Tales From The Crypt

We were venturing out of E17 on last night's run. With just three sign-ups, I was a little worried we would be rocking up at the glorious St John's Church in Leytonstone with too few people to tackle the invading army of weeds and overgrown shrubs. I need not have worried and even my guilt trip WhatsApp message was not needed as the cavalry was already warming up ready for the charge. In the end, we hit double figures with a perfect ten beautiful people ready to run at 6:45 from MM&M.

After a brief discourse on the task ahead and a chat about embarrassing emails mistakes, we were on the road. I decided to take the scenic route on this 2.5-mile run, but as I had no idea where I was going, I hooked up GMap to my headphones and received instructions every few yards to turn right, turn left blah, blah, blah. It felt like we were hunting a Minotaur and just when I was starting to get dizzy, there we found ourselves in the tranquil surroundings of St John's.

There to meet us was the lovely Maureen fresh from The Time Is Now London march. Objective? To gently try and tell our political class that we are systematically destroying the only known habitable place in The Universe! Well done Maureen.

The next step was to get tooled up, which meant venturing below decks in this ancient church. Okay, it wasn't the crypt, it was far scarier! Hidden away in a long forgotten corner and behind wrought iron gates was a dusty room full of numerous sharp objects! I'm talking shears, secateurs, loppers etc.

Following our excursion to this hidden chamber, we emerged blinking into the sunlight. At which point we proceeded to weed, cut, sweep and bag all the various green bits and pieces that had popped up between paving stones and through railings all around this lovely churchyard.

Many bags were filled but with the clock ticking it was time to down tools and get back on the jog and eventually back to base.

Great job, folks. Hopefully, see you again next week when we will be heading to Willow Brook Primary School