A litter bit of loving goes a long way...

Especially the night before Valentine’s. So, after getting through Mark’s first challenge of the night, which was to have us guess the task location with only the vaguest clues (‘you know there’s a pub up there (gesturing out the window in a general direction) that closed…?’), we set out into the dark for another litter picking challenge.

This week saw us charging around the Green to Mark’s hut (prime real estate) with some sprints thrown in for good measure, then running along the river front, down the A316, over the footbridge and back again, and finally into Old Deer Car Park where Richmond Borough PROMISED that even the Wombles would be happy with the quantity of litter to be found there.

Armed with bin bags big enough to sleep in and our trusty rubbish pickers, we split into three groups and set off to clear up what we could find. After the previous week’s wash out by the river where a combination of poor lighting, Monsoon weather conditions and an apparent absence of actual litter made filling our bags a challenge in itself, this week we fared rather better with our assignment. Though we didn’t find anything to match the glamour of our bottle of champagne last week, it does seem our Richmond neighbours like to eat and drink al fresco - hopefully no one was coming back later for the unopened can of Guinness we found or the eggs, mushrooms, garlic and onions we discovered tossed in one corner of the car park...

Omelette anyone?

Satisfied with our almost-full bags of litter, we followed pathfinder, Ellie, across Old Deer Park (illuminated by James’ amazing head torch, bright enough to bring a plane in to land) and back along the river to Wholefoods, pausing only to salivate over the window display at Danieli on the Green which was popping with luxury chocolates all dressed up for Valentine’s Day. Mission accomplished! (as Postman Pat would say after delivering his sack loads of Valentine’s cards…)

Good work, Richmond team, and welcome to Derryn and Gabby (did you get to keep the laces?) who joined us for the first time. Bring on next week’s challenge. Oh, and the post-run drinks.

This run report was courtesy of Elaine and is absolutely brilliant, a natural writer and GoodGym run reports are the perfect opportunity for her to display her talent.

shout out for Victoria's news on achieving her PB at Park Run recently,

Thanks Ellie for showing us the way home,

Jane, thank you for the pun

What a great team you are!

Happy running

Mark