Of GRAVE concern

*Dig deep Richard, welcome back for your second GoodGym run where we have a resurrection at the sequel to our Halloween graveyard shift. *

We headed along the high street and turned left up Richmond Hill, dodging the Monday night locals as usual. At the top of the hill we got stuck into a drill relay in pairs, consisting of incline press ups, lunges, tricep dips and squats between running back and forth to our partners, in what must have looked like we were doing some strange cricket runs. All we could think of is how scenic the top of the hill will look in about a month’s time when the clocks go forward. What does the Thames look like again?

After the drills we set off again downhill on Queens Road, before taking a right towards Old Richmond Cemetery, where we were greeted by the lovely Steve, Adrian, and my resurrected water bottle from our last visit at Halloween!

Steve briefed us on our task, and carefully squeezed a tale of fright that may have sent a lighthearted volunteer running but this was a grave affair and GG runners are not put off so easily.

We got into groups to start work on clearing the ivy and brambles off gravestones (AKA tug of war practice for our upcoming contest). Steve explained that this part of the cemetery was likely to have been closed off back in the 1930s era, so to say the ivy was overgrown would have been a huge understatement; making each stone we cleared quite a revelation of age and history. It soon turned into a game of ‘find-the-oldest-grave’, and the winner was Amy, with a winning year of 1878! Wow!

After some impressive de-brambling, we uncovered some unexpected gravestones (Hi Frances) and a couple of decorative snails who were taken to safety nearby. Sadly no sign of our toad friend from our last visit :( or the badgers and foxes that had been sighted earlier (we will see you next time guys!) This project within the Richmond Borough is likely to take some time due to the amount of wildlife and overgrown trees etc that have taken root over the years. So it is awesome to get the chance to not only uncover some history but help make it within our community.

Time was soon up, and Steve showed us the area we worked on last time and it was great to see the progress made since then. Thank you Adrian and Steve , look forward to seeing you again soon. And it was now time for our run back. We rejoined Queens Road and took a left down Sheen Road where Mark asked us to try Fartlek running where we ran extra fast between every other lamp post on the long stretch back towards Wholefoods.

Great run tonight everyone! Welcome back to Amy and Rosie, and a big well done to Victoria and Jane for completing the Big Half yesterday - cracking effort! Hope to see you next week with your medals.

P.S Looks like we are now in training for Tug of War in June - bring it on Twickenham.

More news...GG Kingston is happening so start telling your Kingston friends and let Mark know if you have any contacts in that area that could be potential tasks.