There was definitely a chill in the air on our penultimate run of 2018! Perfect for the outdoor gardening task we had tonight at St Mungo's Reconnection Post, on the plus side it wasn't raining, frosty or snowing!....

Despite the cooler temperature, 16 of my wonderful regular GoodGymers joined me, with some brilliant festive attire on display, think elf shirts, elf leggings, Santa hats, Reindeer ears, a shear delight, what a festive array. Tonight was going to be a fun run, with the added bonus of some Peri-Peri Christmas Celebrations post-run!

In line with usual formalities we all headed outside for the quick intro and round of the week's news.

1. Community Mission (Fri 14th) - Supporting Evolve Housing - volunteers are needed to lend a hand packing shopping bags to raise money for homelessness projects at the Asda in Roehampton. All the details if you'd like to sign up are here.
2. South London Long Run (Sun 16th) - Thames Barrier to Tower Bridge, led by Dom - all the details here.
3. Christmas Lights Run (Weds 19th) - Some Wandsworth GoodGymers are putting on a fundraising Christmas lights run, it starts from Somerset House at 6.30pm and will be around 7km through all the awesome lights and decorations around London, ending in a pub near Victoria. Check out their event page here or email me to sign up for what will be a Christmas cracker of a run!

And a BIG well done to Steph for all her recent PB's!

Before setting off on our short 2km run up to tonight's task we did a quick warm up to get the blood pumping and pulses raised followed by a name and number count. Nicely warmed up and with Strava's set we all set off up towards Shepherd's Bush with trusty back-marker Jason, ensuring that no one was lost en route....unfortunately we managed to lose both Jason and Emily! Luckily we made contact with Jason and all regrouped at the task.

Looking out for everyone's 'elf and safety!

When we arrived at St Mungo's Reconnection Post we were met by one of the Reconnection Workers, Neil. Neil briefly explained to group about the services they provide to vulnerable and homeless adults with complex needs in the community, such as the 'No Second Night Out' service they provide – as well as providing 26 beds, they work with the residents to get them reconnected in the community or repatriated back to their country. Neil finished with a lovely anecdote about how he had previously worked in Claridges, quite the contrast but was really enjoying his work here.

Third times a charm!

Tonight's brief was simple, finish tidying and weeding the garden. We'd made great progress on their garden in our previous two visits and tonight was the night we were going to finish the job! Philippa, the Deputy Manager at St Mungo's Reconnection Post kindly gathered the gardening bags and gloves, and laid out all the gardening tools - a mix of shears, large forks and smaller weeding forks. Everyone quickly gloved up, Catriona even went for the new fashion of double gloves, and chose their gardening tool of choice as everyone quickly set off to work weeding the sides and back of the garden, and cutting back the large bushes in the middle as requested.

No ho(e) ho(e) ho(e)'s! Fork this way!

Helen and Jason expertly used the forks on offer to dig over the side flowerbeds, coming across some intriguing biohazard tape as they dug. Sophie and Jonny took the shears and made 'feather-light' work of the 'feather-like' bushes in the centre of the garden, giving them a nice even cut all over! While the rest of the group got stuck in to the weeds with either the small weeding tools or the manual option of their hands, Andrew systematically went around the garden provided the finishing chops to the larger trees.

Hand and deliver, hand by me!

As Catherine took up the job of holding the bag, much to everyone's surprise, and possibly with a little panic from Sarah, as it wasn't long before she too was helping hold open the bag for the piles of garden waste and weeds to be easily loaded in. As always, half an hour flew by and it was time to pack away the tools and unloaded the two filled garden waste bags into the bin outside, but not before some obligatory team photos with some super 'handsy' action...

Garden tidied and cleared we said our goodbyes and wished all the staff at St Mungo's Reconnection Post a Happy Christmas before we headed off on the short run down to Brook Green. As it was a particularly fresh evening the group did a quick numbers based warm-up game, a very simple run around within the circle until a number is shouted and get in to groups of that number, those that weren't in a group got some bonus jumping jacks or squats - which in the end everyone joined in with so as not to stand still and get cold again!

It's the most run-derful time of the year!

Slightly warmer the group headed off to Brook Green and completed a quick 1km time trial sprint lap around the outer perimeter of the Green with Chris expertly leading the way. I assume everyone used the post-Nando's Christmas dinner as added motivation as it wasn't long before everyone was back at the start having completed the lap of the Green in super quick time. There was some close run sprints, with Tom just pipping Sarah to the line, with claims of "dogs across her path, cars pulling out of side roads...". There was some excellent 'pockets to sockets' technique and good postures displayed, and post-lap everyone had significantly raised pulse rates, heavier breaths, with noticeably redder and sweatier faces, and the runners sniff. Brilliant effort all!

A forking cracker of a night

We had a nice gentle cool down run back to base past the wonderful Christmas lights at St Paul's Hotel. Back at base we finished off with some stretches, with the thoughts of a well-deserved Nando's very much on our minds.

GoodGym Wenceslas

Everyone headed over to Nando's for some much needed fuel and some festive fun. There was an impressive amount of festive jumpers and lovely chat around the tables in the area we had very much taken over. Catriona provided the pull with some crackers that contained the tiniest of hats, perfect for balancing on top of Santa hats so it turned out. The questionable Christmas jokes were of course read out with possibly more sighs accompanying them than all my puns! Before every headed off, in true Santa and Christmas style, small gifts were handed out to all, with a couple of hidden special surprises and slightly rubbish gifts amongst the sack (plastic bag). With full stomachs and nice neat piles of crackers and wrapping paper adorning the table it was time to help tidy up before everyone wished each other a very Peri-Peri Christmas and Happy New Year and headed their separate ways.

Next week the task is still be TBC, sign up here, and keep an eye out for updates! Have a great week and lovely Christmas and New Year if you cannot make next week's run.