Planting our feet firmly!

7 GoodGymers made their way 6km to help their local community in Hackney.

: Tuesday, 23rd of July 2013
: Led by Joel Wiles

Last night, six keen GoodGymers set off from Coffee is my Cup of Tea to give the lovely people at The Growing Communities Patchwork farm a hand with their current project in Stoke Newington.

The site is one that many of us are familiar with, having helped out there on several occasions. The Patchwork Farm is currently made up of nine sites and the food grown there will not only supply Growing Communities' box scheme with salad but will also be supplied to restaurants, cafes and shops across Hackney (one of them next door).

The run there was a healthy 4km and the group consisted of people of all abilities, some old timers and some newer members, which was lovely to see.

Once we got to the site, the volunteers there welcomed us enthusiastically, and we set to work forking the ground to improve drainage and helping to wheelbarrow some lovely ripe compost onto the earth. The task itself proved to be a great all-over body workout, strengthening our upper bodies, arms and shoulders.

Together, we shovelled, lifted and moved 22 full wheel barrows of compost - 2 tonnes in total! And, we dug up nearly 50 metres of earth.

After posing for some choice photos we were thanked again for all our hard work and we set off for the final part of our evening, the 4km run home.

This time, instead of keeping an even steady pace throughout, we split into two groups. The first group set of first running at 'pace' which was around 70-75% capacity for around 1km. The second group set off a minute later, and we all met by Dalston Junction to catch our breath.

Following a short recovery, we set off for the second part of the interval session along Kingsland Road. If you were in the area last night, you may have heard shouts of "To the bridge", which is where we gathered to congratulate each other on pushing the limits and running outside of our comfort zone.

We jogged slowly back to Coffee is my Cup of Tea and did some serious yoga inspired stretching. An incredibly rewarding task topped off with some really tough, but exhilarating intervals meant we all practically floated home, basking in the glow of another successful GoodGym session.