Springbank, fall back

As the chill set in, 21 tremendous runners covered 4km of running, raked an embankment of weeds, painted a selection of planters and tended to the needs of a beautiful community garden.

At this time of year, our help is needed more than ever, visiting older people in their homes, either for a weekly chat, or to tackle something that is affecting their quality of life. This week we have seen so many of our runners heading out to deal with overgrown paths, put up curtains, move heavy furniture or to create a space for a bed, to allow someone to return home from hospital. These visits make so much difference, so well done to all of you who have shared your time in this way.

This week we welcomed one first-timer and one visitor, so all our Lewisham Love goes to Michaela and Victoria, we hope you enjoyed the way we do things here in the 'sham.

Marafun

On Sunday, Kim will be running 26.2 miles around Venice, to complete her first marathon. She has been on such an incredible running journey since she joined us and I'm very proud of how hard she has worked. To honour her efforts, we had a marathon themed warm-up (picture repeating things 26 times, running through a wall and so on...), before we synced our watches and ran out towards Hither Green (thank you to Bradley for back-marking and keeping us all together).

Tool good to be true

Arriving in Hither Green, we met Anne-Marie and Laura and were told about the various jobs that needed doing tonight. Lined up against the fence were various tools: rakes, forks, spades, many of which had been kindly loaned to us for the evening by local residents - thank you! Everyone zipped up a Network Rail hi-vis and listened carefully to the health and safety briefing (there are very particular considerations when working close to a railway line!). Those who had a tool got stuck in, raking away the weeds on the station embankment to clear the way for a seed sowing session to take place here soon. Those who weren't tooled up went with Anne-Marie around the corner to the Springbank Road Community Garden, where there were planters that needed painting along the street and autumn tidying that needed doing in the garden.

As always, there was lots of chatter as we worked, with people talking about upcoming races, guerilla gardening (ssshhhhh!), shared home towns (and schools!) and food (our tummies always start rumbling about now). While we waited for our Springbank friends to return, we gathered all the weeds and leaves and added them to the pile near the gate (which had grown a lot in the time we were here!). Hi-vis vests were put away, thank you chocolates were eaten (thank you!) and our group photo was posed and taken in the lightest spot we could find.

Core!

Our run here had been a flat one, avoiding the big hill we usually climb, but I though a hill was exactly what we needed to warm us up on the way back, so up (and then down) we went. On our arrival at Glass Mill, the warmth of the foyer was calling, so in we went, to do a quick upper body and core workout before a finishing stretch. Next week we have a lovely indoor task, over at Crofton Books, sign up here to join in on what is always a fun evening (and, as it's pretty much Hallowe'en, feel free to spookify your kit!).

Hopefully see you at parkrun on Saturday and good luck to Kim in Venice on Sunday!