3 South East Londoners embarked on a 5k run to lift out and wash some windows at the Montessori

What another beautiful evening it was last night! A perfect evening for a run :) We had a slightly smaller turnout than usual which was surprising considering the weather! Although runner Tom informed me that the football was on and the tennis too so I'll let you all off, just this once! ;)

So our trio of runners was made up of Tom, Mags and myself!

They've stolen our spot!

So we always start our runs with a nice little warm up on the grassy patch but last night there was a concert of some kind on in the University so we couldn't use it. Instead we had a slow jog to the park to get our hearts going and blood flowing before we set off.

The thing about Greenwich is you can't really run anywhere without scaling some sort of hill, and last night was no different. Although nothing too steep this time, but instead they were looooong sloooooow climbs which can be equally as painful! But these guys killed it! Super speedy, well done!!

After Tom's excellent navigation and memory from last time, we arrived at the Montessori nice and early to get as much done as we could, considering we were a few people down!

It was so nice to see the garden still looking amazing from our last visit! Just goes to show all the hard work really pays off :) Anyway, Wendy showed us inside and upstairs to the rooms which needed the windows removed, cleaned then put back in. She warned us it was hot, but I don't think any of us quite realised exactly how hot it would be.

SWEAT FEST

As soon as we got upstairs, the sweat was pouring from literally everywhere (I think I speak on behalf of all of us there?!). Probably didn't help that we were already hot and sweaty from running! But of course, Wendy being the amazing lady that she is, had lots of water on hand for us to guzzle down before we started!

And so to work! Tom started by lifting out the first pane of the window. And then Mags and I went in for the second one which was a big mumma! But safe lifting technique and those big muscles of ours made it a breeze! Wendy had prepared a few buckets of vinegar solution for us to clean them with. No need for fancy cleaners, as this did the job perfectly! Those windows were sparkling by the time we finished with them!

The real challenge though was a) remembering which way the windows were taken out and b) trying to slot them back into the tracks. Window 1 was fine but window 2 in the other room proved a bit more tricky! But after a bit of problem solving, teamwork and some shifting and nudging, we got there in the end and the window was nice and flush. Perfect!

One more window to go! This one was in one of the learning rooms which was an amazing treasure chest of fun toys and things to touch and feel. Luckily the sun was starting to go down and it was feeling less and less like a greenhouse/sauna. And a few minutes left on the clock and the final window was cleaned and put back!

Mission accomplished!

After a few photos outside, we headed back and did some fartlek training (50%, 70% & 90% effort) which is really great speed training and fires up the fast twitch muscle fibres that make you run faster! Perfect for people like Tom who said that he is only used to running at one speed! But mix this in with your training and you'll be running faster in no time, honestly!

A stretch down by the river and we were done!!!

Amazing job last night you two! Really happy that we managed to get three windows done so thank you for your hard work as always! See you next week! Also cheers Tom for the awesome pun!