Leaf it to us, we'll get it good

Wednesday rolled around after a few sweltering days hiding from the heat. The group gathered in Greenwich for a relaxed run over to the lovely nursery pre-school More2. Before we get ahead of ourselves though, let's go over what was a really fun welcome and warm up...

Once everyone had commiserated with Claire over her fractured leg, rumours abounded over what was the cause. Was it Claire kicking me? Was it Claire running so hard and fast, that she broke the sound barrier? More likely the second if you ask me! You'll be on the mend and running super speedy again Claire, no doubt about it.

As I had planned a nautical warm up, the question of the evening as the register was taken was - "Dream location to go on a cruise or swim" we had some very fun answers and it was very revealing who preferred the swim option to the cruise! We dodged the many many many graduates who were celebrating today, and made our way over the grass in the quad to play a game of port/starboard. This is a game I played lots when I was in Brownies, and one of the reasons (maybe) that I became a run leader. The aim game was simple, to hear my instructions and do the action that accompanied it, the team ran all over the imaginary ship, swabbed the decks, climbed rigging and manned the lifeboats - while giving us a beautiful chorus of row, row, row your boat.

We did some quick dynamic stretching, allocated our back marker - thank you Marta, and headed off. Rachel and Claire walked over - that's the lovely thing about these shorter tasks, even someone on crutches can attend! The rest of the group took a lovely river path route and we were suddenly there. Eve met us and we got to work in the front and back gardens. Team front garden were clearing our the plant beds following the replacement of the fence, while the Team back garden swept with tiny rakes, watered the garden and cleared away a vine that was choking a pear tree.

The group did a wonderful job and the gardens were looking very tidy and happy again, several bags of garden waste and had been filled and the plants were quenched. The group then split into two, the superior group headed back to the college for a cheeky and challenging fitness session, while the others slunk away and missed the cherry on the top of the session - if I do say so myself.

Team superior consisted of Andy, Marta, Jenny, Minh, Matt and they took part in our very first fitness challenge. The aim was for everyone to take part in session that consisted of: 1. Run out to a point 2. 10 squats 3. Run back to me 4. 10 push ups 5. Run back out 6. 5 lunges with one leg 7. Run back 8. 5 lunges on the other leg 9. Run back 10. 5 star jumps 11. Sprint back as fast as possible

I started the stop watch and everyone did such a great effort!! Well done all, I hope you enjoyed it. The results were: Matt - 2:07, Minh - 2:30, Jenny - 2:49, Marta - 2:54, Andy - 2:59! Really impressive times guys, great form on the exercises and we'll try again in a couple of months and see if you get any quicker! We did some nice stretches, focusing on back health with some good spinal twists.

Lots of brilliant community missions coming up, and next week we'll be starting in Woolwich for our group run.