Feeling the wind in their hair and the sun on their cheeks, a fabulous thirty ran between 3 and 4km to help paint the railings at St Mary's Church.

Thank you this week to top-punner Tom, who wowed us with his wordy skills for this evening's title pun.

After two weeks away from my Monday night fun, it was great to be back and with so much to celebrate!

• First up, we congratulated all those who took part in the I Move London Relay over the past month, both running and volunteering. Everyone involved will now be a World Record breaker and will have helped raise £45,000 for some great charities - well done!

• Next we gave a BIG round of applause to Conroy, who will be heading a little further south as of next week, to be the new trainer for GoodGym Croydon. We all wish you well Conroy and will no doubt be coming on tour to support you, and will always be here when you need us for some Lewisham Love.

• And finally...a HUGE well done and a very big cheer for Kim, who tonight completed her 100th good deed! Kim joined us two years ago and has gone from strength to strength with her running in that time, taking part in her first race at the Petts Wood 10k, catching the bug, then working up to her first half-marathon and is now training for the Venice Marathon in October, what a journey! Kim is a great friend to many in our group, being there for everyone and offering support on the run (and at the top of The Hill at Hilly Fields parkrun, with our own four-legged mascot, Molly, at her side). Well done Kim!

No first-timers this week, but I was very pleased to meet a few people who joined while I was away - hello and welcome!

Get me to the church on time!

Tonight we ventured towards Ladywell Fields, to visit a brand new task. St Mary's Church is the oldest building in the borough of Lewisham, with a church having been on this site since the 11th century, so quite a special place to spend our evening! If you haven't sauntered through the passageway alongside the church in a while, you might like to take a wander down here to enjoy the incredible changes that have taken place in the garden. Over the past couple of years, a team of volunteers have worked with the Ladywell Unit, which is part of the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), to create a beautiful Therapeutic Garden (I was lucky enough to enjoy some potatoes, picked fresh from here on a recent visit!). Our job this evening was to make a start on cleaning and painting the long stretch of railings that run alongside here.

We were met by Marion and fellow volunteer, Carmine, who had everything set out for us, ready to get stuck in. We were also met at the task by Lucy, who is very familiar with St Mary's, having been christened here, what a lovely connection! With such a large group, we had to divide the tasks and the equipment carefully, with some using wire brushes and sandpaper to get rid of old paint and rust (thank you to those of you who also brought brushes from home), whilst others were wiping down the surfaces, post-sanding, and another group set-to with the sticky black paint, transforming the railings and smartening up the entrance to the church.

As the time passed, I wandered around, making sure everyone was happy in their work and saw some interesting and varied approaches to the job. Stephen had a very focused technique, working hard to clear all traces of paint on one particular piece of railing, making it as smooth as possible. Matt was brushing with such great determination that he wore down the whole of one side of a brush and, alongside him, Nykolette and Helen were so anxious to reach the end of their stretch of metal, that I almost had to drag them away! Great work, everyone.

Our hard work was rewarded with some refreshments, thank you for looking after us Marion, we look forward to returning next week, to continue the painting!

Lucky (tri) dip

Our evening wasn't over yet! Running over to the park, we positioned ourselves by a handy little hill, ready to take on a quick lucky dip fitness session. Depending what you picked, you might be doing hill repeats or strength training, or a mixture of both (if you were really lucky!). I quickly realised that I had been ambitious about this session working with a group of thirty, so paired people up to reduce rest time (sorry!), you keep me on my toes, always finding ways to challenge my carefully planned sessions ;)

Give me just a little more time (trial)

You have Conroy to thank for this little moment of off-piste activity, as he requested a time trial (it's been a while). For those of you who don't know, we have a (roughly) monthly time trial, which involves running four laps of the area outside our start point, which is (very nearly) 1km. This is a Strava segment, which you can view here - there's a leader board and everything, which Kim is at the top of (I'm pretty sure she's come along in her own time to bagsy that smasher of a pace!). Maybe you could get yourself up there, why not have a go? After all that effort, it was nice to be able to celebrate Kim's 100th good deed with some sweet treats brought along by Amber, thanks Amber!

I look forward to seeing some of you up at Hilly Fields parkrun on Saturday, which is Pacer Week...and Conroy's 100th parkrun! If not, see you next Monday to tackle some more metal.