The end of the season means less planting, more harvesting, and guess what...? More weeds! The battle against the weeds at Bixley Community Allotment needed more GoodGymers today. Five answered the call to arms!

Steph, Sevan and Kash jogged from Ealing Broadway to Hanwell after cheering their friends at the Ealing Half Marathon and met Harvey who ran the half this morning! He just recovered from the run and was ready for more action at Bixley! All four got coffees to power themselves up and walked along the canal to Southall. It was a lovely trek with plenty of nature to marvel at (check out the wildflower meadow photo!). After overcoming the challenge of sending the right co-ordinates to Divya, the Ealing folks eventually met their Hammersmith friend, who cycled all the way West to meet them.

Now, that's a committment! said Mani when he met Divya

Mani introduced us to his fellow cheerful allotment holder who fell in love with the idea of GoodGym at first sight. She had gardening advice and some saplings for Mani to plant in the community allotment. When she bravely cruised through the narrow path into the community allotment in her wheelchair, we knew who would be our boss today.

We couldn't complain about the lack of variety today. Here is what we've been doing:

• weeding beetroot & chard patch with hoes
• removing grass from under the blackcurrant bushes
• digging the soil to prepare a future garlic patch
• preparing the soil for the herb garden
• planting fennel
• rearranging a compost pile
• transferring grass into the compost stack

Mani was low on volunteers, that's why we turned out to be a blessing for the community allotment. From the regulars, Mala joined us and took care of the harvesting.

Today's spoils of war against weeds:

• big marrow
• giant marrow
• spinach
• kale
• chard
• grapes
• lots of potatoes

Mani let us take home whatever we wanted!

We are back to Bixley on the last Sunday of October - save the date and sign up here!

There was a great turnout for the first GoodGym cheer station at Ealing Half Marathon. Many from the earlier Warm Up came to encourage the runners, along with a few more who felt that the 7:55am warm up was too early a start on a Sunday morning 😂. They lined the route at their commandeered bus stop, standing in front of the GoodGym flag.

Milly took control of the motivational tunes while Tish brought her race cheering experience, with shouts to charge the runners up. There were a few problems with the flag... the gaffer tape wasn't great and keeping it stuck to our bus shelter, so running repairs were needed which kept people busy.

The runners passed at 1 mile in, then again at mile 11 with many GoodGymers, current and lapsed being spotted. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves were cheered on, as was a half-man-half-T-rex and thousands of other runners who took part in the amazing community driven event!

P.S Milly also gets a bonus 🌟 for helping a runner tighten up her running belt.