On a balmy May evening, nine runners shrugged off the hurly-burly of the urban environment and headed to the peace and tranquillity of Walthamstow Marshes. Our task was to clear this stunning site of special scientific interest of litter that was blotting the beautiful landscape. Despite the heat and the challenging distance of over 3.5 km we managed a brisk pace and enjoyed a very peaceful and pretty route thanks to the navigation from and pacing skills of Ercole, our multi-marathon-man.

Along with our fantastic regulars Clara, Jennie, Ercole, Ramon and Pippa it was great to welcome Swabbi back to the group after a few weeks away and of course Lizzie, Kirsty and Alex who are on a bit of a GoodGym roll themselves. While I'm name-checking, I want to give a double thumbs up to Pippa (10km PB) and Clara (first lady at Wanstead Parkrun) - Girl Power! Fantastic running ladies:)

Anyhoo, back to the task at hand, it was nice to see that our designated marsh was not overly covered in litter. Nevertheless, the group set to work with brisk and cheerful readiness and probably cleared the site of every bit of litter therein. We filled several bags, no doubt bringing cheer to the hearts of the grass snakes, small mammals and ground-nesting birds that dwell there.

After a bit of horse whispering and packing away we wasted no time in hitting the road for the 3.5 km run back to base for a cool down stretch and a cool down drink, for some.

See you all next week for our jaunt to a local care home for some green fingered gardening - don't miss out as rumour has it that there may be some lemon drizzle cake knocking about for Ramon's birthday!