Runners' high

On a fresh February evening in Bromley, nine runners covered 3.5km of hills and got stuck in at the Upper Norwood Library Hub.

Thank you Louise for this week's pun, that paint was fuming strong!

So much news this week!

• There was some super work up at the Crystal Palace Museum on Saturday, with Louise and Tim joining in the volunteer session. Have a read of Louise's run report here (and just check out that title pun! Where have you been hiding this talent Louise?!).

• On Sunday March 17th, we will be taking over the volunteering at our local junior parkrun in Crystal Palace Park. Sign up here to find out more and to volunteer for one of the many jobs on offer (marshalling, timing, barcode scanning, handing out tokens, tail-walking...).

• Quiz night at the Bridge House! Next Thursday, February 28th, we will be having a quiz night social at our start point. Sign up here, so we know how many to book for our team (and so we can work out our areas of specialism!).

The biggest news this week though, was that Louise was completing her 100th good deed! Amazing! Louise is only our second member to reach this wonderful milestone and has done so by being with us consistently from the start and taking time out from her busy week to visit an older person for a chat. She has also recently started taking part in missions, so those good deeds will be mounting up! Since we met, Louise's running has gone from strength to strength, with a few half-marathons now under her running belt (with the Big Half coming up in a few weeks too). Really well done Louise, we're all very proud of your achievements.

Tonight's task was taking us up the hill again, this time to the Upper Norwood Library Hub, but first we had to do a little warm-up in the park (cue some cone-grabbing fun and a few dynamic drills).

Livres those there!

Did you see the moon tonight? Wow! It looked even more lovely from the top of Anerley Hill, that's for sure (thank you Louise for leading the way)! This week we were met at the library by Alison, who made sure we rehydrated before we got started (thank you!). We had a few jobs this evening, with one group stepping into the office to do some painting, Lizzie and Bradley popping outside to pick up litter and Emma and Tim sorting through books in the basement.

Once I had made sure our book sorters and litter pickers were set in motion, I jogged back upstairs to check on the painters, who I thought must be rolling and brushing with gusto by this point. Instead, I was met with a cluster of perplexed faces, with Stuart trying his best to get the lid off the tin. It was one of those soft, plastic lids though and all attempts were met with it springing back into place. I thought I'd be clever and get my house keys out to have a go...bending my front door key in the process (don't worry, I bent it back and it did open the door when I got home, phew!). I must point out here that The Library of Things is situated in the next room, home to tools and gadgets galore, but these were all locked safely out of reach, but tantalisingly close. Thankfully, Stuart persisted and found himself a hammer, giving the strong leverage needed to get that tin open once and for all, good work!

Let the painting begin!

Meanwhile, our 'ploggers' had found two big bin bags of rubbish and had now joined our painters. Our sorters had decided what would sell and what might not, boxed them up and transported them upstairs and our painters were well on their way to covering up the scuffs and scrapes that had previously marked the walls around us. We made sure there was just enough time left to wash the trays and brushes (but not before we had painted a '100' and 'wings' onto Louise's t-shirt!).

Flying back down the hill, someone (Bradley) suggested going a different way, which meant a fair bit of shouting out from those wearing head-torches and some careful step leaping as we ran through the darker spots of Crystal Palace Park. Reaching the bottom, we did a couple of hill repeats before a nice stretch and chat. Next week we will return to the home of the GMax Trackstars, to do some more lifting and shifting - sign up here.