Will it rain? Will it rain?

Yes, but not too badly.

No newbs tonight, but joining us for the first time in a long time was Alex, who visited a couple of times a year ago and then got distracted. Welcome back. Also nice to see Camden regular Rupert joining Islington for the first time. We also had Jacqui from Barnet and Chris from Bristol. Quite the mix.

We cheered Kike for doing the Battle of Bosworth tri and we also cheered Danica for her Half Marathon PB at the Rock 'n' Roll Liverpool Half. Check out her top report of the races here.

In the news, the GoodGym Olympics is taking place this Saturday, with a strong Islington team comprising Kike, James, Claire, Aidan, Danica and Simon F.

Places for the events are full, but you can go down and cheer your comrades AND the GoodGym monthly social is taking place after.

With a bit of drizzle bouncing off our bonces we jogged the 1.5k over to Barnsbury Square Gardens to meet Lucy. There were plenty of jobs for us to do in the square: weeding with a wild assortment of tools, edging with a seriously dangerous looking pair of loppers, raking, scooping and bagging of leaves, and turning over of hard soil.

We worked hard for 30 minutes, as usual stopping for a biccie (tonight's treat was chocolate Hob Nobs, which went down a treat and will be making another appearance soon).

Post-task it was time to RACE. A two-team, seven-person continuous relay race to be precise. We didn't give the teams names, but one of them ran faster than the other, so they were the winners I suppose. How's THAT for a race report?

Then back home to the pool for a stretch and a mini-discussion on the night's debate: why has Islington seen a little drop in numbers lately? Most agree that it's those pesky Bank Holidays upsetting the flow of things.

We'll be back next week, when it will probably be summer again.

Hugs and kisses,
Simon