Normally we wouldn't be caught dead...lifting in the cemetery but we were on the graveyard shift

Like a bat out of help we flew up Church Road. The moon was shining, our breath puffing frosty clouds in the cold air, and a bat flitted persistently round Judi's face; like the dark horses of the apocalypse, 16 ghoulish runners charged towards Richmond cemetery for a decidedly spooky Halloween task.

The runners, all warmed up now, starting on their task of building log habitats and clearing the ivy from the century old grave stones. The task was for Richmond Council with the help of task owner Steve who vowed that if this wasn't the scariest task we had done ..what the "hell" have we been up to. We got more than we bargained for with a lot of dead lifts in the graveyard, and a toad in a hole to boot!

Our mission was to bring life to the graveyard . Alas, not the goulish kind, but more wildlife to join the foxes and badgers.

Our spines shivered as the sound of dragging wood joined the ominous creaking of tree boughs high above our heads. Mark claimed the noise came from beetles but we were unconvinced as recollections of the Blair Witch victims seeped underline into our consciousness...

Then hold your breathe out popped a Toad. Yes a real life living toad and Goodgym suddenly sprang into some Autumn Watch action with Steve our nature and cemetery guru. Safely rehomed, Terry the toad hopped off happily and we were back to work! Watch this space for the video!

Amid raking and scraping, paths were cleared and insect home construction was quickly completed.

We made our way back to central Richmond following each other's flashing tails and sparkly masks. Victoria got distracted pointing out David Attenborough and Tom hardy 's house as resident back runner and sprained her ankle. Spurred on by the distant twinkle of Jane's devil tail we made it back to wholefoods.

A quick change and then we all needed watering and feeding so we headed to the (pumpkin) Orange Tree pub and we relished in the fantastic task we had just accomplished and how we turned a few heads in Richmond town. There were plenty of spirits in the graveyard and even more in the pub.

What a TOADally awesome task! Check out the video below

@GGRichmon We put the toad back in the hole this Halloween and had a toadally awesome time @LBRUT pic.twitter.com/ATYqO4SVao

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) November 1, 2017

Well done to all runners for collaboratively writing this run report tonight, great work!

A big welcome and congratulations to Laura and Rosie on their first run tonight . A big well done Jill on her second run.

Congratulations to Katie for running the Dublin marathon yesterday and good luck to Natalie for her half marathon this weekend.

As Richmond GoodGym continues to grow we need to build our taskforce, we already have a fantastic team in place but we now need to take on more people to share the load. The aim of the Taskforce is to support me to provide a great experience for runners and to give the opportunity for runners to be more directly involved in making GoodGym a success in their area. Please let me know if you are interested in supporting GoodGym in any of the roles listed below:

1. Promoting the Group Runs and other events through Twitter.

2. Taking photo's, where appropriate, and co-ordinating who writes run report, and helping with on the night task coordination.

3. Co-ordinating the organisation of any additional social events (parties) and listing them on the website.

4. Keeping the trainer informed about upcoming races, social events and training runs.

5. Ensuring runs are effectively back-marked.

6. Helping ensure that all newcomers are welcomed.

In order to be a taskforce member you need to have completed 5 or more GoodGym group runs. Depending on which role you undertake there may be training invovled. Let me know if you are interested.