The name's Pond - Jay's Pond

11 GoodGymers made their way 4.6km to help the The Rowans in Worthing.

: Monday, 29th of July 2019
: Led by JULIA GLEESON

Suns out-puns out

On another glorious sunny evening it was great to welcome newbie Daisy to the group. A fellow runner, parkrunner and triathlete Daisy is looking to combine volunteering with some Monday night running. She picked a great night to come along as the the team were on great form tonight.

The first person I saw was Ros . I greeted her with great delight as we had missed her ! It was short lived as poor Ros had just had her keys run over when they fell off her whilst cycling to meet us. This resulted in some buckled sad looking bits of metal. Concerned she wouldn't be able to get back into her flat she headed off to try and resolve the situation ( later we found out that she had managed to get back into her flat and wouldn't need a bed for the night! )

I was also extra pleased to see Christinaarriving in her brand new red t'shirt ! Wow you looked amazing in it and you also posted a great tweet promoting GG Worthing too . Thank you :)

Tonights line up also included Barbara, Michelle, Nick, Jay, Lucy, Duncan, Belinda and John . (Another) special mention to John who totally smashed his parkrun PB by over 90 seconds on Saturday.

With some clear instructions on routes we headed off in 3 running groups . I was hoping that we wouldn't have a repeat of last week when I mislaid 8 runners in the space of 1 mile! Tonight we headed off to see Debbie at The Rowans, a rehabilitation centre for people with brain injuries. This is a regular task venue thats always great to head back to.

Mulch ado about nothing ? Or mulch support ?

We were warmly greeted by Debbie who had organised a great task for us this evening . Within the grounds there was a smallish pond that was completely covered with weeds and bind weed . Our job was to clear the bad stuff and fill it with good stuff including a mulchy combination of potting compost and bark . We also needed to make it look pretty too with some gorgeous lavender, flame plants and bedding plants.

In addition there was 1 tree and a large shrub that needed to be taken down . Finally there was some tree pruning to be done where branches were over hanging paths.

So ... plenty of work to keep the team occupied and out of mischief tonight!

Jay and Nick set about the trees , Duncan , Lucy and Michelle the pruning and the rest of the team set to work on the tangled mass of the pond.

S 'pond taneous

Lots of the above extreme behaviour ( thats my team! ) with Belinda virtually climbing into the pond and Jay digging like a terrier burying his bones ( or in his case, cakes! )

The whole team achieved an incredible ground force makeover and the results were pretty stunning ! Check out my amazing photographic skills ( ha ha)

We took a few moments to stand back and admire, not just tonights work of art, but also the fruits of our labour from our last visit in the pretty courtyard garden.

With a fond farewell to the lovely Debbie we headed back with a marginally shorter and prettier route back to the leisure centre.

Keeping on track

Making use of the track again was a bonus.A great way to work on speed and endurance.

Tonight the team set about doing a pyramid 100 metre sprint / rest then the same with 200 , 300 and 400 . Duncan Jay and possibly Lucy( who wasn't sure what she did ) then worked backwards down the pyramid finishing on 100.

There were some personal records set particularly for Belinda. Check out the great photo of Lucy and Belinda comparing stats!

Stretches and well done to all made a happy finish to the evening with special mention to first timer Daisy. We hope you will come back often! Also kudos to new member Christina rocking the red. A fair amount of heckling accompanied the sensible stuff but thats quite a normal occurence at GG Worthing.

What's that ?

Just a final reminder that we do have a very active and entertaining whats app group so if you aren't already in it and would like to let me know and I will add you ! Theres only one pre requisite for this and that is that you know how to use the mute button!