Good deed, good deed, good deed yum yum!

On a brisk evening, nine nifty runners covered 5km of running and a whole row of railings at Baxter Fields.

Yes, I am aware that this week's title pun will probably only mean something to about three of tonight's runners, but I'm going with it anyway!

Tuesdays in Penge are always special, but tonight was even more special, with two big milestones being reached. Congratulations to Hannah, who has hit the big 5-0 after just over a year of running with us. In that time, she has been on tour to (we think) seven other areas and has ticked off another milestone, with her parkrun 100 (and a PB to boot). As we ran, I asked Hannah which was her favourite task so far. It's such a difficult question to answer, since many tasks are made special by something incidental, like a conversation en route, or good snacks at the venue (nb not all tasks come with snacks). Having been to a couple of city farm tasks, Hannah said it would probably be 'the one with the goats' - a lovely river run to Surrey Docks Farm, where we were mobbed by some over-friendly kids, who had fun chewing our laces, bag straps and even hair! It's been lovely running with you Hannah, you never stop smiling and it's infectious! I was also hitting a milestone tonight, having reached my 300th good deed. I have had a bit longer to do this, having started in December 2015 and with around 70 of them being visits to my coach for a weekly chat. They've all been amazing and it's absolutely down to the wonderful people I have the privilege of meeting each week: warm, kind, generous, thoughtful, passionate and unique, every one of them :)

Squats love got to do with it?

As we were running via Crystal Palace Park, we did our warm up here, with some jogging, hi-fiving, balancing and squatting. We definitely needed to fire up our glutes ready for this run, culminating in a nice, long hill towards Baxter Fields, with Bradley and Stephen back-marking all the way. It felt good, on arrival, to walk all the way past the railings we have already painted and pick up a section much further along. Popping on gloves, grabbing brushes and rollers and carefully sharing out the thick black paint, we quickly got stuck in, chatting as we worked. It was great catching up with everyone after a little break last week and to see Stephen, who had come on tour especially for our milestone evening (thanks Steve!). We worked our way along, with Ian, Tim and Hannah on the opposite side, reaching those bits that we couldn't quite get to from the front, top teamwork! Before long it was time to peel off the gloves and tuck in to some sweet treats (thank you Ruth!). We will be returning here in October to help out on a Sunday, with some bulb planting - watch this space!

Core blimey!

The great thing about this particular run is the return leg, with plenty of down hill - weeeeeeeee! We swooped into a - now dark - park, where we found a semi-light patch of ground to work our cores. In pairs, we did some challenging games, with the stopwatch being used this time, so I didn't get distracted by chatting...I think you will all agree that the best bit tonight was our core Mexican wave. No? Oh.

When we see Louise and Stuart next week, they will have run a half-marathon together. I say run, there will be a fair bit of wine-tasting too and probably a lot of chatting. Good luck and, most of all, have fun you two, we can't wait to hear all about it!

Next week's task is currently being confirmed, so sign up anyway and take your chance with a lucky dip group run. See you there!