Our GOAL tonight, as ever, was to be Good(Gym) Samaritans and we definitely SCORED!

With a pun in place, we thought we knew the score and then "Stop the Press!" a belter from Samia means "they think it's all over...it is now" (thanks Nicola for the commentary)

Here it is...

"One Giza of a run leader challenged 10 Good(Gym) Samaritans to keepy-uppy with his Russia-ing around. Result: we scored a hat trick of tasks in one."

Football did not keep us away from our task tonight! Well done Kingston GoodGym for completing another successful challenge.

The runners included many returning runners as well as GG Richmond runners and new runner Luke – welcome! He came well prepared with a tool of his own to help with the scraping and weeding.

After our quick warm up and stretch of various running muscles, we were ready to set off to tackle the bulk of our 4.6 km run of the evening. Enjoying the riverfront views, we dribbled through pedestrians to make our way through to Surbiton. The slow incline of Surbiton Hill was met with great perseverance and minimal passing! Samia made sure no one was left behind tonight as our backmarker – thank you!

Jumping into Tuesdays like....#kingston #goodgym #running #volunteering pic.twitter.com/EsH7nMqDhO

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) June 19, 2018

Helen, the branch director of Kingston Samaritans warmly welcomed us all with glasses of water to pass around. We found out about the amazing work that the Samaritans do and how all of it is done by volunteers. These Samaritans help to support the people of Kingston when they need someone to talk to or they are going through a difficult time in their life. Thank you Helen and your team for the incredible work that you do to give people the boost they need.

We were supplied with buckets, cloths, brooms and a scraper to remove weeds. We quickly set to work on the various tasks set for us – some inside to clean out some cupboards, others outside the front windows washing the paintwork and more scraping out and sweeping away the weeds from their paving stones. A couple of the guys even went to great heights on the ladder to make sure the sign at the entrance was clean and shiny. In the meantime, the rest of our team took on the challenge of keepy-uppys putting the Samaritans balloon to good use.

GoodGym Kingston have a head for heights as we reached up to help the Smaritans. #kingston #goodgym #worldcup #football #keepyuppy #smaritans @samaritan @samskingston pic.twitter.com/cO8UYvEC03

— GoodGym Kingston-upon-Thames (@GoodGymKingston) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoodGymKingston/status/1009195155512004608?refsrc=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2018

The run back was a quick one and was followed by some thorough stretching out of muscles. Thanks Mark for the cool down on the grass outside the Guildhall and always making it purposeful.

Tonight when we discussed the news, Nicky shared stories of running through Bushy Park on the weekend and dodging deer in labour!

Well done everyone, managed to squeeze a bit of a footy theme in, in keeping with current sporting affairs. Perhaps we should try a tennis pun next week - let's see what we can serve up! Talking of next week, just a reminder you have the awesome Beth Nelson as Run Leader next week. I look forward to hearing how you all get on at the allotments - have fun!