Lugging Earth on the Isle of Dogs

Tuesday night was the last time I’d be leading the Canary Wharf run, although by no means my last run with GoodGym. In spite of the icy conditions, I was joined by 6 keen and active runners, with 3 newbies which is always great to see. We set off from the Reebok Club at a brisk pace towards West Silvertown. After taking people on a slight accidental diversion down the wrong stairs (my mind was preoccupied with trying to get my GPS working so we could record the run), we got onto the correct route out of Canary Wharf and ploughed on into the cold. 3.7k down the road, after navigating a slightly fishy smelling alley (which we took note to avoid on our way back), we arrived in the Britannia Village and bumped into Eli just outside her house, who escorted us to the BV community garden we were to help out with.And what a job it was. With several tons of soil sitting in the corner of the garden and at least 6 empty flower beds, there was clearly loads of work to be done. We became quickly aware that we were not going to get anywhere near finishing this week. Eli, a lively chatty soul introduced herself and explained to us what they were planning for the place and how we could help. The 6 of us soon set to work trying to move the bags in a makeshift manner (unfortunately there was a serious lack of tools). Hoisting a ton bag of soil onto a wheelbarrow failed. We eventually managed to drag two bags across to next to a bed, and after much huffing and puffing, tipped the two ton-bags of soil into the flower bed.After 25 minutes, deciding that another bag would probably knock the stuffing out of all of us, we made the collective decision that we had done as much as we could without the necessary tools. We set back off along the flyover, avoiding the fishy alley, and after a nice chat at a little sprint, found ourselves back at the Reebok.We’d love to come back and help out with those big soil bags again soon. Let’s see how things progress...