A very apeeling night stripping in Hounslow

It was a bit of a rocky start to the night when ten runners found themselves to be homeless after being kicked out of our regular room, but the evening just got better and better from there.

First of all we cheered the indomitable Remy who is getting ever closer to that PB with a cracking performance at the Great Scottish half marathon this week.

We then celebrated lovely Jo who last night reached the all important FIFTY milestone. It shows a lot of commitment to get there, so well done to Jo- give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up and a discussion about what age is the best - answers ranged from 7 to 67 - we set off on a short run to Turnham Green station where the incredibly industrious Karen of Abundance London and GGer Michelle were waiting for us with buckets and sponges. Our job tonight was to strip off the fly posters that were making a mess of the walls of the tube station bridge.

The bridge has been there for almost 200 years, and it seemed as though the posters started going up not long after. We got stuck in, peeling off layer after layer of paper. The aim is to clear the wall ready for a big project. Abundance London recently received permission from TFL, along with some funding from Hounslow and Ealing Council, to install a huge mural under the railway arches at Turnham Green tube. The plan is to create a large mural made up from a series of historical maps of the area from 1745 up to the present day. GoodGym Hounslow is to become a small part of Chiswick history!

Turns out that stripping off the posters is totally addictive, and we couldn't (ahem) tear ourselves away. So satisfying when a huge piece comes off in one go. We even had a hand from Paul, the lovely cabbie waiting at the taxi rank right by the station, and the flower seller from across the road helped carry our water. What a community job! After 40 or so minutes of work the wall was transformed. A note for an potential fly posterers in the Turnham Green area: stay away. We will find you.

After waving goodbye to Karen we were taken on a little detour by Remy who is leading us to victory in the Beat the Streets competition, did a few squats as we tapped our cards, then headed back to the park to knock out a fitness session. Last night it was all about the glutes. We started off with some walk outs to warm up, then started on an intense hit session that was aimed at strengthening our glutes in order to prevent injury and get ourselves some nice peachy bums in the process. We knocked out 40 seconds of ladder runs (hereby christened by Jordan as 'Beyoncés'), squat jumps and side shuffles and lunges, followed each time by 20 seconds rest. Feel the burn!

All that was left was to tackle the short run back to the Town Hall where much to our delight we found a birthday party going on and were generously donated slices of chocolate cake from the birthday girl. Much appreciated after a tough session, and to show our gratitude we serenaded the party with a nice rousing round of happy birthday. Then we headed to the pub to toast Jo. All in all a great night of running, addictive tasks, Beyoncé, cake and pub. More next week?