What a glorious evening!

10 runners met in the dusk sunshine at the top of the very busy Peckham Rye to run a short run to get our hands dirty at Cossall Park.

After a warm up with a variety of different jumps whilst giving a mini intro, we set off in a totally different direction to Cossall Park to help the lovely Jaki and Allen. They manage the community grow beds which are built into the local park, engaging school children, scouts and local residents in outdoor activity and growing veg and plants. They also look after nearby Kirkwood Nature Reserve which they reclaimed which was an overgrown den used as a sharps dumping ground and a dog toilet.

It was lovely to see what they've been up to and we got set to work weeding in 3 areas with some wonderful gardening tools. With the radio playing, local kids playing near and a beautiful sunset to boot, we made light work of the weeding despite finding lots of hidden mini potatoes and lots of impressively long worms.

Jaki was pretty pleased with how much we had gotten through and had the orange squash ready for us once we'd finished. Deepak had to be torn away from turning earth so we may have to revisit or continue the gardening run (ha) this spring. Matt also had his nettle cuttings ready to brave making nettle risotto - we have a very practical group here in Southwark!

We said our goodbyes to the lovely couple but not yet to the park... when we arrived, it was clear that the play area could been used for a bit of fun so Jo set up a mini obstacle ... plank, sideways bear crawls, squats on the most unstable platform and a run through the rope gauntlet. The squats were pretty tricky but everyone survived (don't panic headoffice!) and finished by hanging off another implement and realising how difficult chin ups were.

Warmed up and a bit sweaty from the obstacle, we ran the short distance home at a quick pace, fuelled by squash and sunshine. If that's not a perfect Wednesday evening...

6 runners run 6.6km in 40minutes crossing the borough to work at the nature reserve.

For what will be the last time before the summer, we ran the route of many traffic lights and busy roads up to Galleywall Nature Reserve to see Alan.

There is no greater joy than running on a beautiful, dry evening with a load of other people enjoying the dusk.

The last time we were there, some of us were levelling out an area to prepare for new bike racks which we were pleased to discover are now in place! Not only this, but the benches we had half built were waiting to be completed. Half the group set to work to finish these off and managed an almost sturdy bench by the end. No mention of any drill bits or novice handy work needed, they're for children anyway!

The rest of us picked rubbish, spread bark over new pathways and created a wheelchair / buggy ramp over an overflow pipe. And we didn't need the lights until the last 10 minutes. Did I mention I love it when the clocks go forward?

After lots of thank yous all round, as it was galleywall, we skipped to warm up. Our GG schoolteacher informed us that skipping is no longer as prevalent in the playground now as it was in the 90's. Shame. A sprint race and some ambitious pacing and we were practically back at Old Spike for a stretch and reminder of GoodGym Drinks next Thursday.

With regular Camden trainer Paul “PB” Bown off performing in Les Mis (that’s right, isn’t it?) , Simon from Islington popped over to say hello tonight.

It was a quick getaway for the first group of Camdenites who were ably led by Becky and Pritesh to go and help make some beds at the homeless shelter in Goodge Street (as in sheets, not constructing the frames or anything).

For the last time this winter we headed to the American International Church to help Stephanie make beds for the homeless. In total only four beds needed to be made, testament to the work that the churches have done to help re-home those that have needed their help over the winter. With only a few beds needing to be made we also helped set the dinner table for that evening. This gave us a chance to show off our napkin origami with Becky being particularly skilled at making mice! Hidden talents everywhere! With that done we said our final goodbyes to Stephanie who is heading back to the USA and then headed off to join the group at the foodbank!

The rest of us – including first timer Nathan - had a little more time on our hands and did a nice warm up including a quick go at a couple of Running A- and B-drills before putting our new technical skills into practice with a few speedy strides.

Polly led us over to Chalk Farm foodbank where we were met by the lovely Adrienne who explained that our job for the evening was to collect crates of grub and affix different coloured stickers to each item of food according to its expiry year. There seemed to be a lot of cereal and breakfast food (or maybe I’m just saying that cos it makes the run report title easier). I don’t think any of us realised how tough it is to find the best before date on a lot of these packages. But we managed it and got through the whole lot. We were helped by the bed makers who finished their first task super speedily and joined us not long after the first group arrived.

Before hitting the streets for the journey home we took advantage of the carpeted floor and did a bit of core work. There were supermans, press ups, burpees, calf raises, split squats and a little bit of core-dination at the end.

For the trip back we split into two groups with Pritesh and Becky taking a longer route via recycling bins to drop off a few bits and pieces and Simon and Polly taking a more direct route and playing a little game of secret surges.

As we had a nice stretch back at the centre the new Camden “Top Tip of the Week” feature was introduced. This week the advice was to not waste money on expensive protein shakes. A blend of 500ml of milk, 50 grams of skimmed milk powder and 50 grams of milkshake powder will provide a nutritionally equivalent supplement for about a fifth of the price.

See you at some point in April, Camden. A pleasure as always :)

Simon