Well, that was a bit of a corking session last night. A(nother) new task, mixing up our routes and spreading good deeds through the community. Numbers picking up again, with several returning post-holiday and some post-injury...plus Rosie representing for the first timers. Big G joining the half century club and an ace turnout for the the social - quality stuff.

Before we trotted easterly down the verdant Greenway, we did our Random Weekly Question, courtesy of James this week. "Who's your least favourite Briton?" You might argue a little on the dour side, but I would argue quite funny. We had a bunch of Jeremys, Clarkson, Hunt and the patronising one, Kyle. Political disdain came in hard and fast, Rees-Mogg, May, Farage, Gove, Cameron (there's almost a trend here). Celeb culture didn't escape your wrath either, Towie, Scouse Wives, Piers Morgan and Katie Hopkins got a wee jab too. We then self-righteously danced the aerobic two-step into the distance. Safe in the knowledge that we ain't as a bad as the aforementioned.

Claire received us at the dementia centre, prepped with tools and instructions. Planting some Geraniums, digging up a bed to plant pumpkins and courgettes and a good dose of weeding. We stayed for roughly 40mins and made quite a visible impact. Look forward to seeing how the plants and veggies progress, maybe Mel could send a pictorial update as they grow? I'm sure the dementia centre residents will be hugely appreciative, hopefully the new life in their gardens will, as studies suggest, boost mental wellbeing and more.

We ran back for our social at Roof East. To celebrate Graham's 50th (it also happened to be social night). Graham aka GGN Social Sec has been a gregarious rock since he joined. Inspiring many through the cold patches. Bowling up in shorts and a t-shirt, even when a blizzard is tearing through the capital, -15c real feel, the man is made of 'other stuff'. Been a joy to witness your 50, it's flown by.

Sign up here for next week's task. Cody Dock's calming surroundings await us.

See you beauts then

Last night 21 runners ran 3km to Cranbrook Community Centre to shift dirt, lay compost and clear fallen leaves and rubbish.

A big cheer for our 5 new runners last night - Rosie, Matt, Tim and Beth. We have done exceedingly well in the January challenge, particularly with regard to distance - as of this morning we've run 3591kms - solidly overshooting our target of 3100kms by quite a way. Good deeds wise we completed 142 out of our target 174. Never fear, next year we'll smash it!

After a 1.2km run down we were met by Janet at Cranbrook Community Centre who explained our tasks for the evening. We split into two groups - shifting soil/compost and clearing the garden area. We steamed through the task, filling 5 bags with leaves and dead plants, packing a huge bin with tree cut-backs and spread 1.5 bags of compost. A solid task well done! There's plenty more to get done at the Community Centre and we look forward to coming back in the future. We were particularly intrigued by the wormery in the allotment area. Worms just love kitchen waste. They turn it into beautiful soil - a perfect solution to kitchen waste for those without a garden!

We thanked Janet, took a selfie and headed for an easy lap of the centre, followed by a ‘medium’ lap and finishing with ‘hard’. Continuing to discover our paces and become more confident runners!

At the end of the last lap, a plank off was called for - everyone did a fantastic job ranging from a solid 40 seconds up to a stellar 3 minutes 10 seconds (see photo of our plank-off winners shaking hands). I anticipate some aching cores tomorrow...

We ran back the way home and finished with a good stretch and some deep belly breathing.

A great start to the week team, I look forward to seeing you next week!