Roots Manuva-ed
4 Goodgymers helped their local community in Islington
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Monday 20th March 2023
Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
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Our Goodgym running crew avoided a continuation of the weekend's rain and mud (especially for those running parkrun or travelling to Wales for trail races!), and arrived the The Arsenal Community Hub on a mild spring time evening! Last one before the clocks go forward next weekend. Happy Birthday to Alex on Sunday, welcome back to Claire after her awesome trip to Hawaii, and Monday greetings to Louise after a weekend of completing Goodgym tasks across most of London! One of these being Area Activator Simon's official 500th Good Deed over at Caledonian Park junior parkrun on Sunday morning.
After a short warm-up along the slopes of the Emirates Stadium, we ran the 1.6 mile route along Upper Street in Angel (nice and quiet after a bit of rain) past Compton Square Gardens and down to the lovely ARC Centre on the Packington Estate. Kelly, the local resident and volunteer gardening expert took us over to the newly remodeled Riverside Gardens space, literally next door to Regent's Canal. This was actually part of our Slow Ways running task a few weeks back, so it was wonderful to see the spot being utilised for a new community project!
Between us, we set about digging up two large plots of soil and mulch, clearing the beds of roots, plants, older seeds and bulbs. We successfully pulled up some really quite huge plants, while avoiding our worm, snail and beetle friends, of course! The plan for the space involves re-designing the beds themselves (a carpenter will create some new dovetail joins for the containers on Tuesday), ready to be filled with nutritious plants and green shoots for the local residents (human or otherwise!).
We returned our shovels back to The ARC Centre after about 40 minutes of graft, and ran approximately 2 miles back to The Emirates Stadium, following our lovely Highbury Fields extension by Drayton Park.
Great job everyone! We will be back again next week, same time, same place!
NEWS
Achilles International group run- Now at The Emirates Stadium
Thursday 23rd March, 6pm, Arsenal Tube Station
We will be collaborating with Achilles International for our weekly VI guide running group session at The Emirates Stadium. New and experienced guides encouraged and supported!
Come and join us here:
Camino Ultra London- Lea Valley 50km Goodgym Official Aid Station
Saturday 25th March, Ponder's End Lock, from 10am until approximately 3pm
Area Activator Simon and the team from Camino Ultra will be hosting a special Goodgym aid station (for water, nutrition and support) as part of this classic London ultra running challenge. Your cheers and well wishes could make someone's race!
Sign up here for more information:
https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/camino-ultra-lea-valley-50km-goodgym-aid-station
Penn Road Gardens Open Volunteer Morning
Sunday 26th March, 10am, Penn Road Gardens
The local resident gardeners of Penn Road Gardens have invited fellow green fingered folk to assist with their monthly projects. A perfect post junior parkrun volunteering community mission!
Sign up here:
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Islington
The Friends of Caledonian Park have asked our team to help with laying new bark chip for healthy plants!
