An incredibly determined and resilient 22 runners took on a 7km run and shifted a skip load of junk at the WIldcat Wilderness...in the pouring rain!

Thank you once again to pun-meister Oli for this week's delightfully apt title pun!

I was very excited this week, to share some rather lovely news, we have been nominated for a Mayor's Award for community involvement! This is pretty special, because it acknowledges each and every one of those people who have been on a coach run, mission or group run in Lewisham in the almost three years we have been running - that's a lot of community involvement! Well done everyone! On November 30th, there will be a special reception at the Civic Suite, where we will learn if we are one of the four winners (although being nominated is honour enough, alongside the other amazing organisations that we will have the pleasure of meeting/catching up with!).

As always, we were delighted to welcome a new runner into the fold, Lewisham Love to Eve, who deserves ALL of your cheers for turning up on possibly the wettest group run we've had!

With it being way too muddy on our usual grassy warm-up spot, we went a little off piste and used the arches area, underneath the railway line, to warm up - keeping you all on your toes! With Caireen and Rosemary (welcome back!) as back-markers, we headed out towards Ladywell Fields and on to Catford. Gathering up a couple of strays along the way, we met Maria and Jill at the gate and heard about this wonderful community space and the work that goes on here. In the entrance, there was a massive skip and Maria explained that we would be collecting all the waste material that has been uncovered, as paths have been cleared, then bringing this by wheelbarrow (or with our bare hands in some cases!) to the skip for collection later in the week.

Soak and glory

Gloves were put on, head-torches were lit and we hung up our smashing new portable lights along the path, to make our journey visible (thank you to the Lewisham Assembly for our lights, they really are fantastic!).

We had experienced a bit of rain on our run, but at this point the heavens opened and we really were challenged. It was incredible to see the determination on people's faces, as they persisted in lifting, shifting and carrying lengths of wood, rusty metal, sacks of random scrap and, in Oli's case, a toilet (what is it with Oli, he manages to find one at every task?!). At the skip, Caireen kept an eye on proceedings, making sure everything went in safely and with some form of order. With a steady trail of barrows weaving along the path, a pretty big dent was made on the pile and I shouted out that we had just five minutes left - cue a mad rush to fill the last two barrows and a decision by Damian and Stewart to drag a heavy sack the whole length of the path, there was no way they were leaving it behind!

Skip to the end

Using our fancy new lights as spotlights, we managed to capture everyone in a group photo before getting ourselves warm again with a brisk run back. Those who have been to the Wilderness before were keen to point out how special it is in the daylight - you can go along outside our group runs to help at volunteer sessions or to workshops and events that are held at the weekend (have a look at the calendar here).

I must admit to finding the cold wind and the driving rain hard work this evening, so what an absolute joy to hear newcomer Eve saying how much she was enjoying herself and, as we ran, hearing Clare comment on how beautiful things look when you're running, how we notice things differently....this is what it's all about.

Next week we will be running to one of our favourite annual tasks, putting up decorations at Seniors. This is definitely the time to dig out your Santa hats and add some sparkle and lights to your ensemble! Sign up here to join us for a festive fun run. Talking of festive fun, a few people were asking about the Run up to Christmas. We did this last year as a group/team and found it ever so motivating, to keep us going through the party season. You can sign up here to commit to running up to Christmas and to know that you will have our support and encouragement all the way, whilst raising money for MIND.

See you next week for more of the same!