12 Runners ran just under 4km to help a local nursery school spread wood chippings

The evening was bright and warm when the group set off for the night's group run from GoodGym Croydon HQ - Solutions Fitness. We had our mandatory warm up session in front of Rennaissance House after which Ellie proceeded with a group of front runners while I led the rest of the evening runners. Running through East Croydon station was challenging giving the sea of people at the time and the group took extra care to avoid running into people. We received lots of stares from perplexed commuters as we snaked our way through the human traffic around the station.

We arrived at Tunstall Nursery School where we met Jane, the deputy headteacher and a jumbo bag filled with wood chippings and another tonne bag of coarse sharp sand. The first task for the night was to spread the chippings on a large raised bed about 10m away and Jane provided us with wheelbarrows, trolleys, baskets and shovels. The group got down to work with some runners filling the wheelbarrows and containers with wood chippings while another team worked as transporters moving the loaded wood chippings through a paved gokarting like path to the raised bed. At the raised bed three runners worked to lift the wheelbarrows and containers onto the raised bed and spread the wood chipping evenly. The runners regularly swapped roles until the task was completed.

Due to the enormous amount of wood chippings we were unable to embark on the second task of filling the sandpit with sand as all the time was spent on filling the raised bed with wood chippings. However a team of runners led by Sally helped move some used tyres from the front of the school to the playground at the rear of the school.

Task completed and with some runners looking forward to the social we departed the school. Our fitness session was a time trial with the runners running the loop between Addiscombe Court Road and Tunstall Road. After which we proceeded to HQ for mandatory stretches and onward to Boxpark where we had a splendid time.

Next Tuesday evening’s run we will be returning to Park Hill Recreation Ground https://www.croydon.gov.uk/leisure/parksandopenspaces/parksatoz/park-hill-recreation-ground tonight to help the Friends of Park Hill http://parkhillpark.org.uk. This is a beautiful park in the centre of Croydon and has a community garden inside the walled garden. Josi has a selection of tasks for us all which will all contribute to preparing the park for the Festival of Peace in the summer.