Just as the rain stopped, ten tip-top runners tip toed through Penge and Anerley, covering 4km and shifting and spreading a mulch mountain.

Thanks this week go to Ian for his beautiful title pun!

It was chucking it down when I left the house, which meant I arrived all soggy and bedraggled-looking. I had wondered if anyone else would turn up, but the rain stopped and out came the rest of our runners, marvellous! Before we set off tonight, I told the group all about the Big Half. This is a brand new half-marathon next March, which takes in some of the London Marathon route and passes through four of our GoodGym boroughs. I was wondering if any of our runners live over the border in Lewisham (we are very close!), therefore making them eligible for a place, it would be great to have some GoodGym Bromley representation!

Our run tonight meant we could make use of our lovely local park for the first stretch, skirting around the pond and leaping over puddles (whilst giving a sideways glance to our previous handiwork amongst the shrubbery). A nicely undulating route took us over to Upper Norwood and St John the Evangelist. It's been a while since we came here, with some lovely tasks having happened on those seemingly distant warm, summer evenings.

Too mulch fun!

Tonight we were flying solo, gathering tools and wheelbarrows and admiring the vast mountain of mulch. Our job was to move and then spread this earthy delight over the many flowerbeds and borders around the church, adding nutrients to the soil and suppressing the weeds over the winter. Very quickly we saw teamwork in action, with one group filling wheelbarrows, two runners darting back and forth to distribute the mulch and another team of racy rakers spreading the mulch tenderly between the plants. It's a very satisfying thing to do, giving the beds a neat and healthy-looking finish.

Mulch ado about nothing

No sooner had we pulled the tools out, than it was time to carefully pack them away again (but not before we had a group tool shot, of course)! Taking the route back to Crystal Palace Park, we used the relatively light avenue of trees, a line of runners taking to the hill in a drill of chain (or 'Indian') running. Another round later and it was time to push up and dip down. Good work!

As we stretched, Cath and Alice revealed that they had, in fact, been encouraging others to join in with #planktober, by doing it at work, how great is that?! It seems they enjoyed it so much that they are extending it and introducing #plankvent in the run up to Christmas, it would be churlish not to join in. We also talked about our Christmas social (sign up here, lycra optional) and next week's task, a return to Melvin Hall to do some more painting...I wonder if we'll do another hall-based fitness session.

See you then!