Quay-ing up appearances!!! (Subtitle: At bal-oody-last, my chance to shine!)

It was not an auspicious start to leading my first run. At 6:40, a piece of tumbleweed might have rolled along College Way as no-one had arrived. I nearly phoned Sarah in a panic, but thankfully Isabella and Nick appeared. Phew. And then little by little the others sauntered in. Clearly, without the crack of Sarah's whip, people were taking a far too relaxed approach to tonight's run. (Hmm. Payback would be mine.)

Also, it was evident some of our returning GG Olympians were still hungover from celebrating their stellar exploits on Saturday. In tribute to their efforts, we had painted some of the post boxes in Greenwich red.

Nifty Fifty Nina!!!

Nina gave the group a short revue - from what she could remember - of the Olympics. It was also Nina's 50th good deed as well. Nina is a triple threat - she does group runs/missions and coach runs. I first met Nina on a mission so you can imagine how thrilled I was when she started coming to the Greenwich group run ;-)

We welcomed newcomers Haley - who was new to the Greenwich grouprun but had previous run once with GoodGym before - and Max, Amy's younger brother. (Not sure how excited Max was about being dragged along to run on a baking hot evening, but he bore it well.) Give them both a cheer.

Last week, we met Nina's mum and that was pretty special. But this week Mridula's dad joined us!!! And it seems the sense of humour runs in the family. (Give him a cheer here.) BK was quick to make a dig about the England cricket team as well. Ouch.

Moving forward I think Mridula and Nina should be accompanied by a responsible adult at all future runs. It does seem to keep them more in check and raise their normal conversational chat out of the gutter.

Next week...Mrs Murtough??? Who knows?

Clipboard in hand. I did the intro. Tonight's task explained. Tick. Verbal disclaimer. Tick. Potential risks identified. Tick. So pleased with myself for getting through it I sprung off to do the bag drop, others reminded me, on the way, that I had forgotten to do the 'Name. Number. Favourite...' - already breaking a Greenwich tradition. Oops. Thankfully, we got back on track and went through it at the warm-up. I asked the group what their favourite Olympic event was (summer or winter). Events mentioned included the keirin, the hammer and the three-legged race - look out for that one in Tokyo!

Unlike Sarah - and more like Donald Trump - I like to divide and rule so I added a few games to the warm-up to get the competitive juices going. First, we played a game where I'd call out a number and people would quickly have to organise themselves into groups of that number. Individuals without a group had to drop down and do three burpees. School flashbacks to being picked last for some.

Then we played 'Race to the Ball' - we split into four teams, and in their respective teams people numbered themselves 1- 5. I called out dynamic movements such as high knees, butt kicks and then would shout out a number and individuals had to race to grab the ball in the middle.

Admittedly I might not have completely risk assessed this game as four people hurtling towards a ball could end with some bruised heads. (Photos look good though). Christian managed to defeat his opponents by the mere power of thought alone. Both Matt G and Nina lost their footing and fell to the floor. (Although I think Nina fell in sympathy with Matt G.)

Juices flowing, we took a short run around the Old Royal Navy College (ORNC) and stopped for the group photo op at the Royal Gates. Everyone looked a bit sad in the first photo as, by now, they were really missing Sarah. But their powers of recovery are amazing and with the promise of seeing a dog at the task everyone's spirit was lifted. #Fickle bunch!!!

Now, I don't do hands in air in photos. This is one tradition I didn't carry over from Sarah. Instead, we played air-musical instruments, especially fitting as ORNC houses Trinity School of Music, and odd sounds can often be heard crashing through the windows.

In no time at all, we were at Ballast Quay and met by Diane and Tom the dog. Yay! Ballast Quay Gardens are part of the Open Garden Square Event happening this weekend, so we there to give the gardens a bit of a tidy-up and do some flyering for the event as well.

Gardening is hard physical work but we somehow found some time to bask in the sun by the river while the other group were busy flyering. Ha ha.

Nick, Dom and Nina gave the gate and railings a lick of black paint to give them a lift in advance of the weekend. I couldn't but think Dom's artistic skills were being underutilized in the task, especially after his flag making heroics. Matt, Dave, Isabella, BK and Mridula were mixing water and tomato-grow to give all the flowers pots a little extra boost. (Note to self: Try adding a bit of tomato grow to my water). Haley, Lee and Dom T were on sweeping duty, fully utilizing all of Dom T's skillset.

Alex led a team of flyerers(!?) in the local area and managed to find a letterbox for every flyer. Amazing job considering there were hundred and hundreds of flyers! You all must have covered quite a bit of distance.

Reunited. We run back to base along the river to do the fitness session. Now, I don’t know much about running but I do know a lot about cards, so I brought along my giant playing cards.

I introduced a card game called 'Horse Racing'. Everyone had to back a suit i.e. Clubs, Diamond, Hearts, Spades etc. My glamorous (austerity) assistant Alex ‘luscious legs’ Murtough turned over the cards and tried to look pretty doing so (and failed). In short, if a card with your suit was revealed you could advance forwards and were spared, unlike the other suits, from doing a 45 seconds exercise such as squats, press-ups, jumping jacks, plank etc.

Unlucky in cards, lucky in...

Unknown to everyone (well actually known to everyone as we were laughing about) Alex and I had fixed the game so there would be no run away horse, and absolutely no chance hearts was ever going to win. Ha ha.

Thanks for turning up everyone. Rest easy, normal service will be resumed next week when Sarah will be back.

Amy, congrats on finishing your exams and enjoy your holiday. Max, hope to see you again, especially if you are planning to sofa-surf at your sisters.

Nina have a nice holiday and we will have a belated 50th celebration when you are back.