A Sloe Run

On a wet and rainy Wednesday anyone who looked out of the window during the day might have been put off from signing up for a run to an orchard but 11 hardcore Portsmouth GoodGymers still made it out and actually managed to stay mostly dry... except for our feet. The task owner, Hilary, had even sent an email earlier in the day to see whether we would still be coming. When have we ever let a bit of water stop us?!

In case you missed it, in our news round up before our run we celebrated the fact that we are the proud winners in THREE categories in the GoodGym Nationwide Olympic 1km. Best photo (our team pyramid), best strava art (Maxine) and fastest female (Jo). Impressive stuff team, well done. The report is here if you want to read it.

We welcomed Charlotte back to her first group run in a while and heard all about her coach runs which are going well - she had been spotted by a few fellow GGers heading out for a run on a Monday with a magazine in hand!

We took a scenic route to the orchards via Tamworth Park - another lovely green bit of the Baffins area of the city.

Once we got to the task we were amazed to see how much fruit was on the trees. "Nice plums" and "a fine pear" were mentioned at least once. The apples were small but tasty... Our main task was freeing trees from bindweed and plastic supports so they can continue to thrive but a sub-task was formed a little later after Judy showed her knowledge of how to make sloe gin and what long drinks to make with it. Rosie and Judy then picked a bag full of sloes so Rosie can make sloe gin for her wedding, what a fab idea. Hilary is very keen for us to pick the fruit and use it so when we head back there next week don't forget your bags / boxes. And if anyone knows of a non-alcoholic use for sloes, feel free to comment below!

In amongst the hawthorns at the other end of the orchard there was chat about dating, ice cream and the upcoming trip to Bath where the GG Portsmouth relay team will do 50km between them - run strong Rosie, Jo, Angela, Maxine & Rachel!

After we'd cleared round some of the many trees it was quickly time to pack up and help Hilary take all the bags, buckets and equipment back to the BPA site and then try out the new outdoor gym equipment right next door. Much laughing and some impressive sit ups from Charlotte, cross training from Maura and some great leg ups from Vicki, Tony & Maxine.

Next week we do it all again but hopefully with a bit of sunshine this time! See you then - have a good week.