Seven sensational runners surpassed expectation to transform a messy storeroom at Melvin Hall.

A big Bromley welcome to Neil who joined us for his first group run, and commiserations to Tim who registered his PW (personal worst) at Oxford parkrun on Saturday, albeit he was tail walking which doesn't count as an 'official' time in my eyes.

After a quick warm-up, we pounded the pavements of Penge towards Melvin Hall, where we were met by birthday boy Mark, and John who explained our task for the evening. We headed to a messy storeroom/bathroom which was piled high with paint, lights, decorating equipment and many other bits and bobs. We formed a human chain to clear the space in readiness for the assembly of the bolt-less shelving units, which were propped against the wall in its various parts. Neil, Fiona and Clare soon removed an old wooden shelving unit which was bolted to the wall before setting to work on the meccano-like structure.

As there wasn't enough space to build 2 units in-situ, David, Mark and Tim took their components outside. Getting the first edge and shelf in place proved tricky but our patient trio persevered and soon got into their swing. Before long, both units had been built and maneuvered into place (strength tested by Tim hanging from the shelves), with the paint and other equipment neatly sorted onto the shelves, and the old wooden shelf unit had been dismantled. John was delighted with the transformation, having not expected us to completely finish in the time we had.

We will be returning to Melvin Hall at the end of November to put up the Christmas decorations, a legitimate start to the festive period.

We headed out into the drizzly evening, nipping into our usual park for a quick fitness session. We used the benches for a round of triceps dips, before heading to what looked like a wall to work our legs with a wall sit. A few wobbles and shouts from the other side of the fence later, we soon abandoned that idea! It was getting late so we decided to head back to our start point, dodging the radio controlled cars at the entrance to the park.

Next week we are heading to Anerley Town Hall to start clearing the container that we neatly organised in the summer. Sign up here.