Woody wood picker

22 runners ran 4/6k to help shift wood for domino's community centre

How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck wore a red tshirt and went to GoodGym lambeth? If Tuesday night is anything to go on (and none of my fellow volunteers mind being compared to a north american rodent), then the answer to this age-old tongue twister is ‘an awful lot’.

"a wopping 500m"

For that was our task this week - to help sort and shift the wood that was cluttering up the back garden of Brixton’s domino club. Located a wopping 500m from our start point at 299 Coldharbour Lane, the Domino is a community centre in Brixton which runs various voluntary and cultural projects, especially ones geared at engaging with young people. On the fifteenth of March, one of their young volunteers is running a family event in the club’s back garden. However that back garden needed first to be cleared.

"short fat bits"

It was quite the wood graveyard out there, with everything from bamboo to doors, crates to planks. The plan was simple - to sort the wood into piles by type, so that some could be thrown on the fire, some used to grow vegetables and some to build a stage. The only snag was that none of us had a particularly broad knowledge of wood types, giving rise to categories like “short fat bits”. A carpenter would’ve been appalled. Did you know that carpentry is the fourth most male dominated profession in the world? I digress.

"its fiery bosom"

As so often happens on good gym, the transformation was startling. With ten minutes to go I must confess I still hadn’t got to grips with our wood groups and wasn’t sure if we’d done much other than concentrate the wood into neat piles. Oh me of little faith! Just 600 of your earth seconds later, the garden was a place transformed. Stacks and stacks of wood had been lined up by the walls ready to start their new life as instruments of horticulture, the crates and doors had found kindred spirits with which to await their fate and the bonfire (which always burns when the domino club team are in the garden) was merrily embracing newcomers to its fiery bosom.

For the jog back we split into a 4km and a 6km group, though the latter’s recruitment drive was severely hampered by the word hill in denmark hill. It was nonetheless a very pleasant trot, for our now weary woodchucks.

"queen"

Next week’s session will be run by our new Lambeth trainer Diane. Hopefully we’ll see you there to usher in the new era. Long live the GoodGym queen. -James Pumphrey

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