Like a plank over troubled (Cran)brook, I will lay compost

Last night 21 runners ran 3km to Cranbrook Community Centre to shift dirt, lay compost and clear fallen leaves and rubbish.

A big cheer for our 5 new runners last night - Rosie, Matt, Tim and Beth. We have done exceedingly well in the January challenge, particularly with regard to distance - as of this morning we've run 3591kms - solidly overshooting our target of 3100kms by quite a way. Good deeds wise we completed 142 out of our target 174. Never fear, next year we'll smash it!

After a 1.2km run down we were met by Janet at Cranbrook Community Centre who explained our tasks for the evening. We split into two groups - shifting soil/compost and clearing the garden area. We steamed through the task, filling 5 bags with leaves and dead plants, packing a huge bin with tree cut-backs and spread 1.5 bags of compost. A solid task well done! There's plenty more to get done at the Community Centre and we look forward to coming back in the future. We were particularly intrigued by the wormery in the allotment area. Worms just love kitchen waste. They turn it into beautiful soil - a perfect solution to kitchen waste for those without a garden!

We thanked Janet, took a selfie and headed for an easy lap of the centre, followed by a ‘medium’ lap and finishing with ‘hard’. Continuing to discover our paces and become more confident runners!

At the end of the last lap, a plank off was called for - everyone did a fantastic job ranging from a solid 40 seconds up to a stellar 3 minutes 10 seconds (see photo of our plank-off winners shaking hands). I anticipate some aching cores tomorrow...

We ran back the way home and finished with a good stretch and some deep belly breathing.

A great start to the week team, I look forward to seeing you next week!