Scouting for boys and girls

Under lightning-flash skies, eight daring runners covered just under 8km to help the Royal Greenwich Scouts fill in their fox-holes in an oasis off Shooters Hill Road.

There was much excitement in St Anne's Court this evening, as we welcomed first-time Greenwich GoodGymmer Georgina, who it turns out ran the London Marathon on Sunday, as did Steph. There were stories exchanged about superb crowds, sideways hailstones, achy thighs and incredible PBs. Well done both of you! We had hoped to see Abdullah, our security guard from last week, to find out how he got on, maybe next time.

The area around our meeting point is blessed with some really rather lovely grassy areas, very well-tended grassy areas, with neatly trimmed, springy grass. Nice. So, this is where we warmed up tonight. We high-fived, we balanced, we took tiny steps, seeing who could come last (go Amy and Alex, a photo finish) and we marched, skipped and high-kneed up and down Greenwich's fine greenery.

Our run tonight was slightly longer than usual, with our first kilometre being up a very steep Greenwich Park hill - apologies to our marathon runners, in fact apologies to all of you, that was bloody hard work! But the view (slightly obscured by some trees, but still), the view! It was a treat to run through the park and, from next week, it will be open later, so there is more to come. Onwards and upwards and over to Vanbrugh Park Road, as always marvelling at the beautiful houses along the way and the enormity of the park (there's a deer park behind that big wall you know!). Our route made some feel disorientated, wondering where we were and commenting on how Blackheath seems to be made up of lots of little pockets of loveliness. And then on to Shooters Hill Road, not so lovely at rush hour, with speedy cars making their getaway. There is a rather special lido along here though, so we talked open water pools and winter swimming as we passed by Charlton Lido - it's heated you know and open all year round.

And if you were to carry on a little bit further, you would come to Oxleas Wood, which is really rather wonderful. Anyone fancy a muddy run with amazing views?

We were now at the home of the Royal Greenwich Scouts, where we were met by Alan, who told us about the children that use the space and how the little ones even go camping there (after being driven around in the minibus so it feels like they're in the country)! Alan had very kindly set out all the tools and what a fine selection of tools to choose from! Everyone grabbed whatever took their fancy and we headed around the corner to fill up two wheelbarrows with soil. It seems there have been pesky foxes here, digging holes then abandoning them when they realise there are people using the space. Small children (known as Beavers) have a tendency to disappear down these holes (we didn't find any), so they needed filling.

Alan had indicated where the holes were, using big road cones, so everyone found a cone and set to work. The soil turned out to be quite soft, so what looked like a relatively small hole might take a whole wheelbarrowful of soil to fill...after much tramping and stamping to compact the earth. Back and forth went our runners, filling and tipping, digging and lifting. One of the holes appeared to be beneath a tree surrounded by weeds, but how to get to it? Cue Steven and his nifty scythe action, woah Steven, that looked like fun! He made light work of those weeds, clearing the space in no time at all. But, as always, the clock ticked away quickly and it was time to go. Alan came out to thank everyone for all their hard work and even offered to set up a barbecue next time, when we will get added training benefit from carrying all that meat.

We gathered on the corner of Shooters Hill Road, saying our goodbyes to Sarah and Georgina, who had to head the other way. Now, our perfectly formed huddle of six trotted back over to Greenwich, flying over the motorway as we went (these are runs of immense contrast!). Now our steep uphill became a steep downhill, possibly even more challenging for marathon legs! We paused our conversations as we were rudely interrupted by a very loud voice, 'THE PARK IS NOW CLOSED!', booming from the park-keeper's van. Gotcha.

Our run had been long and our task had been hard, so some stretching was called for as 8:30 approached. We looked up at the darkening sky and caught sharp flashes of lightning, perfect timing! Well done everyone, you smashed it, more next week at The Bridge, where we will create a willow arch for the children.