A well thought out session , a nervous trainer, surrounded by awesome food awaited the Richmond GoodGym troops as he stared solemnly at the huge rain drops out the window.

Suddenly a red glow appeared to the right of him and he knew that he would not run alone! That goodness would happen and that GoodGym Richmond would not let a few raindrops steal our thunder.

Our task tonight was to finish what we started last week and share the news of the Poppy Factory, the great things they do and the awesome charity Carol Concert they have coming up on 14th December.

Tide was high but we were moving on, down past the river and then onto Richmond Park, in the dark....in the very dark. There was some question over whether the trainer had lost his mind as some runners read the sign “Warning of a Deer Cull”. Being quite passionate about the subject, trainer new that we had a safe window in which we could run our mini circuit session. With absolutely no light other than the torch and the glow of enthusiasm, we gave the nervous deer's something to distract them from the current activities that effect their existence.

Delightedly we went about our workout and one runner very proudly exclaimed during the last set of burpees that we poppy'd in the park to see the deer. Fitness session complete we tackled Richmond Hill from a new angle and the runners sampled some front squats with a rather heavy leaflet laden backpack.

As ever we were in awe of the wonderful Richmond houses, rumour has it that some of the runners even leafleted to Jerry Hall after they crossed the bridge too far risking “their lives” (so they say) to get the task done. Meanwhile on the other side of Richmond town the other dynamic duo started off in a great partnership and a system of leafleting that even Henry Ford would have been impressed with, this lasted for 4 houses then one runner was seen entering a pub with leaflets and not seen again for quite some time. As a run trainer and partner in this duo I did feel somewhat like George Bailey in “It's a Wonderful Life” running around frantically shouting for his run partner (link to the start of the festive feel).

It's amazing how much we can pack into the hour and a half we get to share doing good on a Monday night and tonight all those that ran finished with beaming smiles and a great sense of achievement having defied the weather, dared to train in the dark with the deer and complete the task down to the last leaflet in exactly 90 minutes. Bravo Richmond!