Stonned in Southville

Another beautiful evening saw 16 lovely souls pelting off to the Patchwork Community Garden project in Southville. An unexpected bridge raise (and the desire not to turn the run in to an Aquathlon) saw the run be lengthened, with a few added obstacles in the way, including people drinking outside a pub, railings, and another running club.

We met with Laura from the Patchwork Project at a tiny square of land in the middle of Southville, where we proceeded to rip up weeds and try and clear stones that carpeted practically all of the site so that the Patchwork Project could then turn the area from unloved wasteland to a dinky but darling garden.

We soon started to curse whoever had decided to cover the entire space in stones. They were deep, we only had 2 spades and a coupe of trowels, and one washing up bowl to use to transport the stones. This was a serious challenge! Under the weeds and detritus were creepy crawlies galore - the ground seemed to be constantly in motion. As resourceful as ever, though, the Good Gym team set to the task with their hands and rapidly began to full the washing up bowl as fast as possible and raced each load to the space where a path was to be built.

Whilst we threw 16 pairs of hands at the task, there's still more to be done at this site, and I think we were sad to leave with the job not quite finished. The shorter run back to the Folk House meant that we had time to stop at College Green for a spot of core and hip stability work, and of course a good stretch out too. It was great to see so many regulars sporting their red Good Gym t-shirts and the newbies mixing it up and getting stuck in with the rest of the gang. Well done!