Alex Murtough

This morning we had a huge coverage of roles; first time briefing, course set up, finish tokens - all covered by Linda, then We had Minh marshalling, me and Jen on finish tokens, Marta conducted the course check and Steve and Alex scanned barcodes!

Even more special was the celebration of Sarah Wren getting her 250th parkrun, CONGRATULATIONS! Also, happy birthday Alex and Steve!

The Goodgym Islington crew enjoyed some refreshments, snacks and a few rounds of "Taboo" to celebrate Area Activator Simon's 3rd year on the job!

Thank you so much for coming out, and Thank you to Emily and Caitlin for the wonderful Vegan baked goods (delicious cookies and incredible banana bread).

On Monday evening, Area Activator Simon did a nice, easy walk (on tired ultra-running legs) over to the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road. Upon his arrival, he caught up with Dharmesh, Katie, Alex, Victoria and Claire, ready for a steady run across the borough on a warm Summer's evening. We started out with a dynamic warm up (with a focus on getting the stabilising muscles - quads, glutes and hamstrings mobile) before running towards St Mungo's Community Centre on Hilldrop Crescent (while avoiding the roadworks caused by unexpected flooding earlier in the day. Victoria had already been a hero for her neighbours- blocking their home with sand bags to keep the tides away- what a superstar!).

After climbing the Pankhurst Road slope, past the Cat 🐈 and Mouse 🐁 children's library, we arrived at St Mungos. Alison, Sally, Nurjehan, Giulia and Patrick met us at the big blue former church doorway to the centre. The team at St Mungos were absolutely thrilled with the progress we had made on the gardening project for the entrance and pathways around the centre, so we agreed to return to add the finishing touches this time!

Our objective this time was to trim away as much over hanging foliage and greenery as possible, to allow for easy access into the centre. Tall Goodgym runners like Alex and Patrick were particularly helpful for this particular task! Sally, Nurjehan, Giulia and Clare also did a smashing job of clipping away loads of overgrown grass surrounding the main doorway. We were also tasked with removing some troublesome weeds and brambles from these green spaces too- gathering up as much as we safely could, and disposing of it appropriately. Patrick made friends with a cute little shield bug while pulling some weeds, who seemed quite happy to sit on his Goodgym top while he worked.

Any property on Camden Road is susceptible to being a wind trap for litter, gathered from the Camden and Islington boroughs, so we also committed to helping out with some litter picking around the building, particularly around the newly trimmed hedgerows. It has been really wonderful to see the outcome from 40 minutes of graft by good people- very satisfying work!

As we closed up the group run for the night, we celebrated Area Activator Simon's 3rd year as a leader for the group- starting before the pandemic, keeping a crew together while the world went upside down, and enjoying our resurgence as we return to some sort of normality. It was been a blast! It was wonderful to enjoy some refreshments at the Highbury Library bar, post run!

News

Elizabeth House Food Hub

As part of the Summer Holiday season, Goodgym Islington have been lending a hand with the amazing crew at Elizabeth House Food Hub, the local community supermarket of donated food and provisions in the Arsenal and Highbury boroughs. Additional demand over the holidays mean that shopping and essential item deliveries on foot would make a lifetime for local families.

We will be back on Tuesday 16th August:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/school-s-out-elizabeth-house-food-hub-deliveries-0d6bd601-7257-47d4-95fc-50cc0cb6276b

and Tuesday 23rd August:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/school-s-out-elizabeth-house-food-hub-deliveries-ce5b8a33-6627-40c8-8cb0-fd5a2ccc53fb

A definition of nostalgia is a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning to return to some past period.

And I admit, looking into my own eyes in the shimmering pond at the Christchurch School Community Garden, my thoughts drifted upwards into the blue, and through the clouds, and they wafted, blown by the wind of nostalgia, to Wednesday evenings of the past… digging up dirt and moving it to the back of the garden… watering plants and shovelling dirt… digging a hole for a pond, and getting mucky with dirt… oh my, with all that dirt, my heart doth hurt…

But it shan’t, because tonight we were back. For the first time since the pandemic.

We, 15 of us, met in Greenwich’s Naval Colleges, which moved with a buzz of summer activity – there was sunshine, warmth, runners and walkers, and people just out and smiling, enjoying the vibe. We nattered until the bells cried out for 7pm, and our run leader (and twinny), Alex, started off with a welcome to Greenwich newcomers, Rawan and Tom (welcome both, hope you had a good evening!), and an important question - what’s your favourite cake? Well, us Greenwich bunch have a varied palate, and we surely encompass all possible variations of the proverbial tastebud. We had:

Chocolate Cake Birthday Cake (whose?) Apple Pie Millionaire’s Shortbread Colin the Caterpillar (I hear there’s also a Clyde, a Curly, Cecil, Morris, Cuthbert…) Cheesecake (with real cheese)

This chat got us itching to move in the direction of cake, but Alex skilfully herded us onto one of the ‘greens’ for a political warm up. Basically, like Parliament, we had to run around, and then – we U-turned, we climbed the ladder, we headed to the other side - and we had an awesome time doing so too; it was great to see so many of us laughing together.

All warmed up, cake out of our immediate thoughts, we headed to Christchurch School Community Garden. There, we were met by a familiar friendly face, Fiona, who’s one of the team that curates this awesome green space for the local community in East Greenwich.

After some moments moving around the community garden’s multiple vegetable plots and heady flowers, we were given our task. The hedging, in all this sunshine, had grown through the railings and was overhanging the adjacent footpath. So, shears-abundant, we headed onto the pavement outside, and we just started clipping. And pruning. And lopping and cropping and snipping and thinning. In minutes, the change was impressive, and some of us got out brooms and swept up the foliage, and others wheelbarrowed them to disposal. By the end of the task, I think it’s fair to say we made a lovely difference; just 16 happy helpers in 30 or so minutes.

And with an artistic tunnel-like photo (see evidence above), that was a wrap. It was awesome to be back at Christchurch School Community Garden, and if you’re looking for sanctuary, it’s open every Friday from 10:30am. Go check it out, go fuel your own nostalgia.

Thanks all :)