A glorious sunny Wednesday evening meant 16 runners, including Belinda returning from Worthing, and Lucy and Stuart coming back after an amazing holiday in Peru. A slightly shorter run than advertised - when I was planning the route I did it from my flat rather than Leisure World, d'oh!

We ran along Cowdray Avenue to Fairfield Gardens, and Ian did his usual Lollipop man impression without a Lollipop.

We got to Fairfield Gardens, and one of the residents was kind enough to let us in through the communal living area to the garden, where we were to clear. We were given 2 plastic crates, and a few bin bags, but no tools. This called for some inventiveness, and after a few stomped feet, we all got industrious and found we could make tools with rocks, stones and sticks. We managed to remove the weeks that were encroaching on the path, remove moss from the guttering and from the pointing on the paving, and take away lots of Ivy and Nettles.

Ian went in search of a broom and found one, and Fay and Ian did their best to sweep all of the dust off of the paving and into the border.

We filled 6 bin bags of garden waste, and the area is now a good canvass for some beautiful flowers - perhaps Colchester in Bloom may be able to help with that?

After about 20 minutes of work, the task was done and we made our way to the Goodgym Running Track near the range, where the speed session was 3x400m with equal recovery between reps - a great session for those preparing for the Langham 10km.

Next week we're back to the allotment, and we may organise torrential rain again to make it more fun!