26 brilliant runners explore parliament, Green Park, Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen of Spain!

It was a bit of a bonkers evening to be heading for a run around central London. Not only was the LSE campus buzzing with graduations, the King and Queen of Spain were on a state visit and so much of central London was blocked off. This made the usually busy rush hour areas EVEN BUSIER!

We nipped down to the river and headed along to Big Ben, sadly with a bit of scaffolding round him at the moment, but looking grand nonetheless. After a very busy cross over Parliament square, we celebrated as we reached St. James's park and a bit of space. Hooray!

A nice run around the lake led us to Buckingham Palace and a nice team photo. With that it was over the road into Green Park and a nice lap around. On coming back through Horseguard's Parade, it was clear that much of town was blocked off so run leader / not the best tour guide Katie led the group up and round, with a return stretch scooping below Covent Garden and the busy London streets.

Thanks to everyone who came along and you sure got quite a lot of London experiences in one run there!

17 ran to tackle a hedge for someone who couldn't manage it.

It was a double task day for Goodgym Chelmsford this Global running day, and we got stuck into the first task by helping the Ideas Hub to sort out a room in a nearby office ready for an event the next day. Tables were put together and chairs were moved and arranged, all after 6 flights of stairs! Great to see the return of Charlotte who is back from Uni and John who has not been for a while.

After our warm up task we set off on the run towards the main task, with a run through the high street and along the riverside path. We added an extra loop for those pushing the pace at the front and soon arrived at the hedge which had been enjoying the weather recently and was covering one window and working on the next. After retrieving the tools from the church we began chopping, lopping and clearing the hedge and surrounding vegetation to restore light to the flat. A good example of the sort of work we could do on missions for those who have been DBS checked, and something that can make so much difference to someone's quality of life.

Once the task was complete we set off back to the wooden bridge, and split into groups, one group running the three bridges and chasing group two who set off back to the hub! A great effort from both groups and we had a brief stretch in the rain!

I have posted the details of the Parkinsons event on Sunday on the facebook page here

and will add a discussion on our birthday party later today! see you this weekend or on next weeks run!