Marta and I arrived in an April shower. But we were soon outside in the back garden with Mrs M in the next spell of warm sunshine . Previously 2 runners had made a good job of starting to clear a steep bank at the top of the garden of leaves and brambles. Marta and I continued this task and helped Mrs M to fill 8 black bags! Mrs M stayed with us and I think enjoyed our company and the chat while assisting with the task. We finished off our time by digging out some of the stubborn bramble roots on the steep bank.

As Storm Freya whipped around us, 20 runners covered 7km of running and bashed, flattened and sorted their way around Wildcat Wilderness.

Thank you this week to our task owner, Maria, for our lovely title pun! She was full of them and I have used the others throughout the report.

All the news

• Next time you see Emma, why not give her a very big and hearty hi-five? A few people had signed up to yesterday's community mission, but only Emma was woman enough to turn out in the rain to help! There was some really great work done during the session, with Emma single-handedly digging a trench (hence the rather lovely pun in the title of the run report). Great work!

• It's the Big Half on Sunday, hasn't that come round quickly?! I hope you've all been getting in those training runs and are now enjoying taper week...If you are running, good luck, run strong and, most of all, enjoy the support around the course! If you're volunteering or spectating, project those voices! The runners need your encouragement!

• You should have had an email about the GoodGym Shindig, our annual get-together, for chats, runs and socialising. This year it's in Ironbridge, over the weekend of July 20th and the deadline to register is March 21st - it would be great to have lots of Lewisham runners there!

• Don't forget, the GoodGym Olympic Games are on August 3rd, why not sign up for an afternoon of fun, friendly competition and a tasty bake-off?

Tonight's task was taking us to Catford, for our first group run of 2019 to our good friends at the Wildcat Wilderness. This is a very special place, in the heart of Catford, where you can switch off from the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoy being in the great outdoors. There are many other opportunities to volunteer, with regular sessions, which you can find out about here.

Thank you to Caireen for back-marking tonight (and also to Amber, who took the lead on the way back). Running amongst the buildings, we were doing OK but, as soon as we hit Ladywell Fields, the wind was against us and we certainly had to dig deep!

Get the hole job done!

We were met at the task by Maria, who quickly ushered us along the path (it was quite a magical sight, all those head-torches sparkling along the way). Tonight, we were all going to work in the garden space (good to keep everyone together on such a dark night, we wouldn't want to leave anyone behind!). Once the gardening gloves were on and the lights were positioned, we had a number of jobs happening across the space:

• Some weed-bashing (slightly more cautious in the darkness, thankfully!)
• Clearing the discarded and rusted metal from the edge of the area
• Loading the wheelbarrows with this waste and transporting it to the entrance gate
• Pruning back some shrubs/trees
• Liberating a massive root and its accompanying tendrils
• Working really, really hard to pull out a rusty old stick/pipe/thing that was well and truly embedded in the ground

Pole Position

Around at Team Tug (trying to pull up the rusted pipe), it was like an episode of QI. 'Adele, do you know what happens to a worm when you cut it in half?' 'It dies' (sorry kids). A little Google search gave me the correct answer (warning, contains worms).

By hook and by crook (thanks Tom!)

As time was ticking by and we were all getting a little cold, we gathered up our tools, put back the gloves and made our way to the gate, like a giant train of glow-worms. It was a job well done and will make things a little easier during the next volunteer session, with some more space being cleared for the next big project!

Next week we will be running the slightly shorter distance to our friends at GRACE, where we will do some more painting and help set up the new shop, sign up here.

Nykolette and I arrived in a cold downpour of rain and were greeted by Mrs R who tried to persuade us to have tea first. Wanting to get on with the job we started our task on the back garden , Jill looking charming in her green neck warmer to cover her head! The rain soon stopped and we chatted with Mrs R as we weeded the patio paving stones. We enjoyed sharing stories about all our experiences in the NHS and learned Mrs R had worked as a midwife locally for many years. Even though we had all only just met we enjoyed our chatting and soon Mrs R was joining in with a bit of trimming and loving the fresh air. We weeded and pruned and cut down climbers that had entwined themselves into neighbouring trees. Jill unearthed a very fishy loo seat which we decided was so colourful we would leave propped up by the fence! Mrs R gave us a very welcome cup of tea after we had filled several bags with greenery, and a delicious chocolate treat.