A rainy forecast wasn’t going to stop GoodGym Newham on Wednesday evening as 6 of us met at the Print House for the all important pre task briefing and safety reminders before heading to regular task Abbey Gardens.

The gardens want to be as sustainable and self sufficient as possible, and part of that is managing and producing their own compost from any green waste, so we had a really important job of tackling a mountain of twigs and branches, removing the leaves (“de-leafing“) and breaking them down into smaller pieces so that they could go into the composters. Armed with various shears, loppers and gloves, we successfully avoided thorns and potential spiders to make a decent dent in the twig pile and top up the compost.

It was also great to see the new greenhouse they have put up on the space we cleared on a group run not so long ago, with Adam helping with the finishing touches by clearing some rogue brambles that had found their way into the back.

We debated this week’s random weekly question during the task - favourite pizza topping? A couple of classics with margheritas and meat feasts. Some international submissions including the double bacon cheeseburger pizza with extra brie (I think prawns were mentioned too…). Tuna seeded to be the overall winner though - give it a go if you haven’t tried it yet!

Luckily the rain didn’t start until just before we finished at the gardens, so we arrived back at the Print House relatively dry, completed all our cool down stretches, and celebrated with the signature post-run orange and lemonade (in slightly DIY fashion).

From next week GoodGym Newham will be moving to Tuesday night for our group runs, along with all our regular members we’re hoping to also see a few more faces both old and new who can make it on Tuesdays! Next week we’ll either be flyering or off to the allotments - details to follow, but sign up here and see you then.