It'll Albany Alright on the Night

Storm Ewan (I know, he doesn't sound that fierce, does he?!) didn't put off twelve fearless few, who ran 5km, cleared leaves, weeds and rubbish and did some excellent watering at The Albany, before smashing a fun pacing game around the park.

Really, we're done with The Weather now, can we move on and have some lighter, warmer Monday evenings please? I knew things might be challenging when I turned on the radio this morning, to hear Tomasz Schafernaker pretty much saying he didn't know what the heck was going on with The Weather today, 'so be prepared for whatever it has to throw at you'. Great. Anyway, a core group of super-hardcore runners fought through wind, rain and even hail, to reach us at Glass Mill for tonight's group run. A massive welcome to Elijah, who joined us for the very first time and to Julia, the trainer for the new and soon-to-be-launching GoodGym Worthing.

Shout out to Mridula, who took part in her first GoodGym mission at the weekend. Have a look at the super run report she wrote, it gives a lovely outline of what a mission is like.

I had, rather stupidly, planned a cone-based game for our warm-up, but had to quickly change my thinking to accommodate the gusting winds that whipped around the area. Shaking hands, we played a game of tag-the-thigh, then a relay-running, jumping-jacking, high-kneeing, heel-flicking, skipping whirlwind ensued and we were soon breathless and ready to get going.

Spring Garden

Over at The Albany, Caz is getting ready to welcome everyone to a Spring Garden Festivity this Sunday. There will be activities, workshops, home-grown and home-made treats and a plant stall, to start your own Spring garden. Our task for tonight was to make sure the garden looked welcoming and ready to receive guests. In the poly-tunnel, we found a wheelbarrow with all the tools we might need (and my missing gloves, that I had spent the afternoon looking for, phew!), we chose roles, found the appropriate implement and set-to making a difference.

• Team Can (can) filled watering cans and quenched the thirst of the raised beds and pots in the tunnel and alongside the path

• Team Pick wandered around the perimeter, filling bags with rubbish that has blown in over the past few days

• Team Sweep swept and gathered all the leaves and general grime that has been swirling around the edges during these stormy few weeks

Quite quickly our work here was done and tools were returned to the wheelbarrow, leaves were added to the compost pile and rubbish made its way to the bin. Excellent work team(s)!

We now enjoyed a bracing shower as we headed to a nearby park to get ourselves nice and warm again. First of all, runners completed a circuit at 5k pace then, in pairs (and a three), ran in opposite directions. The aim of the game was to reach the start point with your partner, no racing, just pacing. The nice thing about going opposite ways was getting to hi-five everyone as you passed, great support there! Breathing still heavy, we turned and ran the other way, everyone working well to arrive together. On our return to Glass Mill, we heard that Deidre is celebrating a special birthday on Friday, happy birthday! We look forward to hearing all about it next time we see you.

Thank you to Julia for getting us nicely stretched in the foyer...the lovely warm foyer...where we talked about the very exciting GoodGym monthly social, which is happening this Thursday in Lewisham! Lots of our runners are going and we are looking forward to welcoming people from other areas and showing them what's what down our way. On Monday we will head back to Crofton Books, where Jason has got himself some more paint! An indoor task - woo-hoo! Sign up, now!