No first timers tonight but we did welcome back Mark who has been off for a few weeks, it’s good to have you back!

We had a quick refresher on uphill running form during the warm up (stay upright, lots of little steps and strong backward arm drive) as our task tonight, though not far away, was up a pretty steep hill. You all coped admirably with it and we were at the task in no time at all.

Our task was working with the Grace Eyre foundation, a charity who supports people with learning disabilities. We were helping them smarten up the outside areas of their property at Mantell House, which is an assisted living residence.

We focussed on four different areas where there was a lot of litter to clear as well as some brambles, weeds, overgrown shrubs, an out of control rosemary bush and a giant sycamore sapling that was practically a tree growing out of a wall! Jonathan got to work on that with a saw and it was taken down in no time although chopping it up into small enough bits to get into bin bags was another matter entirely! But no match for us lot as you just cracked on with it and got the job done.

As we had a full house of run leaders tonight, Helena, Beth and Tess took you off in small groups for extra running up various hills in the vicinity to make sure you got your fitness fix, as well as your good deed fix.

For the first time this year we ended the session working well after the last light of the day had gone but the new (recommended by other GG trainers) batlight worked a treat and we ended up with piles of bin bags to show what a huge amount of work we had achieved in such a small time. Well done, guys, as always you were fantastic, just got stuck in and made a huge difference.

And thanks to Tabatha for the pun!