Litter Picking Good!

Sweeping through the streets, nine runners covered 2.5km and cleared litter and weeds at Anerley Town Hall.

It's so lovely to be able to celebrate our runners' achievements when we meet on a Tuesday evening. Ian was back this week, wearing his t-shirt and medal from the Southampton Half-Marathon and Kerry was looking surprisingly sprightly considering she smashed the Crystal Palace Triathlon on Sunday - a gruelling test of endurance, that includes a bike section featuring nine laps up the steepest hill in the park (then twice running up), well done Kerry!

I think we all know by now, but just in case...parkrun takeover at South Norwood on May 25th. Details and sign-up here.

This week we were heading Anerley way, to the Town Hall. After a bit of a shake-out and bounce around, we followed Bradley and Louise, chatting as we went - thank you to Nicole and Kerry for back-marking tonight, keeping us together.

On arrival at the Town Hall, we were presented with a professional litter-picking kit, so quickly got busy. There is a bus-stop right outside the building and, for some reason, people drop their litter in the bushes, rather than use the bin. I had suggested that we also do some weeding, so we had the pick of the tools, with Tim quickly grabbing a hoe and getting down to it. Now Tim is a bit of a community green-fingered whirlwind, busily snapping up 'manky' borders or raised beds and giving them a new lease of life. As we picked litter he noticed a south facing fence in the car park and envisaged a future full of colour, butterflies and bees...watch this space!

With nine nifty helpers, our work was swiftly completed and we handed back the equipment (but not before giving Kerry a litter-picker guard of honour!). A short run back towards Crystal Palace Park and we found ourselves right by the rather fresh-looking dinosaurs (they are gradually being painted). As we had a little more time, we were able to 'enjoy' some circuits - press-ups, bridges, squats and so on. There was some great work from everyone, but also plenty of distraction (chatting, pretending not to know how to do stuff, photos of puppies, that sort of thing).

On Saturday, Ian and Nicole are helping at the St Christopher's Fun Walk - have fun - and next week we will make our first visit of this year up to Baxter Field to take care of their saplings, sign up here.

Have a great week!