We feared we would be in for a similar wash out last night as the one we experienced last week. However we put our faith in our residential meteorologist who assured us we'd stay dry, and with a certain member of our group reminding us it never rains when he comes to the group run, the pouring rain soon turned into clear skies!

This was good news because our task for the evening was an outdoor one. We had been asked to return to Harvard Hill rec to help tackle a big weed problem they have. The Friends group have done an amazing job creating a welcoming and attractive place, but with lots of them away for the summer holidays they were struggling with their flower beds becoming overgrown.

We stepped right in, and with a quick lesson on what was to stay and what was to go, we donned gloves and upped tools. The biggest issue was the pervasive bind weed which was developing a bit of a stranglehold on everything else. With interesting discussions about the Paris marathon, pacing tips and, somewhat randomly, the percentage of the British population who thought they could win in a fight against a bear, the team worked hard at eliminating the weeds. Madhan even managed to pull free a record breaking piece of ivy - check out the photos for proof!

Several huge piles later we were done, and it was time to move onto fitness. I had promised squats, and squats there certainly were. The idea was that two teams competed over who could win the most cards by doing the exercise and rep denoted by the suit and number. It was a close run thing, but after five hard minutes of power squats, lunges, sprints and press ups, the final scores were 21 v 18. Great work everybody!

We have a community mission this weekend at Turnham Green that can only go ahead with a few more sign ups, so if you're free please join us to pull up thistles - it would make a big difference!