Mark threw it all at us tonight – yoga, karate, tempo runs and a long hill climb up Church Road towards the Star & Garter before freewheeling down to Petersham Farm. The view at the top of Richmond Hill was a pretty good reward for the steady climb up Church Road, or at least it would have been if my vision hadn’t been blurred by the lack of oxygen to my brain after I had puffed my way to the top.

Which way???? #Richmond #goodgym #running #mondayfun #warmup pic.twitter.com/QczClHya7O

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2018

Tonight’s task for the 20-strong team of runners who set off together from Wholefoods Richmond was litter-picking. We donned some very attractive high vis jackets, heavy duty gloves and the GoodGymer’s weapon of choice, the litter picker, courtesy of our lovely task host who had stayed to meet us and direct us into groups in various different directions. I do love a good litter pick, especially in the dark: torches bobbing through the undergrowth accompanied by the sporadic exclamations of gleeful surprise when someone pulls up something particularly curious. Wombles of Wimbledon eat your heart out.

Here they come...oh no! There they go! #goodgym #runningdrills #fitness #volunteering pic.twitter.com/cT4IqDYZC3

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 10, 2018

We have sometimes been disappointed by Richmond borough’s lack of litter on our litter picking tasks, but tonight it didn’t take us long to amass a good few bags of rubbish (which was satisfying but disappointing for a different reason), leaving just enough time for a low-light ‘guess who’ group photo at the end and a nice downhill jog for home base.

Welcome to our three first time runners, Yesim, Gemma and Leah, and lovely to see everyone else returning along with our regular GoodGym Kingston visitors.

Good luck to all our runners doing the Richmond Runfest next weekend. We definitely need to see photos of your pirate costumes. (I really hope you get a parrot, Jenna…)

Next week we’re back at one of our biggest task supporters, the ETNA community centre in St Margarets, for some green-fingered goodness. Bring your head torches and a pass out for pub grub and drinks in Richmond after the run. And do bling it up with your running medals, all you racers from Richmond RunFest this weekend. Bask in the glory of your well-earned pirate treasure. Ooh arr me hearties.