**Brrrrranching out into Wembley**

Eight hardy runners headed out on a 7-mile round trip to the 3rd Wembley Scout Group in Alperton to help cut back some trees and move assorted piles of wood to keep the place tidy and prep for the next scout bonfire.

It was great to see a mix of old and newer faces at the meeting point with a wonderful array of brightly coloured leggings and jackets and winter woolies ready to face the January cold. Happy to see Holly and April back in the new year after their first couple of sessions in 2015. Claire took on the role of run leader for the night for practice and arrived with the first aid bum bag at the ready. Ellie mentioned some potential new start points on Willesden High Street which she has been checking out so and we are looking forward to checking them out and putting it to a vote for the favourite, and after the welcome and introductions, we set off on the well-worn path to Alperton.

As usual, Jay was there to meet us and we glugged down a refreshing cup of squash, before warming up our arm muscles to move piles of wood, or carefully choosing our weapon to tackle the overgrown trees out the back. The team set to work with much hilarity and unmentionable wood-related puns abounded.

After the wood was moved from the front, the group joined Coralie and Claire who were busy sawing off some branches of an overgrown tree at the back, Dan and Chris kindly took over with the others enthusiastically shining their bike lights and torches whilst crooning along to Craig David when suddenly... Chris was am-BUSHED by a massive falling branch AAAAAH! We don't think he SAW that one coming....!

GG Brent headed back, keeping an amazing pace as everyone got into their groove again, endorphins flying! There was even enough juice (or squash...) left in our tanks to get us up out of P-Uffington Road at a sprint to the famous white van, which is always there to act as our marker. We enjoyed some nice cool down stretches in the car park and said goodbye, till next week! Well done everyone!!!