Julie and Anne ran to Mayford Meadows to help a group of people from WEAct to pull balsam from the path along the Hoe.

The Hymalian Balsam have really pretty flowers and grow next to water. Unfortunately, they are very invasive as their seeds can be projected up to ten meters from their stem. Already, people living along the Hoe Valley have noticed how much they have expanded and know something must be done about it. Hence the involvement of WEAct with whom we have already done different missions.

Julie and Anne worked together and managed to clear quite a large area making two enormous piles of the balsam. We had to stomp on them and leaving them in a pile will help with them not making roots for next year.

Anne, who had forgotten to pack her gloves, was saved by Julie who always has some spare in her magic bag. Another issue was the stinging nettles, thank goodness we did not run in shorts, but our arms are still tingling! The bindweeds (le liseron in French!) did not help either as they gathered the nettles to the balsam…

But hey-“Hoe” after one and a half hour, we had cleared up a large area and were rather pleased with the result! So much so, that we will invite the whole team to pull some more balsam before the flowers produce their seeds! Hopefully most of you will be able to join us for a pleasant run and a rewarding task!

In the meantime, happy running to all of you!

Having been nominated as leader yesterday, Julie rushed to the task to ensure she was at the foodbank on time.

If only she'd checked the email she would have realised that it was actually a group run so while she waited for the customers to leave and started hoovering, the rest of the gang were waiting for her at the Leisure Centre. Despite the delay, Nadia, Anne, Andy and Kirsty had a good run and arrived in perfect time to get cracking with the mops.

The floors were soon a lot cleaner thanks to more hoovering by Andy and eagle-eyed Kirsty spotted some pot plants in need of some tlc.

This task always flies by and after the obligatory photo half-way up the stairs, we ran back towards the Leisure Centre.

Thanks to all the Goodgymers for their hard work, and looking forward to our next tasks on Sunday 27th.

I went along to help Mary and Helen from Woking Environment Action at the Incredible Edible site on Ryder’s Way. After a quick litter pick we cleared pockets of soil to add native wildflower seed to enrich the meadow area and increase habitat for pollinators. It was a soggy start but we soon dried out after the rain cleared up. The garden is lovely and open for all to get involved in food growing. See https://www.instagram.com/wokingenvironmentaction?igsh=Yjc5YmFqcmR5eXF6 for more details

*Alpine Loop Hill Training 🏃‍♀️ *

Big welcome to Robert who attended his first GG session, and what a session to attend 🤣

A superb turn out from Woking GoodGym for a hill training session. I'm sure we would have changed our minds if we knew what we had in store. Wayne told us there were only a few hills but I counted at least 27. Up was hard going in the warm evening and on the gravel but going down was even worse😩 . There was a lot more walking than running, at least from me, but I think we were all glad to take a break to avoid the army trucks doing their driving training 🚚. We happily welcomed Robert to his first session with us and what a one to pick! Thank you to Anne for caring for everyone on the downhill 🗻sections and go Wayne for not getting us lost. Nadia did a great job with the warm up, safety briefing and keeping everyone together. 🪾 Well done to Katie, Alys, Melanie, Julie and Andy too for conquering the hills in good spirits. 🌳The company certainly made the hills more bearable. Lastly, a thank you to Julie for the puns in the report title.

Following the completion of a task for lovely Dramatize at their Knaphill centre, the Woking Goodgym team were asked to help create a useful garden space at their Brookwood site. Anne, Alys, Katie and Kirsty ran to the task to find that Wayne had made a great start on removing the debris from the space. Everyone got stuck in and cleared away the remaining branches and ivy while our former forest school leader, Anne led the creation of a dead hedge to create a wildlife habitat and secluded space for Dramatize students to relax in. Great job everyone!