Nine fabulous runners headed up to the equally fabulous Upper Norwood Library hub, a wonderful community space.

A big Bromley welcome back to Chris and Darryl, who had dressed for spring in shorts and short sleeves, very brave!

Alys also joined us for her third good deed, which was a return to her workplace, now that's dedication! The library hub houses the Library of Things, a brilliant idea that will hopefully spread far and wide.

The rain had started to fall as we headed out for our warm-up, a trip to the park with the trusty stress pig. Thanks to Ian for back marking. After a round of lunges, squats, jumping jacks, high knees, hip openers and planks (thanks Tim!, we made our way up through the park, up the many stairs to reach Crystal Palace triangle and the library. The super-speedyBradley was waiting for us, having completed the Big Half in a mightily impressive 1 hour 12 minutes 22 seconds. Once I had figured out how to get in (push the door..), we were warmly welcomed by Daniel, who very kindly provided water and granola bars for us before explaining our task for the night. We originally thought that we going to be cleaning the kitchen, but Alys had told us that this was already spotless. Daniel showed us the staff office where there was a large desk to be dismantled and moved downstairs to the storage areas. He had also provided plenty of cleaning materials for us to give all of the surfaces a good clean.

Mark and Chris set to work on the desk, with the top being removed in only a few minutes, there was no holding them back. The copious number of screws holding the sturdy legs together were no match for this pair, with the desk soon in its component parts. Rather helpfully, there was a large lift for them to safely move the parts downstairs, stacking them neatly against the wall.

The rest of the team had armed themselves with bottles of Flash cleaning sprays and miracle sponges, tackling the desks, book hire machines and shelves. We always love a library task, with many fascinating books to explore ('All birds have anxiety' being one that particularly caught my attention). Hannah found the romance section which had some rather suspect titles ('The Spaniard's Pregnant Bride' anyone?). As we started to finish up, Chris came up with the fantastic pun, thanks Chris!

Daniel had cooked up a delicious smelling vegan chilli for a group at the library, and offered to cook for us when we next visit. We will happily accept such a lovely offer, thanks Daniel! (Lots of thanks all round tonight!)

We had hoped that the rain would ease for the run back down the hill, but it had not read the script and had got a lot more persistent. We democratically decided that a fitness session involving more hills would not be fun and headed straight back to our start point. Tim took a tumble on a kerb but was thankfully OK. We stopped under the railway bridge, taking advantage of the shelter and walls to aid our stretching, before heading back to the warmth of the Bridge House to collect our things. I think a social is well overdue, watch this space..

The task for next week hasn't been confirmed, keep an eye out here for the details.

Tim has arranged a community mission at the Crystal Palace Museum garden, where there are plenty of jobs to do, on Sunday 29th March. Keep an eye out for details and to sign up.

OK, so the pun isn't the most obvious but if you try saying it a few different ways, you can almost get to You Sexy Thing....

A fabulous five returned to Melvin Hall to start painting the fence to the side of the main building, after giving the gate a welcome lick of paint a few weeks ago.

Ian was waiting for us at Melvin Hall, where we were welcomed by John, who very kindly provided us with cups of tea, jam doughnuts and cupcakes alongside the paint and brushes for the job at hand. Ian set to work cutting back the ivy that was growing through the fence, whilst Sam, Georgina and Tim got stuck into the paint, which looked rather like hot chocolate (hence the rather ropey pun), or school chocolate custard. Mmmm! It wasn't as cold as our last visit and we made real progress clearing the greenery and painting around two-thirds of the fence.

By the time we had cleared up and tucked into the goodies, we had run out of time for a fitness session, so we waved goodbye to Ian and headed back to our start point for a stretch.

Next week is a return to the Upper Norwood Library hub, a wonderful community space, to give their kitchen a spring clean. Sign up here.