My punny Valentine

No chocolate, candlelit suppers, or even nice warm dry feet for the amazing Hounslow gang last night. Instead 7 remarkable GGers ran 6k through the wind and rain to do a good deed in their local community.

We started off the night with well dones and Valentine's biscuits. Andy had tackled a tasty long run with the GG crew at the weekend - there will be more of these and they're a great way to get those bigger distances under your belt. Details of the next one, which is Croydon to Greenwich via Bromley and Lewisham can be found here. They are run at varying paces so there's something for everyone.

Despite the squalling weather, we forced ourselves outside and after a few exercises designed to get our heart rates up including a couple that tested our coordination(!), we asked ourselves who would be the historical figure we'd choose to be our Valentine. Florence Nightingale (because she's clean....apparently), Rutherford B. Hayes (hottest US president...apparently) and Elizabeth I were all the lucky recipients of our metaphorical red roses.

Twenty minutes later we arrived at Friends of Cathja's charity shop, a place we had been to on a number of occasions which supports people with enduring mental health issues, to find Bruce the Dog as our welcoming committee.

Following instructions from Rin, the manager, we got stuck into sorting boxes of VHS, clothes, shoes and electrics in the back room. After half an hour of work we had made some headway, so, before Andy could unwittingly antagonize Bruce any further, we headed back outside for our even wetter run home. There was a moment, as we stood waiting for the lights to change, that we were dripping from our heads to our toes and we couldn't have been wetter- but what better way to spend Valentine's Day?

That didn't stop us sacking off the fitness session in favour of getting dry, but we'll definitely make up for that next week in a delayed session that will still be all about the love.

Well done team for all your efforts last night, for showing the community some love, and for generally being ace.