🌞 28 lovely people gathered at the end of a warm day for tonight's group run. We were thrilled to see Andy for the first time in a while 👋 We cheered everyone who ran the Fountains 10k yesterday, especially Claire who came first in her age category in her very first race - incredible 🏆 Already warm, we warmed up further before running/walking the short distance to Southlands Church⛪

🌿 We were there to continue the work that we started a few weeks ago, including weeding paths and beds and untangling bind-weed. Steve Rice worked so hard that he broke the (possibly antique) fork that he was using. Meanwhile, Kit and Michael were working equally hard removing a sadly-collapsed tree and replacing it with another 🌳

🐈 Lots more people were working very hard around the side and back of the church, unhelpfully impeded by the little tabby cat (pictured) who decided to do (both types) of its business in the flower beds. (Sorry for the over-share, and the terrible pun.) Anyway, in positive news, we (hopefully) managed to stop the cat eating the dragonfly it was trying to hunt, without the use of the extra-long watering hose 🐲 (Turns out there's no dragonfly emoji so a dragon will have to do)

📸 In no time at all, it was time to stop and spend an appropriately long amount of time "organising" (faffing about) the group photo. And we still didn't manage to get everyone looking the same way but never mind!

💪 We headed to Scarcroft playing fields for our relay-based fitness session. Again, time was spent clarifying the direction we should all be facing. But once we got that, away we went! We all got the chance to plank, squat and lunge, and then we did it twice more, just to make sure that every team was following the rules correctly.

⌚ After that, it was time to head back to base for our cool-down stretches and to hear about what's going on this week. And then it was time for the pub, a perfect way to end the evening 🍻

A small but mighty crew headed down to the riverside this evening to tackle a familiar invasive foe: Himalayan balsam.

After a run or cycle to the task location, we split up along the riverbank and got stuck into pulling up the plants before they have a chance to spread their seeds. The recent weather had left the ground soft, making it satisfying work as roots and all came free with a gentle tug.

Working our way along the path, we soon created impressive piles of balsam and opened up space for native plants to thrive.

With plenty of plants removed and the area looking noticeably clearer, we gathered for a group photo before heading to the memorial gardens for fitness, feeling pleased with another practical contribution to keeping our local green spaces in great shape.

Tonight we did some exercises around the circle then froze into different positions. It was then back to base for a stretch out.

We also congratulated all the impressive runners who completed races and relays over the weekend, cheered Mitch for doing his 600th deed and Neil his 100th, and welcomed Yashodh and Nada to their first group run.

Great effort from everyone involved!