Alan, Tom and Steph Ducat tackled the new edition of the Queen of the Suburbs. Not an easy one today due to the heat but they managed to conquer the heat. This couldn't of happened without all the volunteers on the course who kept them hydrated. Great aid station in Southall with the GG Ealing crew

For part 2 of today's (ultra) marathon volunteering session for Queen of the Suburbs, the last 25km runners passed through and the first 50km runners were close behind with 29km already in their legs.

Each group or runners wanted different things from the GoodGym staffed aid station, with the 25k-ers mostly grabbing water and quickly moving on. The last pair through were a mother and daughter who were walking the distance. The mum was 75 years old. What an absolute legend to be walking and completing Queen of the Suburbs on such a hot day 🙇.

The 50k runners were more likely to stop and refuel, including familiar faces - and GoodGymers - Steph and Shan. Top food options for everyone were bananas and Ritz crackers, unsurprisingly. The 50km runners were much more pickle curious too than those covering the shorter distance. No one was brave enough to drink the pickle juice. Pickles munching was more common as there was a rumour that they were packed with electrolytes. One runner even broke out in song:

"Last night a pickle saved my life" 💃

Each runner was recommended to take 1 litre of water with them to the next aid station and a lot of jugs were poured and water sloshed around. A few runners showed poor bladder control. Some were directed to the toilets and the others were unable to reseal their water bladders after they were topped up by Kash, Maria, Richard and Sevan. They needed a lot of fiddling around to get moving again.

Half way through the session, reinforcements were called for. More bananas were delivered to avoid a shortage and sun cream too with the temperature rising and the sun getting stronger. Harvey arrived fresh from Pitshanger Junior parkrun to help the morale of runners and their supporters. He was almost mistaken for a QotS runner, except that he didn't look sweaty enough or tired enough.

After 11:30, the number of runners passing through tailed off. There was a lot of waiting around and the last run-walker eventually made it to the aid station at 12:45. That triggered a quick wrap up, with food and drinks being packed into a van and the aid station torn down. All that was left were the wet patches on the ground, the memories of the interesting people who'd passed through and the big thank you given to us by the organisers:

"A huge thank you to you and all the GoodGym runners. Have a great rest of the long weekend!"

Mr E was a collector of literature and other reading material. His flat was full of papers. Books, magazines, leaflets, newspapers. All piled up on tables and filled in bags. It was time for Mr E to let go of them a little bit at a time.

When Kash and Sevan entered his flat, Mr E pointed to the big problem that he had, some thick blue rubble bags on his sofa. They needed to be recycled, so the GoodGymers lugged them down the stairs and as the contents spilled out into the recycling bin, they looked at what was inside. All of the bags were filled with newspapers. Old ones, from 2014, 2015 and other editions that Mr E must have found notable. One that jumped out at Kash was from 2009, pronouncing the death of Michael Jackson. Unlike (or like) Michael Jackson, the newspapers were both black and white and they were all getting recycled, no matter how newsworthy their stories once were.

With that quick task completed, Kash and Sevan offered to help Mr E sort through the piles of papers and books sitting on his dining table. Some of them Mr E said that he paid a lot of money for and the valuable ones, he wanted to donate to the library. Together, they managed to dispose of a few leaflets, but Mr E wanted to work through the rest once he was in better health. That meant that the classic Around Ealing magazines - in colour - will have to wait for next time.

The Ealing Borough is a proud home of London’s only single-borough ultramarathon: the Queen of the Suburbs: the Ultra 50k or the Trail 25k challenge that takes runners on a journey through the green heart of Ealing!

This year, the day of the race was supposed to be extremely hot: the temperatures were supposed to reach 35 degrees, and they did! The organisers decided to bring forward the start time for both 25k and 50k so that the runners could avoid the worst heat. The scorching sun was still unforgiving, so the race participants appreciated having the aid stations along the way to refill their water bottles and bladders, grab some snacks and splash their towels with cool water.

