We did it! 10 of us amazing runners did so mulch for them plants. 

Special shout-outs to Ravinder and Yolanda. Welcome to the family and well done for kicking off your first run with such gusto. And thanks to everyone for making the night such fun - you’re all so glorious. 

So, what the heck did we do all evening and why am I so sweaty? Well after a quick chat and health & safety briefing, we headed out on our jog through the maze of Ealing Broadway and over to Walpole Park. Once in the park, we took a turn down a smaller path and came upon, what appeared to be, a Bond villain’s secret lair. It was hiding in the park, in plain sight (I mean, did you know that that place was there?). We stopped before a tall fence, which quickly revealed itself to be a gate - clue was the fancy keypad. But how the heck would we get in - no one was there… Apparently, Lisa 'knows a guy’. 

Being trusted with the key code to the city, we stole three wheelbarrows, two rakes and four spades. Then we ran out of there quickly so no witness could identify us in a line-up. Once we were in the clear (i.e. 10 feet away), we got down to business. Wheelbarrow Olympics! Three pushing the wheelbarrows and everyone else was on lunge walks, squats, squat jumps, sprints and more. After a few events, we swapped places and after a few more, we swapped again. I think Canada won. 

After Canada’s historic victory, we arrived at Lammas Park for the real test of our abilities - the mulch mountain. Very quickly we had a pretty awesome system of wheelbarrow loaders (spades), wheelbarrow runner and dumpers (wheelbarrows) and mulch spreaders (rakes). We switched stations on a couple of occasions and everyone had a go at each station. After 20 minutes of mulching, cut to SPEED MULCHING. We quickened the pace and loaded another few wheelbarrows and spread out the last bit of mulch, in something like 3 minutes. Our abilities were well and truly tested. Turns out, we’re pretty great at mulching!

Fun fact of the evening: Mulch protects the ground in the winter from the cold; helps keep new weeds at bay; allows the earth to retain more moisture and also adds nutrients to the soil below. Emily also pointed out that ‘mulch’ is a pretty awesome word… Agreed. 

After our shift down the mines was complete, hi-ho-hi-ho, it was off to the secret Bond villain lair we go (went). Straight back? I hear you ask… Well, no. Of course not! Why would we waste a perfectly good opportunity to play ‘confuse the locals’? And confuse them we did. The view for any uninformed passerby consisted of a frontline of head-torch-laden people, each wielding a wheelbarrow. Following this group was was yet another, performing an array of, what can only be described as, animal mimicry  - you know, random leaps, runs, grunts, growls and so forth.    

Tools dropped off (neatly), we carried on our merry way back to Haven Green via an awkward conversation with a couple of over-eager ’new members’?? Rats, no converts were they! So we finished off the evening with a two-team individual sprint and some lovely stretches. Lisa also made us kiss the ground and we did it because in Lisa we trust.   

What a fab evening - thanks again to you all for your tremendous efforts and brilliant energy. Go Ealing!