Blowing away the Easter weekend cobwebs, nine runners headed into the Secret Garden to make the paths a little lovelier.

Thanks this week go to Stuart for his lovely title pun, pondered over whilst spreading wood-chip along the path.

Tonight was one for the regulars, with no new-comers joining us this time. We did, however, welcome some visitors, all the way from GoodGym Wandsworth, hello to Chris and Paul, the marathon men! The lighter evening meant we were able to meet in the garden at our start point, looking fresh for the season, with new picnic benches and GG Red parasols (pretty soon we will hang out post-run, with an ice-cold drink...). We had a few topics to cover in our pre-run chat, with Ian having been on tour to GoodGym Camden last week, joining in one of their mega-tasks at the Southbank Centre. We congratulated Bradley and Tim on their parkrun PBs, in less than PB weather, though we will have to take Tim's word for it, since he FORGOT HIS BARCODE!! We talked also about the upcoming Run Through 5 and 10k race in Crystal Palace Park, on April 15th and, even more exciting, the GoodGym Olympic Games on June 30th - we really must have a GoodGym Bromley team this year (get your eggs and spoons out!).

After a little warm up, we ran up to the storage container in the park and gathered together a fabulous array of wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, forks, litter-pickers and gloves, then formed a line to the Secret Garden. Outside the garden was a nice pile of wood-chip and it was our job this evening to wheel this in and spread it along the paths. Looking around, I could see that the area we would be crossing was pretty water-logged, so we tip-toed gingerly and took a wide swoop with the barrows. On Sunday, there had been an Easter egg hunt here, so Tim wandered around with a bag and litter-pickers, but found that the children and their parents had been very responsible and had taken all their litter home :) Instead, he turned his attention to the area along the Beech hedge on the outer edge of the park, where he found all kinds of treasure (including two footballs and a little egg).

Without any discussion, the wheelbarrows were filled and the paths were raked, I just about managed a 'before' photo of the wood pile! It was lovely to see the garden in all its springtime glory, with daffodils all round and birds singing throughout our task. The sun set around us, the sky moving between blue, orange and peach, with the Crystal Palace Transmitter in the distance. Quite quickly darkness fell and it was time to gather our tools to return to the container and squeeze in a little run and fitness session before it was too dark to see where we were stepping.

It's a real joy to be back in the park, making use of its many hills and wide paths. After a short run, we paused by a short, sharp hill for some repeats, pushing hard up, with a recovery jog or walk on the way down. It was good to see the slight adjustments made after I pointed out some 'falling' arms, all arms were now driving back hard, powering the legs to the top, good work! On our return leg, we stopped again, for some strength work, in the form of some twenty-second squats, lunges and 'inchworms'. During this, I realised I could hardly see all the great work going on, so it was time to head back for our stretch!

Next week we will be running over the St John the Evangelist, to work outside in St John's Meadow, what a treat to be heading back after a winter break! This will be a 5k round-trip, sign up here to join us. This Thursday is the monthly GoodGym social, which will be in Central London this time, find out all the details here. As we parted ways, we wished all the best to Chris and Paul, who will be running the Manchester Marathon on Sunday (and the Brighton Marathon the week after!!), run strong, enjoy and give a little thumbs up to my old stomping ground, the support will no doubt be awesome ;)