This evening we ran around 5km to deliver charity collection bags for the British Heart Foundation

Chilly, chilly, chilly is the only way to describe tonight but yet 10 intrepid and well-wrapped up Croydon runners still braved the temperatures and met up at Solution Health and Fitness for tonight’s task. It was difficult to leave the building and head off into the night but we off we went for a short jog and warm-up before splitting into five groups to deliver the charity collection bags. Taking care to avoid dogs, “No Junk Mail” households and well sprung letter boxes we delivered around 500 bags in super quick time and all met back up again.

As we hadn’t run very far we went for a run and then headed to the subway where we used the stairs for some training. The first couple of rounds were easy - jog up the stairs, sprint along the pavement and then a gentle run down the ramp to the stairs again. It got harder after that though…… squatting jumps, two steps at a time and the version that tested coordination and concentration – a combination of squats and two steps at a time. Good for the legs and gluts and keeping warm too!

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading for a longer run of 6 to 7km to a community allotment where we will be helping build a raised bed. to Birdhurst Community Gardens.

This evening we ran over 5km to put right the litter and mess in the park

A (relatively) mild evening tonight – a relief after the snow for Sunday’s Starter session! 12 runners met up at Solution Health and Fitness and after the briefing and group photo kindly taken by a gym user, who has said she may come next week, we headed off for our warm-up and then onto Lloyd Park.

The group split into two after the warm-up with Amatare leading the speedier runners while I had a lovely time chatting with the rest. Once we arrived at the Parklife Café in Lloyd Park we chatted to Claire about the task which was a fairly straight forward litter pick in the car park, around the pavilion and the tram stop. Three intrepid runners even headed across the very dark park to the Children’s playground to see what they could find there. The find of the evening was near a recycling bin where a full set of Christmas lights had been dumped.

After we’d finished Claire and her daughter treated us to tea, coffee and the most fantastic homemade cakes – I know where the best Banoffee pie can be found now! I think we got slightly too comfortable in the café because all of a sudden it was after 8.15pm and we had 2.5km to run back fuelled/weighed down by cake. We made it back slightly later than normal but as it was due to cake nobody complained!

Special mention to Tim tonight who headed off with Amatare’s group although he was a little worried about how he would cope but he definitely did himself proud – well done.

Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total. If you set it up yet then go onto your account, go to profile, settings and finally Strava/Runkeeper and follow the instructions there.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading to Birdhurst Community Gardens where we will be helping prepare the ground for railway sleepers to be laid.

This evening we ran around 4km to dig turf, weed, plant and litter pick in a local park

After promising an indoor task this week I had to break the bad news the evening before that the warm indoor task was cancelled and replaced by an outdoor task. The Croydon bunch are hardy runners though as we still had 22 amazing runners turn up for some running and hard physical labour

So after the group photo we headed off to White Horse Park via Tescos for our warm-up. Tonight the speedier runners were led by Ellie and Andy who did a fantastic job with their looping too and we all arrived safely. Charles was our task master for the evening and he explained the tasks we could help him with. The Friends of White Horse Park are planting round the sides of a large circular raised bed so he demonstrated how to dig the turf out neatly round the edges – he did make it look very simple – turns out it’s quite tricky! Others did some weeding and planting and the reset went rubbish hunting around the garden area. When we arrived it actually looked really clean but then we found the “beer can bush” - only 5 feet from a bin but an entire rubbish sack was filled!

By the time we finished it was bitterly cold so we headed off for a warm-up slow jog then to a quiet street where we practiced the art of accelerating -always useful for that last minute sprint to outpace your friends! There were some impressive increases in pace especially once the arms started driving back with real power. On the way back Ellie and Andy’s group headed off for a slightly longer run so we all managed to finish around the same time and cool-down as a group.

While we were stretching they were reminded of an extra session this Sunday – meet at Heathfield Gardens at 10.45am to help build a garden for the bees. We will do the task first and then go for a run in the woods if it’s not too muddy or locally if it is. It’s a great chance to do a deed in the daylight and also to bring along a friend or family member who might be worried about the whole running thing but would like to give GoodGym a try.

Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total. If you set it up yet then go onto your account, go to profile, settings and finally Strava/Runkeeper and follow the instructions there.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading to Lloyd Park