The weather gods were smiling on us last night as only 10% of the forecast 90% chance of rain appeared to materialise.

With only one no show due to a missed bus we set off on a dead straight route along to Hinckley Rd and up to Western Park

On the other hand the traffic light gods were not smiling as it seemed to me we spent more time waiting for green men than we did running!

Lindsay and Sam led the front whilst Mel and I brought up the tail. It was nice to discover a bit of a gradient on that route…Mmmm will have to remember that for future evilness!!!

Arriving at site our hosts were already there and had made a start – the task was to take everything out of a storage container and then put it back again… but neatly.

A chain gang was soon formed and various articles of equipment and other ephemora were being decanted into a row of waiting wheelbarrows.

Gerald put his Scouting knowledge to good use lashing together some timber to make new shelving and Jen seemed to be in charge of hanging things off the walls - watering cans a speciality

Faced with the prospect of redundancy, a few of the group elected to clear the track of fallen leaves. One of the hosts led us off into the woods and walked, and walked, and walked some more! For a while I thought we were being given a full track walk but eventually we got to do some clearing.

Whilst all the work was going on I nipped off to set up some cones on a nice little double hill ready for when it was time to call a halt to the task.

Our taskmaster Rick thanked us for the help and told us we were “worth our weight in gold” a reinforcement that our tasks sometimes may seem small and trivial to us but for those we do them for it’s a massive help.

Off to that hill and everyone put a good shift in, it will probably hurt this morning! The last climb was particularly challenging and by the way we all stood at the top, hands on knees, panting and blowing out steam like a herd of winter cattle I have no cause to question anyones commitment.

All that was left was a nice steady jog back to base once again running the gauntlet of pedestrian crossings.

Don’t forget that deep squat/explosive jump thingy I showed you at the end – twice a day for 30 seconds 2-3 days a week – let me know how you get on

See ya next week.