“Roll aht the barrers!”

Yesterday was a momentous day in history: the Sun shone! Also, there were lots of new faces at GoodGym (myself included – returning after a 3 month hiatus!) and a major event in the political world which some of you may have heard about…

So GoodGym rounded us all up and gave us shovels (no, not for grave digging – this isn’t 1979!), but manure shovelling at Spitalfields City Farm. There was 15 tonnes of the stuff to move in the space of 30 minutes! Luckily there were 31 of us and plenty of wheelbarrows to go ‘round. We split into 3 groups; one stayed by the big pile of manure and shovelled it into the wheelbarrows, another group of runners waited impatiently and then wheeled round full barrows to a large plant bed in relays, and the third group of runners who had gone with Richard the farm worker, got stuck into spreading it all out into the raised beds.

As always with GoodGym, there was plenty of banter, but also the challenge to get as much muck moved in miniscule amount of minutes! So, in combining both, Mark and Richard set about using their small barrow (which was light and sporty, a bit like the wheelbarrow equivalent of a Boxter) for timed relays and challenging anyone who dared, to get to the beds and back with a full load in under a minute. Times came in as short as 32 seconds and the challenge was named the “Barrerlympics” (obviously said in cockney accent)! Instead of partaking, I stubbornly stood my ground, made as much mess as I could and then renamed my vehicle “Barrowness Thatcher”. Guffaw, guffaw…

Good work done in less than 40 minutes with 3 different routes for the way home; a long at around 6km, medium with interval training at 4km, and direct route back for the wimps at 2km. Special mention again to Richard for his singing, as we packed up; “spades to left of me, shovels to the right, here I am, moving manure with you” – Sh*t Shovelling, the Musical – coming soon!

-Charlotte Bradford