23 runners ran 7.5km to weed, clear undergrowth and shift woodchip at Wildcat Wildnerness

Lewisham News

• Long time Lewisham runner Kim Parker is about to clock up her 100th good deed, give her a cheer! AND Veronice Norcross just hit her 50! Amazing - cheer her here.

• At the weekend more than 70 GoodGymers went to Stratford-upon-Avon to run, talk about GoodGym and generally have an awesome time. Here's the report from the parkrun we descended upon to inspire you to come and join the Shindig next year!

• A big old hello and welcome to Emma, Larissa and Charles who joined us for the first time last night.

• Next week the group will be off to St Mary's to paint the railings - sign up here.

That's enough of the business...

With Adele away, it was my annual trip to cover her at Lewisham and boy have things changed... and that's not just the colour of the grass outside the centre! After a briefing we headed outside to warm up - trying out some hopping drills to get us thinking about reducing our contact time with the ground as we run - this helps make us more efficient runners and reduces the risk of injury. Hooray!

Off we set for the 3.5km to Wild Cat Wilderness which you can find out more about here. Wild Cat Wilderness is a community green space in Catford coordinated by the Rushey Green Time Bank, a local charity. It is a natural wilderness off Catford Hill where you can explore nature and the wildlife, play or relax in its peacefulness or learn new skills. On our way there we paused for some primal squatting, wall-sitting and to power over the loop-di-loop (the technical term...). Caireen met us there and Caz took us into the wilderness to get started. We split into two groups:

• Clearing undergrowth with machete-like things around the outdoor kitchen.
• Shifting woodchip from a pile and spreading it around trees

In the 30 minutes we moved the majority of the woodchip pile and cleared a huge amount of undergrowth. The kitchen will be used to teach children about raw natural cooking. It's an amazing space! We got loads done and Caz was thrilled.

On our way back we took advantage of a nice clear bit of park to stretch our legs a bit and get some speed in - a great feat in this weather!

A super duper evening, thank you so much for having me.

Keep running happy, Lucy