Two teams headed to two very different tasks tonight in Tower Hamlets.

Painting and gardening at Look Ahead

Writes task force member, Becky: “Fellow task forcer Bryon headed up the team to Look Ahead Care & Support on Commercial Road where task owner Catriona was ready and waiting with the projects for the evening ahead: Bryon and Gabrielle headed to the front of the building to gather leaves; Luke, Jonathan and Katherine were despatched to tidy the garden, while Joel, Steve and I hit some of the indoor walls with the white emulsion. We were such a productive and focused team, before we knew it, it was time to tackle the 1.3-mile run back to base, without time to join the Cranbrook team for their tempo session. Oh well (every cloud, more like). We got our own speedwork in, though, with Joel and Bryon leading a speedy pace back to the hotel, via Meath Gardens where we managed to catch the Cranbrook crew at the Roman Road lights. All’s well that ends well.”

Sawing, digging and sanding at Cranbrook

I, in the meantime had headed to Cranbrook Community Food Group with a team of 9 to set about completing quite a variety of tasks requested from us by task owners Janet and Eileen, “Boys are needed to saw wood,” Eileen announced on arrival. Right you are. A slightly bemused female team then divided into two to dig, construct trellises and later move onto bench-sanding. LOTS was accomplished. Wood was sawed and wheeled to bins; trellises were beautifully and efficiently built; earth was dug and benches softened for painting. And then…it was 8pm.

Lap-and-log

Time for tempo? Uh-uh. The team were suffering this evening, with everything from sore calves from sawing, bruises from the previous day’s races, and just generally tired running legs. So we played lap-and-log. A new game that involved speedwork over laps of Meath Gardens followed by lower body, upper body and core exercises around the tree. The runners were a quiet but determined group of exercisers, running fast and balancing well. The core’s coming on nicely, folks. We headed back to the hotel for some serious stretching before calling it a night. Way to go, folks.

Big GG shout-outs

A big GG TH welcome to first time runner, Jonathan – it was great you joined our task force at Look Ahead, and well done for getting so much done (and run). And we hope to see you very soon.

Thanks to Bryon for heading up the Look Ahead team, and for making the evening’s planning that little bit easier, and to Becky for lovely report-writing and cool pics – and for sending it all so promptly.

Thanks to Annie, for the fabulous pun this evening.

And thank you to Si who saved the day somewhat in helping our task owners identify where the shed key had been hidden at 9.30pm on a Monday night.

Next week, we’re joining Tower Hamlets Big Clean Up, and, to celebrate England Athletics’ #RunandTalk campaign (twice a year they’re asking people to head out for a jog or run with friends, family or colleagues and have a chat to support Time to Talk Day and World Mental Health Day), which is running from 6th-12th October, we’ll be litter-picking around Mile End Hospital. What a way to spend your Monday evening – do come and join us, and sign up here.

And lastly, what better way to see in October than by heading to the GG social, this Thursday 4th October, from 6.30pm, Islington Townhouse, N1 0RW. More details are here.

Right, that’s it from me! Have a really great week, everyone, and look forward to seeing you soon.