This double bill community mission made us all feel at home on a Monday evening! We met at Keddleston Community Centre where Margaret was ready to put us straight to work. Not before our TaskForce hero Leo took a few willing volunteers on a run to another task. This team (including Chris, Polly, Amy, and Rohan) took on a speedy litter pick around Meath Gardens.

Here's what Leo had to say about the litter pick: "We were met by Tunde who equipped us all with litter pickers, bags and in some cases gloves and we set off around the gardens doing some speed litter picking so that we could be back in time for fitness after a decent run there thanks to Chris for leading the way expertly.

We focused on the area behind the basketball court and the wooded area and found some interesting treasures including a number of kids toys in various states of disrepair, a screwdriver and the handle from a kids scooter."

Meanwhile back where we started, Anna and Pauline immediately got stuck in among the plants to clear an area behind the community centre. Martin was ready for some digging and compost sorting. Sarah, Ellinor and Becky were organising mixed sizes of plant pots, while me, Johnny and Ceiling undertook some very satisfying chopping. It turned out the pot organising was more work than we expected, so towards the end we joined forces to finish this area together. We were thrilled to find a little gnome hiding amongst the plants too!

Some of the group then popped over to Middleton Green for an informal distanced fitness session. After a dynamic warm up we worked as a team running 2 laps of the green in a chain run. A fun interval exercise! Well done to everyone who stayed in spite of the unexpected rain and thank you to Chris and Leo for your help leading this session!

Special welcome to Amy for her first Towers Hamlets session. We hope to see you again soon!

More Monday evening community missions to come!

A chilly, two-task start to March

23 runners gathered this evening for two tasks to local community gardens.

We were lucky enough to have brilliant task force member Bryon leading one of our tasks to a new task, the Poets Corner Community Garden where task owner Tahera had prepared the task very carefully, complete with a fine array of snacks. The runners wasted no time in getting stuck in to the gardening task which included clearing, weeding, leaf-collecting...a mixed bag of gardening tasks. Said task owner Tahera of the runners after they'd finished, "They covered so much ground, you can really see the difference."

Meanwhile I led a group to Rocky Park on the Hollybush Estate where Margaret, Michael and Basil the dog had a wonderful selection of tasks for us all, including wood shifting for the bug house (as it sounds); clearing leaves and branches and redistributing various bits of plant debris to another part of the garden.

As the evening got chillier, the runners didn't stop and they worked tirelessly for 45 minutes.

We gathered for some final pics before being joined by Bryon's team at Middleton Green's basketball court for tonight's fitness session, where the runners performed even more amazingly, whizzing through a long session of marching tricep dips, v-sits (on a cold wall), skipping shuttle runs, prisoner lunges...and that's just to name a few.

And then we ran back to base, after a few finishing stretches, to say cheerio for another week.

What a start to March.

What's coming up

So, here's what's coming up...

• On Thursday, the phenomenal Redbridge are hosting the GG social in the centre of town. Details can be found here

• And next week, we head to Columbia Road Youth Hub for a brand new, indoor, decorating task. Followed by our monthyl social! It's all go. Details and sign-up are here.

And not forgetting...

And a big shout out to Bryon tonight for leading our second task, and taking some good pics, and to Polly for backmarking.

Have a brilliant week, everyone, and hope to see you soon.

A well planned task

A large group gathered this evening for this spectacular task. Yes, our first visit of 2020 to the magnificent Royal London Hospital, to join forces with the mighty Barts Volunteers saw us tackling a variety of tasks, beautifully and brilliantly organised by Nancy, Marufa and Richard.

It all started in style at the Town Hall Hotel as we celebrated Liz's 400th (well, 402nd, to be precise) deed, with her home made peanut butter and white chocolate blondies. I mean, that's quite a start to a night, isn't it?

And I guess it all went uphill from there. We enjoyed a chatty, fun run to the hospital, where we met the Barts Volunteers team who quickly dispatched us to no fewer than six tasks around the hospital.

SIX tasks!

Teams gathered in various different areas to:

• Litter-pick in Ashfield St
• Prune the flower beds at the front of A&E
• Chat to patients on the wards
• Distribute newspapers to patients
• Clean & sterilise children's toys
• Clean reception desks

It was the most varied, fun and brilliantly planned evening for us all.

And the runners completed the lot: "They've finished, they've blitzed Ashfield St of all that debris," an amazed Nancy said to me at 7.55pm.

"Yep, it was fun," said first time runner Jay, en route back to our meeting point, "Like a treasure hunt, but with rubbish."

And so we gathered for our cheerio pics, and a little word from Nancy before heading back to base in two groups playing the greyhound-and-hare game. Another amazing night.

BIG GG shout-outs tonight

• First up, amazing to have first time runners Jay, Laura, and Ellen with us. You were amazing! It was a busy first task for you all, and you did brilliantly. Please come back again very soon.

AND,

• Thank you to Bryon, for leading the greyhounds back to base; for heading up the speedy running group.
• Thank you to Jo and Stefan for backmarking en route to task.
• Thank you to our photographers tonight, Suraj, Sally, Si and Polly.
• Thank you to Jessica for tonight's fabulous pun.
• And thanks to Liz, for walk-leading tonight, and for beautiful brownies, and a huge congratulations on your 402nd deed.

What's coming up...

Right, are you ready? We have some good stuff coming up. Future FOMO kicking in? Quite right too. Here goes:

• First up, this coming Sunday, our very own Chi is leading an impromptu training session in Victoria Park for those who have, ahem, left their Big Half training a little late. Yep, it's The Big Half Sharpener, a training session guaranteed to boost confidence for the big day if nothing else. And this session is for all - you don't need to be running The Big Half to attend. All I'll say is, 'you snooze, you lose' with this one folks. Details are here.

• Now, moving onto next week, the 24th, we return to Limehouse Town Hall to start our work prepping the entrance hall. So, another one to get in your diary. Details and sign up are here.

• And then on February 27th, our mighty Task Force regular Leo is running the coolest Thursday Community Mission. Listen, this is one to take an annual leave day for. Join Leo and Katrina as they cheer on the school runners in the Mini Mermaids, Weavers Fields run. AMAZING, life enhancing stuff for you to get involved with. Details and sign up are here.

Right, that's it for another week. Have a wonderful week: stay warm, stay active, stay happy, stay connected and we hope to see you very soon.