As the September equinox is approaching this week, the days noticeably shrunk, and we officially entered the headtorch season for group runs! We still hit a double-digit number of attendees tonight, thanks to glorious comebacks from Caroline and Cristina 🎉

This Tuesday we came back to Cultivate's new plant nursery at Popesfield Allotments. The trees, shrubs and Herbaceous perennials were still on the pallets where we transported them last month. But would they stay there for long?

No spoilers!

When the runners: Caroline, Cristina, Kash, with backmarkers: Sevan and Steph Ducat arrived at the site, they found the task owner Romina and the GoodGymers: Mike, Madhan and Milly already working the shovels and wheelbarrows to move the gravel from the front gate to the space in front of Cultivate's shed. With more reinforcements arriving (Divya on his bike and Chris running individually), the team was split into two.

People who had been made redundant on the gravel job sought new opportunities on a different project. The next day, another volunteer group was supposed to replace a large membrane covering the ground with... even larger one! There was a problem: the membrane was covered in pallets that, in turn, were covered in plant pots. You know where am I going with this, right? Relocating the plant pots take two! And by plants I don't mean a tiny fern or a little, cute shrub. We are talking trees - the heavy, unwieldy sort - a perfect challenge for us.

Good news! No one lost any eyes when manipulating trees

When the gravel, trees in pots and pallets moved their places, Romina realised that it was difficult to continue working in the darkness and asked us whether we had time for another task. We got our head torches out and were ready to migrate more stuff. This time it would be dried grass from a pile of soil, branches and hay. We surrounded the stack like vultures and loaded the wheelbarrows with hay. We thought that only the dried grass was what Romina was after. Only after she explained the purpose of moving that material, we understood the idea: a bonfire! Anything burnable, not just grass, would go on the new stack 🔥 We transported branches and planks found in the pile to their (final) destination, then parked the wheelbarrows.

Lightning up the bonfire unfortunately was not in the programme for tonight. As it was a windy day, we decided that a cosy pub would be a perfect place to rest and get warm after the session.

Next week we are back at Elthorne Park for an autumn burdock bashing!

The story starts like a noir film, with the streets of Ealing pounded by pouring rain. Eleven figures approached the meeting point at Bodyline Studio and brightened up the scene with GoodGym red t-shirts. The narrative instantly turned into an action movie (and later into a comedy of errors)!

Despite the cloudburst, absolutely no one dropped from the session! It was a unique, once-in-a-year task: putting up the signs on lampposts and poles with parking signs for the fantastic Ealing Half Marathon happening on the 24th of September. The intention of the advance signs along the race route was to warn the drivers about the upcoming closure of the streets.

Each GoodGymer today not only showed up not bothered by the heavy rain but also brought something special to make the team strong:

• Parham, who came today for his very first task, brought something we were desperately seeking today - height! 📏
• Sevan and Mike brought step ladders to help us place the signs on a level safe for tall runners and pedestrians 🪜
• Arran and Madhan brought their usual enthusiasm and can-do attitude 💪
• Claire brought a wealth of knowledge of North Ealing 🤓
• Divya brought a bike to carry the Ikea bag with signs 🚲
• Steph brought the perspective of a runner and a biker who would look at the signs 🏍️
• Louise, the guest from GoodGym York, brought a cosmopolitan vibe into GoodGym Ealing
• Finally, Liv brought the signs and instructions ⚠️ - that made the task possible!

Before she had to leave, Liv gave us an overview of the task and the route, complimented by a live demo of the best sign-putting technique.

We split into Team Left and Team Right, each tackling one side of the road. Although we did our best to remain neutral, we couldn't get away from politics. A passerby asked Team Right about sourcing the signs and obtaining permission to put them up. She had some political agenda to share with Ealing drivers and pedestrians. We dodged the question by (rightfully) saying we are only volunteers and the Ealing Half Marathon team is responsible for making sure the signs are put up lawfully.

Do you know that Ealing Half Marathon is a CIC? That means that the profit from the event goes to the local community.

When it started getting dark, each team split into two sub-teams to improve the efficiency.

How many GoodGymers does it take to put up one sign?

The result? The pace increased but both teams got a little bit lost at some point. Eventually, the whole gang arrived at the finish of our section roughly at the same time 🤜🤛 We covered all streets we were assigned to and ended up with four extra signs. To celebrate the success of the task and dry our drenched clothes we headed to the nearest pub for a drink and chat.

We are not done with the Ealing Half Marathon, oh no!

Sign up for GoodGym activities to support runners on the day of the event:

• Join our seasoned performer Harvey as a backup dancer for the warm-up and give the runners the best experience at their start!
• Come to the cheer station to keep the runners going!

Our next week's group run will be a task for Cultivate London - sign up now!