Digging for Vic-tree

With so many of our lovely runners recovering from a colossal weekend of racing - in York, Shoreditch, the Royal Parks, Tough Mudder and the Surrey Leagues - we were a little smaller group than usual, but no less mighty!

First things first, we gave a huge cheer to our racing heroes - congratulations to Helen, Emily, John, Emma B, Ros and Beth, plus all the others that got out there and hit the roads this weekend.

Don't forget our Tooting Parkrun takeover on the 17th November, sign up here to get involved!

Treesy does it

It was our last week (for now) at Christchurch primary school. We've been going down there to help out with their new amazing learning garden, a project which has been brought to life by Sue and her volunteers who have raised money and worked hard to make a community and learning space for the children. It's going to be incredible, with hives, activity areas, growing spaces and much more. Next week they are having the area levelled so needed everything cleared before then.

So, after a nice speedy run down there, we were met by ever-cheerful Barry who had stayed late to let us in, and help us with the jobs. Thanks Barry! With a series of helpful instructions set out around the garden, we divided up into groups of three and took a tree each. While some came out easy as apple pie, others took a little more persuasion and proved to be a very good upper body work out! We wrapped them up in their winter blankets, tied them up with skipping ropes and moved them over to the exotically-named perfume garden.

We then moved on to the next big challenge of the evening - dismantling the polytunnel in the middle of the garden. Armed with screwdrivers, spanners and some sheer grit, the team got the structure down amid cheers from the others. Nice work! Meanwhile, other jobs included sweeping leaves, clearing tyres and tidying up.

With that, with didn't have much time left for our fitness session, but after waving goodbye to Barry we nipped round the corner for a quick sprint session focussing on pacing, and then our weekly plank minute. After that there was just the last run home and that hill.

New task alert! Next week we're off to an estate in Battersea to help them plant loads of new bulbs to cheer up the area for Spring. Sign up here to help make a difference in the community!