The GoodGym crew was manning the aid station number 3 at Southall's Green Quarter, and responded to a call to arrive at the station earlier. Sevan, the leader of the station, and Kash ran 7.5km, and Maria cycled over 10km to Southall to meet Jags, who already got busy prepping the Parkside Yards for the "Queen". Richard arrived after the other three had set up the aid station, just at the right time to welcome the first 25km runners to the station. Most of the enthusiastic GoodGym aid station marshals were fairly new to the job, so they wanted to make sure they were ready to support the runners.

"Jags, you ran quite a few races, right? Does this setup look right to you?" - Sevan.
"Yeah, that's perfect, snacks easy to grab in the front, maybe prep some more water in advance." - Jags.

The first three 25km runners, two guys and one lady, while hitting their eight kilometre, surprised the GoodGymers carrying on past the station, not needing any hydration or nutrition - just cheers. They must have been really determined to get a good time! Every other runner after them welcomed a short (or a bit longer) pit stop to replenish their energy. Quite a few runners complimented the Green Quarter's lawn sprinkler on the way to the station, offering a nice opportunity to cool down. At Station 3, a few metres further, awaited friendly GoodGymers, toilets, and a bit of shade under the gazebo. Most of the runners craved - understandably - water. From the snack table, bananas and Ritz crackers had been disappearing most rapidly. Only a couple of runners opted for a sandwich with Cheddar cheese, which, in such hot weather, turned into a cheese toastie! The further into the race, the more interest the runners had in savoury, not sweet snacks - some brave enough to try the magic of pickled gherkins.

On the 25km Trail option of the Queen of the Suburbs, we spotted a GoodGym representation: Alan, and friends from We Run Ealing: Tom and Sasha. We were full of respect for them and all the other runners for taking on the challenge in such tough weather conditions!

After the morning calm and quiet setup, and the busy wave of 25km runners, the race and the water station story continued into the afternoon - read about it here.

The usual Friday evening 7km run and shop for Mr G, this time with extra weight training to help the gentleman stock up on heavy tins of beans and tuna.

On a very hot Saturday, four GoodGymers who had been staying locally for the bank holiday weekend made their way to Grove Farm Nature Reserve. Some of them walked, and others used the opportunity to complete their main run of the day - a rather brutal 8km up three hills in the scorching sun!

Everyone was happy to find out that the task would be carried out in the shade. Giovanni, who came for his second GoodGym session, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash, together with Livio and Portia, followed the leader, Mike, to the Whitton Avenue entrance to the park, where they took a turn into the wilder part of the green space.

The job could be summarised as "explorers in the service of biodiversity". The group was tasked with clearing the thick overgrowth to provide park rangers with access to the Japanese knotweed spotted deep in the wilderness. Japanese knotweed is a highly invasive, non-native plant in the UK that was introduced to Europe in the 19th century as an ornamental. Knotweed, commonly found along rivers and streams, where it easily disperses, poses significant problems to native ecosystems if left uncontrolled.

Our explorers ventured upstream the totally dried at this time of the year, Costons Brook, clearing the vegetation along the ditch. The victims of relentless trimming, lopping and sawing were brambles, nettles, ivy and hawthorn - all the aggressively growing plants that would come back in no time. The joint forces of Friends of Grove Farm and GoodGym were up against an invasive, non-native plant, so the sacrifices were necessary.

On the way, the volunteers spotted interesting species of fungi, which the LAGER Can member Sue identified as King Alfred's cake. If you ask me, it looked nothing like a cake, but King Alfred had lived long enough ago for the bakery standards to change completely.

Another intriguing and somewhat creepy find was a Sainsbury's bag, discovered by Giovanni, filled with discarded Barbie dolls. Had someone made a statement by rejecting the symbol of an unattainable female physique or just grown out of their toys, we'll never know!

We made tremendous progress clearing the overgrown ditch, removing larger logs and entire trees on the way, and safely navigating between two old trees that posed the risk of falling. However, the road to the knotweed is long and bumpy, so we'll need to come back in June to cut through the rest of the vegetation. Join us for the conservation day in June!