Last week's group run in Walpole Park enriched us with some wisdom: woodchip is a rare, valuable resource that can be hiding behind iron bars. Today we came prepared with our revised plan of how to get to the heap of that treasure just outside the park gate - to be precise, the closed gate. We needed the fresh woodchip to spread on the paths in the walled garden that we cleared of the old woodchip a week before.

We met outside Bodyline and retraced our run and walk from last week. Lionel, on the roll after the last Saturday comeback, cycled to the start location and was ready for a run. Raj, Sevan and Kash warmed up by running to the start point and also opted for the run. The group of four looped around Walpole and Lammas Parks. Jenni and Ben chose to walk and did a loop around Walpole Park to meet Mike at the secret tool store.

It took us a while to pass the security systems only to trigger the alarm. Uh oh! The team quickly secured the wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes and took an escape route. Kash stayed behind to call ~~their lawyer~~ park's security team. Thanks to our proactive Taskforce, the group knew the action plan and right away set off to collect the woodchip outside the park. Yes, we walked with the wheelbarrows out of the park and then around the fence to get to the woodchip gold. It was not the most efficient way - but it was a good arm workout and an additional brisk walk. That's what GoodGym is about, isn't it?

Eight barrows of woodchip that we imported from outside the park were enough to cover the two paths between the vegetable beds in the walled garden. We finished just about time - it started to rain and the temperature dropped. Guess what happened when we returned to the tool store to put back the tools? The alarm went off again and we couldn't disarm it. We disappeared from the crime scene and hid in a pub - we cannot reveal which one as Walpole Park's Department of Defence must be on our case!

Today's pun has been supplied by Mike.

Wood chip is the essence of winter GoodGym tasks. It's so versatile it makes the young trees happy, keeps the soil warmer and keeps your feet out of the mud.

A famous philosopher once said:

Be wood chip, my friend. Empty your barrow. Be formless, shapeless, like wood chip. You put wood chip on a path, it becomes the path. You put wood chip into a barrow, it becomes the barrow. You put it in compost, it becomes the compost. Now wood chip can nourish or it can kill (weeds). Be wood chip, my friend.

Not deterred by the number of tasks related exclusively to wood chip this winter, a group of GoodGymers joined the Tuesday group run to remove old wood chips from paths between vegetable beds in Walpole Park's walled garden. The second part of the task was to spread the fresh wood chip in place of the old one.

Today we welcomed two new joiners: Thien An and Nerea 🎉 We also welcomed a new run leader in GoodGym Ealing! Sevan who just obtained the run leader status, stepped up and led today's session 👏

We met a Bodyline and split into two groups. Jenni led the walking team: Thien An, Nerea, Mike, Claire, Milly and Madhan that walked a loop around Walpole Park. Sevan led the runners, Raj and Kash, via the route around Walpole and Lammas Parks.

Both teams arrived at Rickyard, where they met Chris. After beating the complex security system, we opened the tool store (this time the alarm didn't go off!) and collected the tools:

• 4 shovels

• 3 wheelbarrows

• 3 rakes

In the walled garden, the team started the task by excavating the old, decomposed wood chips from the paths, while a couple of us went on a desperate quest to find the fresh wood chips. A big pile of mint-condition wood chips has been seen on Sunday afternoon very close to the walled garden - but just outside the park's gate! After trying several different gates that all turned out to be closed, the wood chip seekers expedition gave up.

The Wood Chip Removal Squad did a great job taking out the old wood chips and spreading them in the nearby fruit cage! 👌 Next time we'll find a way to put those fresh wood chips where they belong!

This Tuesday we set off from Ealing Broadway to Acton to deliver the word about the upcoming Reduce and Recycle Hub to the neighbourhood. One group ran, and another one ran & walked - everyone had a chance to pick a pace that worked for them. Harvey led the run, followed by Raj, Sevan, Milly, Jenni and Madhan, and Kash stayed at the back. All made their way to The Kings Head pub and met Divya, Mike and Chris there.

We split the 500 leaflets in half but didn't split ourselves so evenly: Group 1 had six people, and Group 2 only had four. The second group had inside knowledge about the local streets, which allowed them to distribute the flyers at an impressive speed! We were so keen to start we forgot about the group photo...

Apart from a few barking dogs behind the doors, the discovery of a shark mural and Madhan who (not intentionally) almost scared to death a lady who was taking out her rubbish, the task went without interruptions. All 500 flyers landed in residents' letterboxes and we hope the recipients will land at the Acton Market to check out the Reduce and Recycle Hub this Saturday.

Sevan, Kash and Jenni arrived nice and early for this morning's Junior parkrun in Pitshanger Park. Kash and Sevan were particularly impressed that Jenni was in short sleeves, showing off her black GG tee.

Kash and Sevan were signed up for marshaling, along with parkrun regular Raj. Jenni on the other hand had the high pressure role of handing out finish tokens 😥.

Raj, Sevan and Kash took their positions around the course before the runners set off. Despite the full roster, there were a couple of gaps between the marshals on the route.

Our marshals cheered the 36 runners on as they did 2 laps of the course. The last couple of runners walked around, so Jenni had a long wait. The 36th and last finisher tried to escape without getting their token after almost 25 minutes, causing mild panic. They were only fooling around though and soon order was restored and all of the tokens and finish times tallied up.

We'll be back at Pitshanger Juniors next month.