Give me just a litter more time trial

A very sweet sixteen took to the streets of Bromley tonight, to make merry with a pile of woodchip and banish all litter from sight.

People just kept on coming tonight! How lovely to have such a big group, maybe it's the lighter, milder evenings. Sigh. Joining us for the very first time tonight were Giselle and Victoria - click on their names and show them some love with a little (or big) cheer :) To get us in the mood for running, I shared some inspiring successes from the weekend. We had Paul, who was down at the Brighton Marathon, his second marathon in eight days - amazing stuff Paul. A bit (lot!) closer to home was Bradley, who ran his first ever 10k race, here in Crystal Palace Park, smashing those hills good and proper. Finally, giving us an international feel was Tim, who took part in an Italian parkrun (Etna) and only went and came first! What an inspiring bunch of runners we have amongst us!

After a mini warm-up we jogged up to the park and let ourselves into the container (carefully stepping past the guard dogs, who were ready for their evening patrol!). Between us we gathered a selection of rakes, shovels, litter-pickers and wheelbarrows and made our way to the Secret Garden. Interestingly, I only had one taker for litter-picking (thanks Molly) until I referred to it as 'plogging', amazing what a bit of branding can do! Our 'ploggers' headed over to the children's playground, where much fun seemed to be had, playing frisbee and finding such treasures as some glittery sunglasses, beautifully modelled here by Tim.

Back at the garden the wheelbarrows were already in action, with various methods being used to transport the woodchip to the paths; I was particularly impressed with Ian's dressage-like trotting action. At the paths were two teams of rakers, spreading the woodchip neatly to the edges and pausing to chat every so often and enjoy a bit of bird-watching until the next barrow-load arrived. We started work on these paths last summer, so it was very satisfying to see them completed and the woodchip pile flattened! The last bits of woodchip were raked and scraped into the barrow, then it was time to return our equipment to the shed. Really well done everyone, I'm sure Penny will be delighted to see the job finished.

Last summer we created a little (approximately) 1km time trial around the park (we use half of the junior parkrun route, so it must be about 1k!). We did this maybe a couple of times, but then the evenings became too dark. I decided that this week would be the perfect time to reintroduce it. First of all though, we needed to be warm. Partnering up on the grass, we played some knee/shin-tag (Victoria proved very good at this, with cheeky two-handed taps and everything!), then a big old game of British Bulldog. Focussing on our arms, we also did some dynamic running drills, to encourage good form before we ran.

As many of our runners were new to this course, we first of all jogged the route, chatting as we went, then those who wanted to, went for it with the time trial. A steady stream of runners rejoined us from just three and a half minutes onwards, with strong arms all the way (you definitely took this on board, well done!). Finishing off with some planking, we stretched and talked about next week. The task is to be confirmed, with two possibilities, so sign up anyway and take a chance! This Sunday is the London Marathon, with lots of GoodGym runners taking part. We will also have plenty of cheerers around the course, so have a look here to find out more if you fancy joining us on the route.

See you soon!