With the sun setting over Richmond Green following a day of balmy 18 degree temperatures, Mark shook his head as team sick notes pinged their way into the WhatsApp inbox. ‘What’s ‘Appening?’ he cried. ‘I thought everyone would be jumping at the chance of a run in this weather!’ But with the change of season comes a dose of flu (or maybe everyone was just enjoying their first BBQ of the year). Whatever the reason, many of our regular hardy GoodGymers, having battled through wind, sleet, hail and monsoon rainstorms over the last three months, missed out on the first warm run of the year. So it was down to a compact team of six to tackle not one, but two tasks for the first time at GG Richmond.

After a warm up on the green that included Mark’s now famous knee-shimmy, some bunny hopping, walking squats, inch worms (!) and a bit of competitive shuttle running, we finished off with a mini tug of war. We learned two things: 1) we’re going to need a lot more muscle for the tug of war in June so nobody have flu please and 2) don’t wrap the rope around your hand (the bag of frozen peas currently balancing on my pulled hand muscle stands testament to this!).

Then it was boys versus girls as we split into two teams to tackle our tasks. Apparently under the influence of subconscious gender stereotyping, the girls went off to tidy up a storage cupboard at the Vineyard in Richmond, whilst the boys went off to grapple with weeds and mud and tool sheds at the ETNA community centre in St Margarets.

As we set to our task at the Vineyard, we could virtually hear Doris Day singing: ‘A woman’s touch, a woman’s touch, The magic of Aladdin couldn’t do as much, She’s a wizard, she’s a champ, And she doesn’t need a lamp.’ (If you’ve never seen Calamity Jane, I apologise, this reference will mean nothing to you.) Although as it turned out we did need a lamp when Jenna managed to entirely dislodge the strip light bulb in the store cupboard whilst enthusiastically re-organising the shelves. Fortunately, we had a handyman nearby to fix it for us and then we were back to doing our champion tidying, sorting and t-shirt folding. The storage cupboard was transformed

Hurrah for the girls!

Now over to Mark for the boys’ story… thanks Elaine... So proud of us, not sure if it was the beautiful luxury of being able to see what we were doing, but we showed the ETNA weeds that that's the last they will see of the light of day. As well as working like a well oiled machine our mighty three powered through at such a rate that you'd hardly notice we were a little shy in numbers this Monday night. Personally I think ETNA looks meticulously neat and I'm looking forward hearing back from them tomorrow when they arrive at the centre. Aside from our great work ethic I am absolutely shocked at just how GREAT the puns were firing around amongst the rakes and brooms . There was so many that it is hard to capture and as Lee said we "didn't beat around the bush" and we got heaps done. As I pushed out the wheelbarrow which Thomas thought was "wheely" useful , Lee was stuttering over a piece of fauna claiming "I hoe...hoe...hope that was a weed I just pulled up". Seriously guys it was relentless and the Graze guys were as full of treats for us as they were puns, we were so lucky, Thomas was so excited that he claimed to have nearly "weed" himself. It was great to have Lee back as well not just because we missed him but because he seriously knows his way around the garden so thanks for all the technical advice.

We were all feeling pretty good about our tasks by the end of the night and we had even been given some free yummy goodies to thank us for our efforts (and we got extras because of all those sick notes, talk about a silver lining).

Finally, a big welcome to Ellie who joined us on our run for the first time. Come again, Ellie, you brought the sun with you!

Exactly Elaine! and thank you for a great run report, even if it was done with one hand! Good luck with the recovery.

Happy running