The Announcements

The weather was looking a bit grim but that didn't stop 13 of us heading out to get stuck into some fitness/good-deed-doing fun stuff.

Big welcome to first-time GoodGymmer, Varon, and first-timer to Islington, Ivo.

And massive congratulations to Paul, who had arrived following a coach run that saw him complete his 50th good deed. Great stuff. Give the man a cheer

The Warm Up

Gathered round the fields, everybody was looking far too fresh and we wanted to get warm before it rained, so we started off with a few alien circuits: tonight's exercises were burpees, squats with a calf raise and press ups. Ow.

The Task

With cobwebs blown from the arms, legs and lungs we made our way on the 1.93k run over to Barnsbury Community Centre where we were met by Femi.

The task for the evening was to help with The Barnsbury Green Works Community Garden Project. The aim of the project is the development of a community garden at the heart of the Barnsbury Estate as part of an improved lifestyle initiative. The finished project will include raised beds, allotment and storage space and a kids' area. And we at GoodGym Islington are one of the volunteer teams helping to implement the design.

There were two main jobs for this introductory evening: the first was to dig a large circular rut in the centre of the plot. Sounded simple until we discovered that the ground was 2% soil, 12% stones, 12% brick and 74% tungsten. Well, maybe not, but we can all agree that it was difficult to dig up. Nonetheless, we set to work with forks and spades and eventually even claw hammers (thanks, Ivo) and made great progress.

The other job was driving some stakes into the ground around mallets. Again, a job that sounds pretty simple until you again consider the earth's composition. We hammered and malletted and slowly, slowly the stakes disappeared into the ground (at least until the tops started to disintegrate). Bonus points to Varon, who had embraced the GoodGym spirit wholeheartedly and whose arm seems to have a road drill setting.

As usual we stopped for a "biscuit" (see below) and to chat to a couple of locals. And after thirty minutes of hard work we'd done a great job. A quick thanks to Femi for hosting us and a group photo and it was time to get over to Emirates for our monthly Time Trial.

The Time Trial

Course record holder Paul was in attendance, but unfortunately out of action with an injury.

Eight runners stormed off round the stadium for the 641 metre extended sprint and all was quiet for a couple of minutes until Ryan came storming round the corner. He was very close to the course record, would he make it?

Sort of. He finished in 2 minutes 16 seconds, which matches Paul's previous record. Congratulations. There could be some interesting battles over the next couple of months.

Ryan was swiftly followed by Varon in 2 minutes 23 and Patrick in 2 minutes 26. Other times were written on the back of the Jaffa Cakes box and are available on request. Email simon@goodgym.org

A quick recovery walk/jog back to the stadium (and a couple of requests that we didn't sprint up the hill this week) and a stretch and we were done for the evening.

Jaffa Cake: Cake or Biscuit?

Some would say the clue's in the title. But the VAT tribunal that asked the same question in 1991 considered the product's name as a "minor consideration"

Most were aware of the court case and we discussed the price (about the same as biscuits, actually), how cakes went hard when stale and biscuits went soft when stale, how big they were, how spongey they were, how that's not really orange in the middle, how you ate yours (thanks, Anna) and we did a few taste tests.

Back in 1991 the court decided in McVities' favour, so legally the Jaffa Cake is a cake, and most GoodGymmers agreed. Does this mean last night was the first GoodGym Islington without biscuits‽

Well, there's only one thing to do in times of biscuit-debate crisis such as this, and that is turn to the biscuit bible: Nicey and Wifey's book: "nice cup of tea and a sit down". Wifey concludes that:

"... we all know deep down that the Jaffa Cake is really a biscuit."

She then goes on to rant a bit about VAT. See photos for full text.

Debate settled then. It's a biscuit and we'll probably have them again.

The "Next Time" Bit

We're back to the community centre in two weeks and next week we're helping The Old Fire Station. Both runs will feature super special star guest trainer Shaun from Camden way, so don't miss them.

Simon