GoodGym Richmond made a clean sweep at Silver Birches. The golden brown has been removed and a path was made for us to exercise with our brooms.

Whilst this all sounds perfect our task was not without it's challenges. Firstly, over half of our team took the more scenic route to our venue, which whilst this may have enabled them to burn more calories that offered them the notion that they can now eat more Graze snacks/pumpkin seed and peanut butter cake as well; it did mean that the Running Coach had to run the streets of Richmond alone in order to find them.

One cannot help but feel that there is an uncanny coincidence or conspiracy if you will, to ensure that the Running Coach does not get off too lightly on these Monday runs! (I'm just saying that this is not the first time that some of our runners have been missing in action) I will monitor this.

The next obstacle was to find the brooms, gloves and waste bags in the shed by the alley....we found the alley but there was no shed. So how were we to continue I hear you ask, even against such odds we found the said broom sticks etc without a shed; it's like a miracle!

Goodness was smiling upon us and even though there was a brief moment when we lost yet ANOTHER runner (horror movie) I could not help contain my delight when the full group was reunited. Strengthened now in numbers our task of clearing the (already!) autumn leaves from the Silver Birches site which provides services for people with disabilities, sensory, learning and physical was made to look easy and even allowed us the opportunity to explore what exercises we could now do with a broom. Luckily due to the fast dying daylight our photos hide some of the evidence. This said we managed squats, lunges, press ups, some postural fixes and even some Halloween like witch-on-a-broomstick flights. Or as another runner stated, it looked like a scene from a really cheap budget Harry Potter movie.

As ever warm glowing feeling of goodness, teamwork and satisfaction was oozing from every runner so we capitalised on this by taking our positive endorphins to attack the legendary Richmond Hill Nightingale Lane (why are we always drawn to this hill!) some even went twice!

To close for the Running Coach the hardest part was having to listen to so many stories of great recipes, awesome restaurants and cosy pubs whilst being very hungry indeed...wouldn't have it any other way, pleasure running with you Richmond.

It was great to have Mel with us for her first run, good luck with your race.

Amanda, please wish Vicky best of luck for her monstrous event later in week.

Thanks also to Thomas and Melanie for assisting with the keeping GoodGym connected, both virtually (did someone mention GoodGym Whatsapp for Richmond?) and as a back runner.

Something to shout about as well guys...Our partnership with parkrun has been announced! Together we’re aiming to reach 60,000 older people by 2020. Like I always say unlike Fight Club, first rule of GoodGym is “you DO talk about it”