Top coats!

15 amazing runners ran nearly 4km to help sort clothes at Clothes For Causes!

It was World Mental Health Day yesterday and we all know how much running and jogging can help with our mental wellbeing and so last night was a chance to go for a run with friends, old and new, in a special #runandtalk group run session in partnership with England Athletics and Mind.

Our amazing Mental Health Ambassador Ben talked us through the CHIME framework getting us all to think about our own mental health and how running can have a positive effect within each area. You can read more about it here.

Ben also prepared a fun little bingo to get everyone chatting and finding out some interesting facts about one another! The best one being Rachael's secret love for Cliff Richard hahaha!

After a few minutes we set off, along the main road and arrived at Clothes For Causes and crossed over to their spare stock room... which will apparently eventually be a bakery but the landlord is letting them store some stock there until he gets planning permission.. in case anyone was wondering why we were in such a random building!

We were greeted by the team who had already got a huge pile of clothes ready for us to sort. Having been there a few weeks prior, we quickly re-established our category locations and the sorting began! Clothes were flying through the air, people were being smacked in the face by soaring garments but it was all part of the fun.

Women's coats were taking an early lead.. there were SO many!!! We got through the initial mountain of clothes and started to repack everything back into the sacks to make room for more. We had 5 sacks left to go and it was like moths to a flame whenever a new sack was emptied! Amazing efforts!!!

In just twenty minutes we had sorted through over 10 sacks of clothes and repacked them all. JUST AWESOME!!!! It would have taken Veronique hours if not days to get all that done herself so you guys should be dead chuffed!

World Homeless Day

As well as it being World Mental Health Day (and World Porridge Day) it was also World Homeless Day! So after all our sorting, the Clothes For Causes team were going to drive around Greenwich to hand out some coats to the homeless to keep them warm as the nights start to draw in. Which also highlighted how few men's coats there were in comparison to womens (probably due to women buying so many clothes to be fair!) but guys, if you're thinking about having a clear out, consider sending your unwanted coats and other clothes to your local charity shop because it could end up going to someone seriously in need :)

We said our farewells, coughed up the dust and continued our run around Greenwich since we had a little bit of time to spare, admiring the Meridian Laser and how it definitely doesn't move, ever...! Apparently you can see it as far as Cambridgeshire on a clear night! We do live in a cool place huh?

We found ourselves back at the uni, doing a few leg strength and balancing exercises to finish off the session and called it a night!

Great work last night all. Well done for getting so stuck in with the task and excellent running all round! See you next week!