Tonight we ran around 4km to check on our mushrooms and harvest some saffron

This week we split into two groups to check on the mushrooms we planted three weeks ago and also to harvest the local saffron in Saffron Central. The first group was lead by Dom and they zoomed off to meet up with Mushroom Andy (as he’s been christened) and see how our mushrooms had fared. They seemed to be growing but not quite ready for picking so hopefully we will be able to have another look soon. The second group headed straight over to Saffron Central where we were met by Ally and his family who showed up how to pick the saffron – a fiddly business needing tweezers and a bright torch. It did get a bit competitive so well done to Natasha for picking the most. The mushroom group ran to meet us and got stuck in with the tweezers too until we’d plucked as much saffron as possible.

There was a bit of a nip in the air so once we’d finished it was round the old fountain in Queen’s Gardens a few times to warm-up and then along to Parkhill. We played a game of Heads and Tails with a hard or easy exercise to do depending on whether you called heads or tails correctly. The walking lunges and hill sprints did cause a bit of groaning but they all survived.

A big Croydon welcome to Deb from Bristol who joined us tonight. Deb’s goal is to reach 50 good deeds by Christmas so she is busy visiting lots of different GoodGym groups – it was lovely to meet you and hope you get to 50 and can wear the black t-shirt with pride.

Don’t forget to sign up for next week’s run along to Thornton Heath Rec where we will be doing some construction work. With Christmas looming there’s also the GoodGym party for all runners on Friday the 9th of December in Battersea – it’s fancy dress and the theme is the borough you run in. It can be a place or person from that borough and no we can’t all go as Kate Moss!