13 of the finest runners ran 6k to pull up spikey thistles from Lordship Rec.

After a downpour hit the borough of Haringey and a slight ponder on the tube strike Joan, our ever so helpful ray of light at the Lordship Rec, got in touch with the question “will you still come if it’s raining?” – to which I replied “Yup! I’m en route to the meeting point”.

"little glimmers of (red) hope began to appear"

It wasn’t long before little glimmers of (red) hope began to appear, GoodGymmers started to arrive. We grouped up with the feeling that all 13 of us did well in getting this far. With the weather and tube strikes behind us we went through our briefing and to my delight I was able to welcome a few newcomers along with congratulating Sarah Moore on her 50th good deed – again. Mind you, it was unquestionably better to do it in person. Good work Sarah! As we started our warm up we had a new but slightly late arrival, who needed no excuse of course.

"beaming smile"

Off we set in search of the light, running at a nice and easy pace toward the Lordship Rec. On arrival at the task site I peered out over the meadows managing to pick out Joan in the distance, as we got closer we could see her beaming smile as she waved. We had seen the light and she was extremely pleased we had made it. Joan started telling us how desperate she was for us to help get rid of the thistles, which are competing with other plants and winning. We could see vast areas of the meadows had been taken over by these prickly pests (some of which do look very beautiful in bloom).

"romantic encounters in a past life"

Without further ado we got our protective gloves on and began to cut away in a single file line, looking much like a forensics team, combing the undergrowth. Working as a team we made light work of filling bag after bag with thistles. Then something rather special happened as Aidan presented Joan with a thistly offering (see pics). We wondered if they had met before or perhaps shared romantic encounters in a past life. We were all overwhelmed with the feeling of joy and giving – we felt good. After a brisk trip to dump some bags of green waste off a few hundred yards away we returned, with not much time left at all. 40 minutes had flown by so we gathered ourselves and headed to the mini road layout in the model traffic area of the rec.

"very magical"

With the (mini) road to ourselves we set about thrashing out a drill over a 200-meter distance. For the boys (and some of the girls) this was very magical as it was almost like being transported back to a time where we played cars on one of those old school car mats for kids. Ah the memories! After completing the drill, we did a round of high fives before setting off to a little green where we smashed out some circuit work. This was appreciated greatly by all so I gave a brave few some extra press ups to do. I didn’t include Ali in this and she became infuriated, demanding I have more weight while demonstrating a press up (see pics).

"Dave appeared from nowhere asking if I had any women’s clothing"

Our run back to HQ felt great, knowing we had taken on the mighty thistle, which we will surely tackle again in the foreseeable. After a warm down, some stretching and some cartwheels from dashing Dave: who actually lost a leg in the process (see pics), we said our goodbyes. After a few minutes Dave appeared from nowhere asking if I had any women’s clothing, bearing in mind Dave’s clothing dilemma during last week’s task: I began to wonder if he had a thing for changing into other people’s clothes at regular intervals. Then I remembered Sarah had left an item of clothing in my bag. As quickly as he appeared he was gone again, dashing to the aid of his fellow do-gooder. Good ol' Dave!

Until next week do-gooders - stay fit, do good and look out for the light.