A double dose of extra-vicious rain and August summer holidays distilled a crack team of Good Gym runners for a hoe-down at Victoria Park last night.

After a last minute cancellation at Hollybush Estate eight hardy runners pounded the pavements towards the running track at Victoria Park, where Marcello and his associates were waiting with hoes in hand. The mission? To rid the circuit of its creeping weeds and restore it to a smooth, sprintable surface. Following a how-to-hoe demonstration from Marcello - ’Scrape, don’t dig’, FYI - a double rainbow shone overhead as we set to sweeping.

Forty minutes later, it was hoes down to a double thumbs up from Marcello. We followed up the weeding with interval training, including the perennial favourite ‘Feed the Chickens’, and leg work through the park. As the light melted through the trees the group took over a segment of the canal path for 30 second team relay sprints before a gentle jog back to the Arch Gallery and a leisurely leg stretch beneath ‘Turner-esque’ clouds - because yes, we can run and cloud watch simultaneously.