16 lovely runners ran 5km to help at the Mefa Montessori!

It was a wonderfully muggy evening over in Greenwich tonight, perfect for a summery GoodGym group run!

We had one new runner with us, welcome to Arjun, hope you enjoyed your first good deed!

The evening began as it always does, with a little intro followed by a warm up and then it was time to go!

Our journey took us through Greenwich Park, up the hill and through the Westcombe Park area until we arrived 15 minutes later at the Montessori!

We haven't been here for at least a year, so it was lovely to see Wendy greeting us with open arms! The place had undergone a huge makeover since last time we were there with the introduction of a new forestry school in the back yard which was amazing! They acquired the land and also received a grant from the council to create it and it's turned out fantastically.

The main jobs for us were cutting down some branches of next door's dead tree, varnishing the shed and putting up a trellis! So lots to be getting on with!

As soon as Wendy mentioned the word "drill" all the guys were on it! Going against all the GoodGym health and safety rules regarding power tools but I won't tell if you don't. I know you're a sensible bunch :) it took a bit of time to get the trellis level resulting in perhaps one unwanted hole in the wall but it all worked out perfectly in the end and Wendy was delighted with the result! Next time we can look forward to some Montessori wine now that the vines have someting to cling onto!

Meanwhile, the branches of the tree were coming down at a speedy rate and being cut up and packed up into bags. Also the shed was looking really rather shiny! After about half an hour, everything was done!! Excellent work!!

We took a quick pic and then set off on our run back to the uni.

Foot nerd alert

We didn't have much time left and I for one was quite tired so we finished off with a few balancing exercises instead of a regular fitness session. The aim of it was to bring some awareness back into our feet and try and strengthen those intrinsic muscles that don't get used very often. Our feet have 28 bones and 30 joints so they are meant to move A LOT, but sadly we lead lives that involve an increased amount of sitting and that coupled with modern footwear means they tend to get squished into high heels and narrow shoes and then lose a lot of their function which then translates into bad mechanics up the kinetic chain. EEEK!

So if you ever get sore knees or hips, or even lower back pain, it could be to do with weakened or immobile feet and ankles! Fix your foundations and the rest will fall into place. You wouldn't build a house on sand now would you?? :)

We did 2 simple exercises, one of which was a single leg balance but with eyes closed. As soon as you shut your eyes, your ankle and foot start twitching and gripping onto the floor which is a great one for awakening the muscles and strengthening the arch. The second one involved taking our socks off and doing some sock scrunches. Again this is super basic but really great to get the toes moving and the arch working. Your arch acts like a spring, so having a strong arch is basically free energy and will make you run faster. Yes you could go and buy a pair of Nike Next % shoes for £240 but that's cheating. This is way more cool.

So take care of your feet folks! The stronger they are, the happier your running will be and you will not need to wear insoles or "supportive shoes", your feet will be able to do the work instead!

Great work tonight everyone! Wendy was so pleased with everything you got done. The trellis and the branches in particular they would have found very difficult to do themselves so well done!! Hopefully see some of you at Greenwich Parkrun on Saturday, if not next Wednesday!