A pig of a task!

As fireworks popped overhead, eleven athletes ran 3km and got an excellent upper-body workout at Anerley Town Hall.

Thank you Ian for tonight's run report pun! It's not really a comment on our task (the task was great!), but a reference to Chinese New Year, the year of the pig, hence the fireworks going off around us!

We had three brand new runners joining us this evening - wowsers! A big Bromley welcome to Kerry, Nicole and Gail.

• Well done to those of us who were out and about putting up posters for 'Food2You' in the week, I have had some feedback saying that someone has already been in touch to volunteer as a driver!

• Great work from Tim, representing up at the Crystal Palace Museum gardening session.

• Well done Bradley, for volunteering at the Cancer Research Winter Run on Sunday (he got up at 4.30am to get there on time!).

• Congratulations to Claudia, who was successful in her interview last week and will be joining the RAF!

• Well done to anyone who got out running or volunteering over the weekend, it was soooo cold and icy!

As we were running towards Anerley, I thought we might pop into the park for our warm-up. The new cafe is looking amazing, we can't wait to go in there for post-parkrun coffee (and post-run ice-creams in the summer?). A quick knee-tag game and some 'everybody is it' and we were fired up and ready to go. A run alongside the lake at night is quite eerie, with the floodlights from the running track fooling us into imagining a bright moon. Soon enough, we were ducking back out of the park and nearing our task.

This was a brand new task for us, so I was excited to take everyone to the space, where we were met by Robert, who showed us down a maze of corridors and through to the original library space. There are plans to refurbish the space and bring it back into use, so some clearing of tables was needed, to make a start. Take a look at that 'before' picture, I felt slightly daunted but, of course, this became plain sailing for our top team!

Boiled treat

The basement that we were moving the tables to is down some steep and tight stairs, with pipes on each side, making the space even narrower. We also had the challenge of keeping quiet*, as there was a yoga class in the next room! We all very quickly found our place, shifting heavy table tops, carrying metal legs, taking position on the stairs for a human chain, or stacking the tables in the basement. Nicole was excited as she passed the noisy, hot, gurgling boilers, to spot a family connection, a massive control panel made by her family's business, with an old label showing her childhood phone number!

Basement tax(x)

With our team working steadily, swapping places every so often, I noticed that the stack of tables upstairs was reducing at pace and, looking at the time, I could see that we would do it! Hoorah! Another great task where we completed our challenge in the allotted time - smashing!

Time now to run back to the park and make use of a gentle hill. Out came my whistle - it's been a while, so it had tissue stuck inside, sorry about the lack of actual whistle at first! We were working on our hill training form - nice and tall, a helium balloon lifting our heads, our arms driving back and our knees high. All of this was well embedded and visibly noticeable by the fourth hill and after a little drill, great work.

Next week we will be running up and over to Crystal Palace Bus Station, to work outdoors in the flowerbeds and 'Edible Bus Stop' area - bring a head-torch if you have one! In the meantime, you might like to head to the GoodGym monthly social to meet runners from other areas and to vote for the International Pun of the Month, details here. We will be having our own social on Thursday February 28th, at the quiz at our start point, the Bridge House, between us we will have a winning team, surely?!

*we didn't manage to stay quiet. Namaste.