An "easy" 4km??? I smell a rat!

‘It’s going to be an easy 4K,’ he said, ‘so I’ll throw in a few little extras to keep it interesting.’ Hmmm. Even though our personal tigger had lost his bounce to an onset of pre-holiday man-flu, he still had his sense of humour. So after the briefing, Mark led his troupe of ladies (yes, still no men in Richmond, where have you all gone?!) down to Richmond Green for a warm-up. He had us skipping, contorting, leaping and lunging, and even at one point doing a passable impersonation of Morecambe & Wise. With these entertainment skills, you’ll see us on Britain’s Got Talent before long. After a few final sprints, he finally released us for a gentle run to our task with Mencap in Richmond.

It’s the first time we’ve worked with Mencap so it was good to get a lowdown on the work they do for people with learning disabilities, providing social opportunities, advice and support for both them and their families, and also campaigning on their behalf. They have a little garden behind their office on Richmond Road which had become home to a lot of weeds, some vigorously growing mint and an unwelcome rat. We were there for the weeds, clearing the space so that a couple of their clients could work some green-fingered magic to create a little garden haven. But about this rat…

‘We haven’t seen the rat for two weeks,’ Teresa said confidently. ‘We’re pretty sure it’s gone.’ Well, in spite of this assurance, we were all very diligent about wearing our gardening gloves; no freestyle rooting around in the mud for us with Mr Ratty out there somewhere. And, indeed, we weren’t long into the task before Claire let out a scream worthy of a Hammer Horror as our resident rat headed for the hills (well, the shed) having been very nearly stomped on by our small army of GoodGymers. Nothing like a bit of drama to keep things lively.

After that, we cleared the decks in no time at all, even taking a teeny tiny saw to the task of felling a small tree that had taken root. Lumberjacks we’re not, but we cheered with (possibly disproportionate) excitement when Jane took the tree down and were gratified to hear some local residents also cheering us on from their flat window.

After all this, we still had some good to do delivering leaflets promoting a fundraising cycling challenge (Ride40 Minutes) for Street Invest, a charity that works to support children living on the streets all over the world.

It was a night of double do-gooding, tree-wrestling and rat-braving. For our first-time runners, Hayley and Natalie, welcome to the bonkers but brilliant world of GoodGym Richmond . For Susan, who came back for more after surviving the three-peak challenge two weeks ago on her first ever GoodGym run, good to have you back. For all those sporting injuries, from knees to bums to hard to describe places, well done for pushing on through. For Mark **and Jane**, fighting off unseasonal flus and colds, top marks for barely even grimacing. What a team you are, GoodGym Richmond.

Additional news...For those wanting to try cross country running, GoodGym Race Team have paired up with the Metropolitan Cross Country League to find out more and how you can be a part of take a look here

And for the record, despite the Run Trainer's news tonight regarding poor health, thank you all for making me feel better on a Monday night