Wood you like chips with that?

22 runners ran 5k to help wheelbarrow woodchip for Camley Street Natural Park in Camden

Camden 'food growing project' hub

In damp and blustery conditions a big group of Camden GoodGym runners ran to Camley Street Wild Park. This cool nature reserve does loads of great stuff in Camden, acting as a hub for community food growing projects. Its also a beautiful nature reserve- cultivating interesting wildlife on the banks of the canal.

** Pavement Aerobics**

Spurred on by the shouts of a group of cyclists (who presumably recognised our red t-shirts!?) we jogged lunged, bounced and high knee'd (is that a verb?) 1.5k up to the park. Our task was a simple one; we had to wheelbarrow a big pile of woodchip to a series of raised beds 250metres up the road. We only had access to 10 barrows so we split into two teams. The teams took it in turns to shovel and barrow, squeezing in some lung busting intervals between each turn.

The Double Back game

The intervals got progressively tougher. We ended up jogging out along the path for 1minute before turning and sprinting back to the start line. It was tough but fun. The 'Indiana Jones' style dives for the line as the countdown reached zero made for impressive viewing!

Here's what our French Runner Axel Manzano thought of the whole thing;

"Une équipe de 22 coureurs s'est réunie hier soir, comme chaque mercredi pour GoodGym Camden, pour venir en aide à 'Camley Street Wild Park'. Après un petit jogging de 1,5 km et pas mal d'exercice pour s'échauffer, 2 groupes se sont relayé à pour effectuer la tâche du jour. Le but étant de transporter avec des brouettes des fins morceaux d'arbre jusqu'à une nouvelle zone du parc qui permettra à tout le monde de planter fruits et légumes, le bois servant de chemin. Pendant qu'un groupe s'atteler à cette tâche, l'autre faisait quelques exercices d'accélérations avec d'en un premier temps 20s à allure soutenue puis 40sec de jogging pour revenir au point de départ, puis le le même exercice avec 30s/1min, pour finir avec l'inverse jogging puis allure soutenue. Après avoir accomplie la tâche, nous sommes rentrés à 'Somerstown Community Centre' en courant une vingtaine de minutes, et fini cette soirée par une séance d'étirements."

When the chips are.....done

After 4 rounds of hardcore barrowing we had managed to shift the pile so headed back on a nice social run back to the centre. We took a detour, dashing along the canal and through Granary Square before snaking our way back to Somers Town Community Centre. We got back bang on time- giving us time for a good group stretch. Nice work guys.