Straight Backs and Custard Snacks

On Wednesday night GoodGym tackled two tasks in Camden. Having tackled the slightly longer run route Alex sent this report;

Good Gym Camden In the late 19th century St Mary’s in the (nowt but) Fields church was established to attract the great and good to set up a new community in what was to become the Kilburn area. Last night it attracted the great and Good Gym to help with a myriad of gardening activities such as mowing, hoeing, digging and topiary (special mention to the artists Andrew and Steve for their box-hedge trimming skills).

"Last night it attracted the great and Good Gym to help with a myriad of gardening activities such as mowing, hoeing, digging and topiary"

It seemed an evening of great effort and great reward – first up, a 5k run from Somers Town up to Abbey Road in Kilburn, mostly accompanied by a punishing headwind, but with a much appreciated juice and custard cream awaiting us at the church. Then back to work and in no time we were working our magic to the admiration of our hosts, but not without a cost. What can only be described as a 1st degree paper cut was suffered by a member of the team, however Shaun was quickly on hand to treat the wound (all those months of training have paid off).

"we were working our magic to the admiration of our hosts"

The run back was quicker (didn’t feel like it) and a bit easier (didn’t feel like it) and the traditionally pleasant Camden Good Gym weather held, leaving us all with a sense of divine satisfaction and an eagerness for next week’s challenge!

On the Calthorpe run, Rachel gave us this update;

Another rain free run was on the cards in Camden as we arrived at the summers town community centre to warm up for some “hard core helping”. Today we would be helping to shift woodchip using wheelbarrows, so before anything else, we needed to make sure we had our pirouette squats down to a T.

"before anything else, we needed to make sure we had our pirouette squats down to a T."

A lovely run down to the project…always a great opportunity to explore the streets of London and find some hidey holes you would never have otherwise spotted. In my case the project base was new too, but Good Gym Camden had been there before and were being welcomed back with open arms to lend more helping hands. And a beautiful place it was!

"digging and raking, gave us the ultimate upper body work out!"

Luckily for us, the woodchip, which needed shifting was quite a way away from the flowerbeds, so we had a good run around the garden paths with the wheelbarrows to shift the pile in the time we had. We even used a ton sack to get the chippings moved which, along with the digging and raking, gave us the ultimate upper body work out! Having stayed at the project a little longer to get it all finished we took the same route back to make sure we were back in time for a nice lot of stretches.