Wheelbarrow this if you don't mind?

Venturing out in the wake of a storm, 25 intrepid explorers covered 5km, taking on two tasks in Hither Green.

Oh my. Did you see the lightning?! Did you hear (and feel) the thunder?! At about 5.30 the rain poured down and the ground began to rumble, with lightning striking a signal at Hither Green, trapping some of our runners either on trains or on station platforms. Some agreed to meet us at the task and some came running into the foyer at the last minute, looking a little flustered. By the time we had gathered and chatted, the sky had turned blue and the air was starting to warm up again. We had another great weekend of racing to celebrate, with runners and volunteers at the Hackney Half, the Rock and Roll Marathon in Liverpool and, over in Chistlehurst, our very own Conroy taking on the half-marathon distance. Well done!

We were joined tonight by two new-comers, a big welcome and all our Lewisham Love to Sarah and Glain, who most certainly weren't put off by the dramatic weather!

After a quick, knee-tagging, stuck-in-the-mud type warm up, we ran as a group to Manor Park, with Anita keeping us together at the back, thank you Anita! It was quite a tough hill up, but we were soon rewarded with a downward slope to the park, where we met Anne-Marie. Here, I left a large part of the group to get on with the task and took the rest of our marvellous volunteers back to the Ted Ray Scout Hall, where we were due to finish the painting from last week. En route, we picked up Nykolette, Bradley and Malcolm, who looked very much like they were waiting for a bus.

Last week we managed to do a big section of painting, but couldn't quite reach the top bits, running out of time before it was all done. This week we had a platform and ladders and the determination to complete the job. Meanwhile, around the front of the building, Vic and Matt were busy painting the bricks around the doorway, brightening up the entrance, while we chatted away around the back about Endure 24 and Malcolm's first marathon, this coming Sunday. Before long, we were stepping back and admiring the finished paintwork, whilst nibbling on a Malted Milk (cow biscuit) or Bourbon (thank you!). As we said goodbye, we went to see how Vic and Matt were doing, discovering that they couldn't be tempted to join us in running back, because they really wanted to finish what they had started! That's some high level dedication there! Good work.

When we arrived back at Manor Park, we found a team of tired runners, having worked hard at a number of very physical (and also delightful) tasks:

• watering the orchard (collecting the water from the River Quaggy)

• pulling up bindweed (please come and do this in my garden!)

• putting together a shiny new wheelbarrow

• weed bashing

• watering tadpoles (wow! This has to be one of our most unusual tasks so far!)

Thank you to Conroy and Emma for documenting all of this with such lovely photos and to everyone for working so hard at both tasks this evening.

Next week is a Bank Holiday, which means nothing to us because we don't stop doing good for anyone! Our task will take us towards New Cross this time, to Luxmore Gardens, where we will be doing some painting (and maybe a bit of digging). Don't forget to sign up to our Summer Social at the wonderful Wildcat Wilderness (thank you for hosting us Maria!) and also the GoodGym Olympic Games (thank you Conroy for sharing your Olympic torch ideas, all ideas welcome!). Have a great week and very good luck to Malcolm at the Edinburgh Marathon!