Ignoring the impending drizzle, 13 fabulous athletes tackled brambles, suckers, wood chip, wheelbarrows and even a brand new Monthly Time Trial!

Yes, it was decidedly autumnal today, but the clouds hanging over our regular Tuesday pub garden spot didn't put off these hardy souls. This week saw two brand new faces, with Tony and Laura trying out their very first GoodGym group run - welcome! As I was away last week, it felt like there were more new faces, as last week's newcomers, Ian, Frankie and Hannah returned for some more good stuff, hello there you three!

Before we headed out to our task, we talked a little about coach running and missions, congratulating Emma on her 50th good deed, which was completed at a mission over the weekend. We also celebrated Elly's first ever mission in her absence - hopefully she will join us soon to tell us all about it. We also chatted about our local parkrun in Crystal Palace Park and decided that we will be gathering together to tackle the 5k of undulating paths on September 23rd. Have a look here and sign up to join us.

When we got to the container, Penny had very kindly pulled out all the tools we might need and piled them into a wheelbarrow. We trundled over to the Secret Garden, where she then showed us where to apply all these fantastic tools. This week we:

• continued delving into the wood chip pile, spreading it along the paths
• pruned, lopped and sheared the hedges alongside the garden, creating a curving edge to encourage wildlife to flourish
• raked and swept, making the wood chip paths level and neatening the edges to create a defined path
• sheared suckers (long bits of greenery protruding up at ground level)
• gathered off-cuts to create neat piles (or 'arisings' as we now know they are called)

Moving between the outer area and the more enclosed Secret Garden, I became aware of how quickly the light was falling and realised that we will be needing our head torches in the next few weeks. As time (and light) ticked away, the last few shovelfuls of wood chip made it into the wheelbarrow, leaving a dark, empty area and richly replenished paths - excellent work everyone!

Once the tools had been returned and the complicated locking system cranked into place (thank you to the gardener who lent me some elbow grease!), we had a bit of time to warm up our bodies with some fun games (a lot of high-fiving, some solid balancing, a few cheeky sharks and some good, strong dynamic stretches and drills to address form). I decided it might be fun to have a Monthly TIme Trial (I am capitalising this to give it the air of importance it deserves), a roughly 1km circuit (with hills) that we can time and repeat to see how our running is progressing.

Well done to everyone who had a go and pushed hard (I couldn't see you in the darkness, but I certainly heard you approaching!). We took note of all the times and will revisit this in a month's time if we can - head torches at the ready!

Next week we will go a little further and explore a new park, over at Cator, where we will untangle the intricate web of bindweed that has taken hold. In the meantime, our regular runner Louise is tackling her first ever half-marathon on Sunday, at the Great North Run - good luck Louise, we look forward to seeing your medal and hearing all about it on Tuesday!