For this week's Saturday starter session sixteen super sprinters tackled 3km, a tangle of brambles and a mountain of junk at the Wildcat Wilderness.

We had a lovely mixture of regulars, visitors and new-comers today. Welcome to our tourists Gosia (she of the 'I've visited every area in London' fame), Rafal, who has also visited a few areas now and Dom, who usually frequents GoodGym Croydon. Our absolute first-timers were Elizabeth, Kaamilah, Kate and Linda - big Lewisham Love to you! We also welcomed back Jacqui, who joined us last year for a starter session and Nadine, who came along to the Crofton Park Station Garden recently.

Some of our runners had already been to parkrun this morning and some had run to meet us (with some - Monica - also heading off to missions), but we still needed to warm up. Finding a suitable spot, away from the craziness of the Saturday Wickes/Halfords carpark, we played a bit of shoulder-tap and a quick game of 'Everyone is It!' I could hear that everyone was getting warmer, with breathing getting heavier and cheeks rosy. Our task wasn't far, just along the next road, so off we went, with Amber kindly being back-marker, making sure nobody was left behind.

Don't be bashful!

We were met by Caz, who quickly introduced us to the tasks, with two teams working in different areas, one bashing back the brambles to free the trees and another clearing away the mound of junk that has been uncovered in the food growing area. I moved between the two, making sure everyone was working safely, taking action shots and keeping an eye on the time. I was surprised how quiet our weed-bashers were as I approached, just the swing and thwack of tools and very little chatter (this is unusual!). As I watched I could see that everyone was completely engrossed in the task, focussing on getting the job done (and quite possibly getting rid of some pent up tension!). And wow, what a great job they did! Stepping back at the end, they could see just how far they had gone, clearing not just brambles, but a big metal drum, which Clare used for an additional workout!

Rust a minute!

In the food growing area, our team were filling wheelbarrows with an immense amount of rusted metal, lumps of rotting wood, an old lawnmower, a shopping trolley (which Eva pointed out 'still has its wheels!') and even a wheelbarrow (minus wheel). These finds were transported along the path to the gate, where we may well be returning to move them into a skip at some point. As the area cleared, Dom pointed out where the junk had been before, revealing a vast area that had been previously inaccessible! It turns out this will be the home of the new polytunnel, allowing other foods to be grown in this space - fantastic work everyone!

An arm-y of volunteers!

Gathering our tools and gloves, we admired the handiwork done in around 45 minutes and jogged out along the path. We love our visits to the Wildcat Wilderness, which you can do outside of our group runs, by joining in a volunteer session with Maria or Caz (which Vic does regularly, she loves a bit of weed-bashing!). Following the Waterlink Way, we ran alongside the river and took some time to think about our technique, in particular the way we move our arms. It's easy to allow our arms to cross in front of our body, especially when we get tired, but this wastes to much energy! We partnered up to look at this, then did some drills and got into line for some good, hard chain running. Emma pointed out how helpful it was to watch each other run past and see how well we were using our arms and picking up our knees, smashing!

As we stretched, we talked about other starter sessions happening in Lewisham, we have one on January 27th, at Crofton Park Station Garden and another on February 10th, wading in the river at Manor Park. Why not sign up?! If you want to join us on our weekly group run, we meet at Glass Mill at 6.45pm on a Monday, with this week involving a bit of tree running...:)

Throughout the run report, you will notice people's names are highlighted, you can click these and give them a big old cheer.