A whopping 29 runners ran 4km to St Peter's Church, Brockley, to tidy the garden and shine the windows.

Thank you to Bradley for our title pun this week and also for being our back-marker.

I was a little blown away this evening by all the new faces that joined us for the first time, a super six absolute first-timers to welcome into the fold. Lewisham Love this week goes to Damian, Katy, Rosie, Nick, Justin and Greg.

What a weekend! We had Nykolette persuading her mum and daughter to join her in volunteering at the Oxford Half-Marathon, we had Maria heading back to Hilly Fields parkrun to knock another two minutes off her previous time (!) and we had a whole host of runners representing over at the wonderful Petts Wood 10k. Amongst our runners enjoying this challenging, yet enjoyable race, we had Rebecca bagging a PB and Vic taking fourth woman position and her very own trophy! Amazing work everyone! Not content with running a 10k yesterday, Kim was joining us this evening at the end of her longest run ever. With Venice Marathon just two weeks away, she was completing her last long run before she tapers towards race day. This meant that her effort on our group run made up her total to 32.4km!! Amazing.

After a little warm-up outside (in the dark!), we ran along Lewisham Way towards Brockley. With this being #RunandTalk week, I didn't really need to tell people that it's OK to talk, it just happens. As I ran up front, I could hear a cacophony of happy sounds as everyone got to know each other a little better, or caught up on the latest news. There's something about running alongside each other that makes talking easier and it's certainly something we do every week.

Arriving at St Peter's, we were met by Lynne and Juliet, who quickly showed us inside and told us about the role they play here, as church wardens. Our jobs for this evening were to clear away weeds. leaves and overgrown shrubs outside and to clean the windows inside. Those with head-torches headed out and found a space to work in and everyone else looked around at the beautiful and delicate-looking stained glass that graces every window. Pausing for a moment, wondering if those were the windows in question. We collectively sighed though, when we were told that the windows in the porch and in the entrance to the kitchen were the ones in need of our attention this evening. Phew!

To the front of the church, a team worked closely to clear the path to the noticeboard, which becomes wet and muddy over the winter. To make the updating of the notices more pleasant, some little slabs have been bought, to create stepping stones through the ivy and shrubs. Around the side, James and Clare very carefully cleared nettles and, on the opposite side of the building, we had a major leaf-clearing operation going on. Quite quickly the windows were clean (with a bit of inventive use of a mop by Ian and Damian, who couldn't quite reach the top) and the leaves were bagged, so it was time for me to climb the stairs to the gallery and assemble the masses for our group photo.

We will definitely be returning to St Peter's in the near future, but said goodbye for now and ran along and down towards our start point. We had just enough time for some work on our upper body, with some plank chasers, before stretching and heading off for some pizza to refuel Kim.

• Next week we will be off to St Hilda's Church in Crofton Park, sign up here to join in.

• Tomorrow we will be putting in our bid for some funding at the Lewisham Ward Assembly (to buy some portable lights to keep us going through the winter months). Jacqueline is very kindly representing us and could do with some support, why not go along and join her from 7pm at Lewisham Methodist Church, Albion Way, London SE13 6BT?

• On Saturday, we have been invited along to the official opening of the new water fountain in Ladywell Fields. Come along at 3pm in your red tee, to fill your bottle and meet the mayor!