get out and talk to people so they can fully understand the power of Goodgym! I’m sure as we become more established people will be coming to us and asking for visits but if any of you have any ideas for tasks, or contacts or leads then please let me know and I will follow them up.

Well done everyone, more fitness gained and more good deeds done!

Keep on running!

p.s. in case you missed it here is Goodgym founder Ivo talking on Radio 4 about how it all came about. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08zcc4n