This Thursday, Harvey and Maria joined Achilles for their usual run around Hyde Park. It was a very hot day, so not many runners attended. Only seven brave runners turned up despite the challenging conditions. Initially, Mark was a little worried that there would not be enough guides for all the runners. In the end, some of us had to guide the faster runners, which was quite a challenge for me. Maria ran with Brandon, who was very positive about my endurance. It was not easy to maintain a pace of under 6 minutes per kilometre for a 10 km run in temperatures exceeding 28°C, but I did not let him down. I also ran with Mark and Alinnette, who helped keep a steady pace for the group. It was a very enjoyable and chatty 10 km run, and the time passed quickly thanks to the great company. By the end, even one of the faster runners, Naqi, was envious of our lively group and wanted to join us, although he was a bit too fast for our pace. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and both Maria and Harvey are already looking forward to the next Achilles run.

If anyone tells me that burdock removal tasks throughout the summer can ever get boring, I'll ask them to think twice! Last Tuesday evening's session started like an action film, with three runners: Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash, galloping at race pace and adding an extra kilometre and a half to retrieve a mission-critical item for the evening: the tool store keys that Kash had forgotten at home. What this extreme heat does to our brains!

Fortunately, the legs coped better with the heat than some of the brains. The racing trio arrived only two minutes late, while cyclists Amy and Scott and walkers Yonas, Harvey and Richard were already waiting at the task. The action-film atmosphere continued as Kash navigated the site's complicated security system and finally liberated the tools.

Eight GoodGymers grabbed a pair of wheelbarrows, a couple of spades and a collection of loppers, then set off to face all the burdock in Elthorne Park they hadn't tackled at last month's session and which had had time to grow. Many of the plants had already started producing sticky burrs. Amy and Kash, with hair a bit longer than the rest of the group, could testify to that.

"Actually, those burrs don't stick to my hair. It's my hair that sticks to them." – Amy.

Hitching a ride in people's hair and clothes or dogs' fur is burdock's prime strategy for travelling long distances and colonising new territory. And that's not its only trick. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds, allowing it to spread rapidly and outcompete surrounding plants for sunlight, water and nutrients. That's why GoodGymers regularly visit Elthorne Park in the summer to keep its expansion in check.

This time, the ranger asked us to focus on the outliers - not the dense patches where burdock was already established, but the lone plants and small clusters threatening to spread across the fields and along the paths.

After clearing the path on the way to the main burdock patch, the team spread into smaller groups across the large field, venturing almost as far as the Bambi statue. Everyone did a tremendous job, greatly reducing the spread of burdock across the park. A special thanks goes to Yonas and Scott, who tirelessly wheelbarrowed the cut plants to a pile away from the main visitor routes.

It was Scott's very first GoodGym session, but you'd never have guessed it - he tackled burdock like a seasoned pro. Well done, Scott, and welcome to GoodGym! We're hoping to see you again soon.

After another successful evening keeping Elthorne Park's burdock under control, we're already looking ahead to the next adventures. This weekend we'll be back in Hanwell helping HANGOT maintain their community fruit orchards, and next Tuesday Sevan will lead us to Perivale to support Impact Theatre by sanding walls ahead of painting. We are hoping to see you there!