The good news last night was that the clocks have finally changed meaning that we started our run in the daylight, the bad news was that is was freezing cold and wet! But that didn't bother the hardy crew from The Forest who relished a testing run to a new task. Before I get into that let's look at the day's other news.

We Are One

Next week is GoodGym Waltham Forest's (GGWF's) first birthday. We will be marking this occasion with a return to one of our favourite destinations, George Mason Lodge, for a spot of gardening. Other celebrations are planned, including cake and party paraphernalia, feel free contribute a cake! Sign-up here

Talking of birthday's

It's Camden birthday too and the monthly social is taking place there tonight (Thursday 4th April). Do pop along and represent the Waltham Forest massive if you can

Back to tonight

We were visiting a new destination tonight so along with the daylight afforded us by the recent clock change, everything felt a bit fresh and exciting. In fact more so with our biggest turnout since January and the fact that we welcomed new runners Manuela and Damaris to our group. I say new runners but I mean new GoodGymers, it was obvious in the first few strides that these pair are both well practised in the art of running. We also welcomed back Michael on a two-week GoodGym streak, surely a hat-trick beckons with our birthday run coming next week? Our numbers were further bolstered by the return of our globe-trotting regular and ultramarathon man, Ercole, piacere di vederti il mio vecchio amico.

Perhaps the light evening brought everyone out tonight, or perhaps it was the promise of cake generously donated by Mr. 50+ runs himself, Francis. Either way, it wasn't the weather that swelled our ranks! Colder than Hank Williams's heart and wetter that Marty Pellow's band, it was far from the balmy spring evening I was hoping for. Happily, it didn't seem to bother this intrepid crew who completed the testing 3.5 km run to our destination without breaking a sweat.

Our destination was the St. John The Baptist Church in Leytonstone. A splendid looking church in extensive grounds, it wouldn't look out of place in the Cotswolds so it certainly brightened up its urban setting. There to greet us with a warm welcome were Maureen and David who had prepared things very well for our visit with gloves, bags, litter pickers and tools aplenty. The crew wasted no time in getting stuck in and started removing, litter, weeds and brambles from the churchyard.

After making light work of the task and with fingers and toes beginning to turn a light shade of blue, we took refuge inside for a quick photocall and a pew (literally) before heading back to base to devour Francis's cake. For some reason, I seem to be acquiring a reputation as a cake glutton so I limited myself to just three slices on this occasion!

Well done everyone, it was a near biblical experience.

Sign up to the birthday run next week here

Oh and a quick PS. After a successful GGWF Parkrun meeting last Saturday. I will be returning to Walthamstow Parkrun on Saturday 13th April for another one. This is also the occasion of Ruari's 100th Parkrun so why not join us for a free timed 5k run? Details here

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