It was a sturdy group that headed to Hollybush in the rain sporting head torches to lift planks and planks of heavy wood that has been donated to the gardens.

After a quick warm-up outside the hotel, we took a jog around the block to Hollybush to be greeted by Margaret and Michael who were unsure as to whether the task should go ahead, such were the conditions on a dark, wet Monday night on the Estate. The group were undeterred and after an extensive health and safety briefing, proceeded to hoist heavy, long planks overhead and move them to a nearby indoor space.

It was a night for marvellous team work - the group worked brilliantly in pairs to get the job done quick. We nearly reached the end of the wood before heading over to nearby Middleton Green for some graded laps of the green and a total body workout.

Well done to everyone for sticking with a tough fitness session after completing such a physically-taxing task - the group performed single-leg deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, push ups, planks and straight leg dips in between laps of the green that got progressively faster.

We headed back to the hotel to finish with some abs work ("Shout out a body part you want to work on" was my request during our group pic... - always be careful what you wish for, I reckon...), single leg bridges and stretching.

Thanks to Claire for brilliant back-marking, and to the whole group in general for being great sports this evening and rising to a tough challenge with pragmatism, that can-do attitude and their usual good humour.

10 runners ran just over 4K to cover a cover undertake some serious multi-tasking at Stepney City Farm

It was with great joy that we headed back to Stepney City Farm for our first visit of 2018.

Claire and Bryde, our task owners for the night, were delighted to see us (always nice to get such a warm welcome on a drizzly Monday night) and set about explaining our first two tasks.

Runners were divided into two groups: the larger group sanding down the classroom walls in preparation for the painting task next week; the second group were tasked with carrying large and heavy plant pots from a water-logged rear garden to the front garden ready to be put on display for the plant shop. Kudos to the pot-bearers for managing to keep their footing on the slowly-sinking planks.

Thanks to Sigrid for passing on her sanding know-how and to the whole indoor team for prepping the entire classroom area in record time.

Upon early completion of both tasks, the team then set about cleaning both inside and outside café windows (big reveal of the night: Stepney City Farm’s amazingly well-stocked and superbly organised Cleaning Product Cupboard. So good, I took a pic for you to see for yourself). And a massive well done to Dave for cleaning the highest of the café windows – Claire suspects this is the first time those windows have been cleaned IN THE FARM’S HISTORY.

We took a speedy run back, taking the opportunity to tackle ghostly-in-a-good-way Globe Road at our ‘comfortably hard’ tempo pace and then taking our final ½ K as a semi-sprint finish. Bit puzzled as to why we all developed racing feet after such a busy task - my theory is that we were so motivated to get home for dinner after inhaling all the heavenly fast food smells as we sped down White Horse Road.

Upon arrival back at base, we used the trusty Town Hall steps for our favourite calf stretch and then headed inside where we took advantage of having the entire hotel to ourselves (long story which could have gone one way or the other) to squeeze in some single leg squats and side planks in the luscious lobby.

Everyone seemed to have a great time and yet again I’m in awe of how much was done. Well done, team, you totally rock.

Lastly, welcome to Shauna, who helped in getting so much done on her first run, and I can’t wait to do it all again next week.