Lost in Barnes, but not a lost cause

If Mr Bean came to GoodGym, I imagine it might go something like this… A team of 15 runners head out into the darkening evening, gradually spreading out along the road, a bobbing red shirt in the distance ahead and behind. At some point, the front runners slip out of sight and the back markers take a right-hand turn. Eventually, the rest of the group stop and huddle. ‘Do you know where we’re going?’ someone asks. Ehmmmm…nope. (That’ll teach us for not looking at the map and being late for briefing.)

Well, thank GPS for satellite navigation! We follow the blue dot on Clare’s phone via two level crossings, going from the wrong side of one set of train tracks to the wrong side of another set, after the route we are following in between the tracks thwarts us with some large and resolutely locked gates. One large loop around the block later adds an extra kilometre to our scheduled run of 8.4k. Just what Samia needs as she tapers down in preparation for the Ealing Half Marathon at the weekend.

Eventually we reach our destination Barnes Primary School , with its soapy buckets, brushes and dusty bike sheds patiently awaiting our arrival, and a slightly anxious Mark pacing outside wondering where we had all gone. All’s well that ends well, we think to ourselves.

There aren’t quite enough rags and brushes to go around, but there is plenty of entertainment to be had watching Mahmoud hose down one set of bike sheds and Andy chuck buckets of soapy water over the top of another with Jenna vigorously polishing behind them.

Mark finally orders us to down tools and line up for a school photo. He’s careful to give us directions back and promises to bring up the rear after locking up the gate. Somehow, we still manage to lose him on the route back and when we eventually congregate back at our Wholefoods base, some of us a tad wearier than others, we are perplexed to find two of our runners still missing. Just as we resolve to send out a search party, we are relieved to see them jogging towards us. Hmmm. Seems we left them behind at school. Someone should really get detention for that.

Lessons learned on this school trip – always check where we’re going and always do a headcount.

Big shout out to the runners of the Kew 10k last weekend screeching in just under and slightly over an hour, having passed two 60-minute pace setters (that was confusing) – we all agreed it was one of the best 10k routes we had run. Good luck to Samia this weekend for the Ealing half. And kudos to Andy from GGHounslow who is on target to claim the scalp of his 50 good deeds on Wednesday.

Finally well done to Mahmoud, Anita, Natalie and Helen (who already has a story to tell of a Barnes lock in) on your second run with GoodGym.