Struggled to think of a good pun - Thistle do

HELLO

Sorry for shouting.

So, another Great GoodGym Islington done! Welcome to Poppy, Clare and Anne joining us for the first time this week.

We also had Imogen along who had planned to take lots of lovely photos for us, but unfortunately her camera broke :( So you'll have to suffer Simon's mobile pics. They're not too bad this week though...

Anyway, it's #WorldMentalHealthDay and time to #TalkAndRun. The idea is to improve mental health by running and to break down the stigma associated with mental health by talking about it. We always do debates at Islington, so this wasn't a problem for us. We discussed how we as runners could help people. Lots of chat and some great suggestions:

• Prima: Organise small group activities to encourage people to get out.
• Alison: get a dog! Companionship and a good reason to get out and exercise
• Del: Check out the local council's offerings. Islington and Camden have lots going on.
• Most people: Do Goodgym! A great way to meet people as well as doing good and getting fit

We discussed all this stuff while heading up to Caxton House in groups led by Aidan, Steve, Simon and Meg, where we had to do some chopping back, some general weeding and scraping of the patio (check out Cherith's Zorro move) and surrounding areas, general tidying up and some very careful removal of thistles. The problem with these thistles is that if you destroy them without care they seek revenge by propagating. That's what they did last year anyway. Pesky little gits. We filled about 600 bags so I think it's safe to say we made good progress.

For our refuelling needs Del handed out the cheapest biscuits we've ever had at Islington: ginger nuts that were 25p. 25p!!! Can we go cheaper? Probably not.

For the journey home it was three groups again: fast, medium, and games! The fast group ran fast, the medium group ran medium, and the games group got fit with games: Downhill sprinting (wahoo), uphill sprinting (boo), Indian File (not Russian File!) and of course Secret Surges.

Another top evening - and a proper dark one.

We're back at Caxton next week. See you there!,
Simon