Taking on our first group run of 2019, 13 fabulous runners covered 3.5km and smashed a number of tasks at the Upper Norwood Library Hub.

How lovely to have Oli along on our run tonight, I feel like I can put my feet up and not worry about a pun for our title, he's done it all for me (and a couple of others in this report)!

It was great to see everyone after a break over the Christmas holidays and we welcomed a few tourists tonight as well, from all the way over the border in Lewisham - welcome! It was great too to see Lizzie and Mary again, after they joined us for our starter session on Saturday.

Feeling strangely pine

As we were running through the park, we started our session there with a warm up, a good old game of stuck-in-the-mud. When you run up to the Upper Norwood Library Hub from here, there is no avoiding that hill, so we took it steadily, pausing to regroup every so often and letting those who wanted to fire up and away to the top. On arrival at the library, we were met by Chris, who showed us down to the cellar, where there were a few different jobs to take on.

We had:

• a group of painters in the office space, painting the walls and generally brightening up the space

• a group of sorters, picking through the donated books and putting them into various categories (and getting distracted along the way no doubt!)

• Bradley and Oli, sawing up a Christmas tree, ready for collection

Bristling with enthusiasm

These three spaces were abuzz with chatter and the work was ticking along nicely. Rosemary somehow managed to paint mostly herself, but the room did look pretty amazing once everyone had finished - great work! Once the brushes, rollers and trays had been washed, we said our goodbyes and embraced the downhill, to reach our fitness session spot. With just five minutes left, we had enough time for a quick (but tri-dip-heavy) HiiT blast, perfectly executed by our top class athletes.

Next week will be a fun one, running around the area, picking up discarded Christmas trees that might be blocking the pavements and causing an obstruction. Remember to wear some gardening gloves if you have some!

See you soon :)