Covering 5km of running, 28 awesome athletes helped out at Ladywell Children's Centre

We had a few people returning after a little break this week, so it was lovely to welcome back some familiar faces!

So much news!

• Lots of our runners were out in volunteering force at the weekend, with some over at the GoodGym Southwark volunteer takeover at Dulwich parkrun and lots at our regular, Hilly Fields, with some pacing runners to a new PB - great work (there were 40 PBs on Saturday!). This Sunday, June 9th, we will be taking over the volunteering at Hilly Fields junior parkrun. You don't need to have done this before, you just need a good high-fiving technique and the ability to cheer little(er) ones around their 2km course - sign up here (and if you have signed up, please email the parkrun inbox to be added to the roster)!

• This week is Volunteer Week and, to celebrate, we will be having our now annual 'Biggest Group Run Ever', which meets at 9.30am tomorrow, at City Hall. It's really amazing to be involved and you get to explore a different area of London - details here.

• It's that time of year, when we head into the (Wildcat) Wilderness, not to work hard, but to relax and enjoy our summer social. Everyone is welcome and you just need to bring food and drink to share, Maria puts on a BBQ and campfire and it's just wonderful. Sign up here.

Our task this week was a brand new one for us, how exciting! Over to Ladywell and the Children's Centre, to tackle their overgrown outdoor space. As always, we had superb teamwork from Kim, who led the way and Clare, who kept us together at the back (on tired legs too, after what looked like an incredibly tough half-marathon in yesterday's heat!), with Marta taking on the back-marking on our return leg.

It's a fairly short run to Ladywell, so we were there promptly, with plenty of time to tackle those overgrown weeds. We were met by Jo, who told us about the many parents and children that are supported by the centre (I came here myself with my son when he was little) and also told us that the council are no longer able to take care of the outside space, which meant we were greeted by piles of leaves left over from the autumn and overgrown weeds and shrubs that made the entrance look quite scruffy.

We were given an array of lovely new gloves and tools and there were even some fancy, serious tools that were snapped up by Emily, who seemed keen to wield something a bit more powerful. We quickly realised that the leaf-blower and strimmer were simply creating a pollen-dense dust cloud, so put them to one side! Meanwhile, all around the building were groups of people working hard to rake, pull, snip, sweep and scoop. Quite quickly, we could see the space transforming before our eyes, with leaves being tipped into bin bags, moss being dug from between slabs, spiky plants being trimmed away from toddler eye-level and weeds being eradicated from around the buggy/bike/scooter shelter.

Four teabags?

As the bags were being moved to the bin area, I did a quick count. Well, not that quick, because we had filled 40 bags! Yes, 40! This prompted a moment of 'Four tea bags?' or 'Forty bags?' (think Four Candles...). Stepping back, we could see just what a difference we had made and hope that the families enjoy their newly-cleared space in coming days.

As we were so close to Ladywell Fields, we took advantage of what I affectionately call 'Lamp Post Hill' (yes, I have names for all the local hills). In pairs (and a three), we took it in turns to run repeats of this lovely hill, encourgaing each other as we went. Don't forget that this is the perfect spot for a good, hard hill repeat session, which is much more fun with friends (or a thumping soundtrack, if flying solo).

Next week is Wildcat Wilderness week, so a run of around 7k in total and a no doubt very physically rewarding task. All details are here, so sing up!

See you soon!