One of the features that makes London such a great city are its fabulous parks. Vicky, Regents, Greenwich, Hyde and co. are magnificent places to chill out, run, walk, picnic and people watch. However, none of them quite match the rambling wildness of Walthamstow Marshes in the Lower Lee Valley, where the intrepid GoodGym Waltham Forest crew set out for on tonight's mission.

The 3.5k run to task built the anticipation as the urban cityscape gives way to surroundings that you would usually see in the countryside, arriving at our destination, grabbing gloves, bags and litter pickers while the horses of the Lee Valley riding school looked on with inscrutable expressions.

As usual, this professional hit squad of task completing professionals made a flying start and began filling their bags with the unsightly litter that was blotting the landscape. A special welcome to new recruit Niamh and thanks to recruiting Sargent Jade for finding such a capable addition to our group.

With our work completed it was time to head back to base and we decided to split the group with one group taking the even more scenic 4k route via the Wetlands but we all eventually made it back to Mirth, Marvel and Maud for some stretching and refreshments.

Excellent work today everyone, you can sleep in the knowledge that Waltham Forest and the world in general is a better place, thanks to you.

I misinformed you all about next week's tasks when I said we were heading to Chingford Memorial Park. That beauty will be on 4th of July, but next week we will be heading to everyone's favourite community cafe The Mill for some gardening, cleaning and painting sign-up here

Peace, Ant ☮️

Ding, ding, Round Two, and out of Mirth, Marvel and Maud emerge the formidable Good Gym Waltham Forest Crew. Undoubtedly as a unit, they are a lean, mean, running and gardening machine. They won the first round last week against the weeds, sticks and empty miniature whisky bottles of St. Mary's Churchyard and today we were back for more.

After a headcount and a discussion about favourite cheeses (no less than three mozzarella fans), we hit the road and a short but sharp stomp up, up, up the hill to the task. After visiting the armoury (garage), everyone grabbed a weapon (strimmer, shears, forks, gloves, spades) and went hammer and tongs at the offending plant life. Evil nettles were felled, compost was excavated, paths were cleared, the bones of The Dread Pirate Roberts were uncovered ... okay, I made that bit up, but you get my drift. Much blood, sweat and tears were expended as the hardworking crew worked their magic.

While everyone played a hugely important part, I have to make a special mention to GoodGym Superwoman Deborah Redmond, who joined us on a day trip from Bristol. Also a warm welcome to Brave New Runner, Ayanna. Great to see both of you.

Back to the task and if anyone thought they were getting a gentle downhill jog back to the boozer, they needed to think again. Off we trotted to the splendid surroundings of Lloyd Park for an intensive full body workout session of burpees and squat jumps. Then a breathless run back to base. I'll end this part of the report with a big thanks to the Big Guy, Ramon - top back marking fella.

There is a bit more non-task related info for interested readers. We now have a GGWF WhatsApp Group, which you can join here We also have an Instagram page/account/thing?. Thanks to Clara and Ercole for setting those up.

Finally, join us again for next week's task where we will be plogging at the Walthamstow Marshes near the riding centre. Just think, running, making the world better and looking at horses. What could be better? Sign-up now

That's me done.

Peace, Ant ☮️