Staving off the January Blues

A lovely crew of runners, both old faces and new, ignored the drizzle and the January blues to have a taster session with GoodGym and dose of goodness at Surrey Docks Farm.

The first daylight GoodGym Southwark session didn't disappoint. The lovely Beth was first to arrive and be welcomed by the geese. We had some new faces join us: Becky, Sarah, Anna and Laura. Thanks so much for joining us and hope you enjoyed it! Welcome back to Neil, Diana and Mike and as ever, it was a joy to see Michael, Beth and Helena.

You all killed it.

After a warmup and a gentle intro to all that GoodGym is about, we set off to Stave Hill Ecological Park. A short run and time for a chat, we arrived ready to tackle the stairs. Split in two, group A were first to drive up the steps: arms pumping and knees going, they made it up with energy for burpees and back down the steps, looping around the park and back to gatecrash the other fitness sessions going on in the park. Meanwhile, group B were squat jumping, burpee-ing and planking until it was their turn for stair joy.

Everyone was suitably sweaty by the end and ready for a cool down jog to the farm and a quick stretch before getting to work.

Next up, it was time for some serious gardening. The lovely Lucy explained to the group a bit about the projects with the young farmers and community youth groups who come in and learn how to grow their own food and live off the land.

There were several tasks: clearing old beds of plastic and debris, heavy lifting of old sleepers, weeding, sweeping dirt and filling up the flower beds with soil from another area of land.

It was suitably muddy and we were serenaded by the ambient farmyard noise. There was a team of Young Farmers working and soon the GoodGymmers and young people were working with each other.

Who knew the sound of pigs grunting could be so motivating?

60 minutes whizzed by especially after defeating stubborn roots and sunflower heads resembling streetlights. Once we'd stamped our feet to move the mud and rinsed off the gardening gloves, everyone was free to amble around saying hello to donkeys, pigs, sheep and all of the goats (there are 36 kid goats in their mummy's tummies ready to arrive in the spring time, who knew goats commonly had triplets and twins?).

Such a productive morning and a lovely group working together. Thank You to you brilliant runners for bringing your enthusiasm and energy!

Until next time... happy running!