Today we ran between 8 and 10km to deliver RAP brochures to South Norwood Leisure Centre. The RAP scheme is a programme run by Croydon’s Sport and Physical Activity team for 5-18 year olds with disabilities and additional needs. There is a mix of weekly activities and holiday courses.

This evening was one of our longer runs and on the way there we run through the Addiscombe Railway Park where we bumped into one of the Friends of Addiscombe Railway Park volunteers, Lauren, who will be looking for some tasks for us to do.

One of the aims of this evening was to work on improving our speed so while we were in the park we split into two teams of five and played “catch-up” – the runner at the end of their line had to race to the front of the line and shout (or gasp) “GO” then the new end runner had to do the same – and repeat! Just after we’d finished this I thought they’d enjoy some walking lunges to strengthen their legs – not sure if they did though!

Once we ran to the end of the Park we headed to the leisure centre, handed in the brochures then headed back to base. It was a lovely evening and we did have some time left so we stopped at Woodside Green for some “Suicide Sprints” – they will thank me when they outsprint small children at parkrun!

We had two new members today so welcome to Danielle who has done a couple of runs in East London but has now moved to the Croydon area and also to Ewen who was brought along by his mum but seemed to enjoy it in the end.

Next week we will be delivering leaflets promoting the upcoming South Norwood Community Festival and finding some more of Croydon’s hidden parks and green spaces along the way. Another six task were posted today so lots more to sign up for!