Maybe it was the heat, maybe it's the fact that schools out & everyone needs a holiday, but there was a decidedly hot & bothered feel to our little gathering tonight. People arrived slowly and already hot but thankfully Wholefoods had plenty of water on hand.

Sitting outside in the sunshine, with a nice breeze, we heard all about the Shindig, which happened this weekend. Sounds like everyone had a busy but fab time, with Mark & Jenna's dog getting a lot of love. It now comes highly recommended to those who might fancy attending next year. Anita also had news of a local history running tour to be run by Richmond library in September. Sounds like our kind of thing!

With a possibly angry, but certainly loud, bloke on the phone turning up, we decided it was time to head off to the green - currently we're calling it the yellow as the grass is basically hay. For the warm up, in an attempt to conserve our energy for the run, we did our best impressions of the ministry of funny walks, going back and forth doing all sort of stretches to get our - let's face it - already very warm muscles, stretched.

What's going on here then?#warmup #Richmond #runningdrills #goodgym pic.twitter.com/gxPkR2RC8I

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) July 23, 2018

We set off to run to Ham Meadow along the river. We were reminded just how lucky we are to run in Richmond, with the rowers on the water it looked stunning, but with little to no shade, we were all left wishing we could have gone for a swim!

Tonight's task was to rid the meadow of ragwort, which can be poisonous to horses, that might graze in the area. With Samia joining us at the task, we were ready to get started. We donned our 'longies' and got cracking, pulling up clumps of the pretty yellow flowers. We could have been mistaken for carry about big bunches of floral bouquets but nope, that's just Goodgymers weeding. Poor Kate M was an early causality to the nettles, that's two for two with last weeks bike fall. Anita was as fearless as ever, never letting a big old weed beat her. She even brought along her old faithful weeding tool again. We may also have had a little snack, on the very early blackberries, we found mixed in with the ragwort, delicious!

Go, Go, Go , GoodGym #Richmond #Riverside #volunteering #runninggroup pic.twitter.com/sAiayKMRCz

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) July 23, 2018

With a sizeable pile of ragwort collected under a big oak tree, we realised we were running a bit late and had to set off asap. So 'longies' were shed and the return run began. Anita shared a little short cut with Mark and got us going quite nicely. With the sun going down, and spurred on by the successful task, the run back was not so much of a hard slog as it had been heading out. We arrived back to Wholefoods for our warm down, only to find the loud bloke still on the phone!

Ssshhhhh as we stretched!!!

Details for Anita's suggested run are to be found at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/armistice-100-running-and-walking-tours-tickets-46939044947 Great Report from Kate - Thank you and so well done to all tonight in the heat. Just to recap the Shindig was fantastic and I will go back to those who asked me to voice some questions just as soon as I see you next. There will be a official report from GG which should capture all the content but at the moment the consensus was that head office will allow the ideas to be reflected on and decisions made on how best to utilise! We as a group are looking for two new sponsors / partnerships to team up with so if you have any suggestions feel free to share or any other ideas or comments please mail to bryony@goodgym.org.