On a gorgeous spring evening in sunny Worthing my trusty team comprising of Mr and Mrs R , Anne, Sue, Barbara and Paula joined me at St Marys Goring Church to lend a hand in the community garden alongside friends of the church volunteer gardening group.

A large corner of the garden had become overgrown with brambles, nettles and suckling plants. Armed with a pick axe forks, spades and pruners we managed to make quite an impression on the area.

Great work tonight team ! Mondays are firmly back in the diary.

Ricky went to help with this task while resting between runs on the Phoenix Virtual Running P24 event. We cleared away two large areas of leaves and continued cutting back brambles on the far side of the front garden of the church. This will make the area much more attractive to future visitors.

Four of us - Sue, Ricky, John and Emily - met in the leafy garden of St Mary's in Goring on a beautiful evening. Rain had kiboshed previous attempts at working in the garden during August so this was fourth time lucky.

We had previously helped out here so we continued with our attempts to return the garden to its former glory. Sue and John forked over the entrance to the garden, turning over a layer of leaves and removing old bits of signage and gates.

Ricky and Emily grabbed the secateurs and set about tackling a massive bramble patch.

Ninety minutes later progress had been made. There's still some way to go but hopefully the weather will allow us to join our compadres from the church for more tidying.

Catching the light

On our first dry Monday evening in weeks it was a beautifully balmy one in sunny worthing. I'm conscious that I always start my reports with a weather update! As runners aren't we all obsessed with weather and wind direction?!

This evening we broke from convention and met directly at the task so that we could catch the rapidly fading light. It was a delight to be at St Marys church in Goring to give the parish volunteers a helping hand with the garden surrounding the church hall.

On a personal note the church holds a special place in my heart. Nick and I were married there 31 years ago followed by our 3 children being baptised there as well as attending all the many youth groups over the years too. In addition lets not forget my mother, who religiously (excuse the pun) did the church flowers there for over 20 years.

Welcome to newbie [Ricky][https://www.goodgym.org/runners/richard-horscraft] who joined us with a goal of improving his parkrun time. We can definitely help you with this Ricky! We hope you enjoyed your first task and fitness session and you will be back again next week!

It was a great turn out from my regular team and everyone managed to arrive in the right place at the right time too. (surprised face!)

Drum roll for the team as follows in no particular order.........Mr and Mrs R, Paul, Gill and Graham, Natasha and Steve, Duncan,Jay, Sue, Paula and not forgetting Anne who joined us a little later, after having locked herself out of her house.

Offensive on the fences

We were met by Pam who had previously approached me for help with the task. She was joined by her husband Malcolm and 2 ladies (who's names escape me) who had turned out to help too. Pam requested that we completely clear the borders so that the parish team of volunteers can plant bulbs for a dash of 2020 spring colour. She also requested that we help prune some over hanging shrubs and trees.

With a fantastic delivery of tools delivered to my house earlier by park ranger Anthony ( and narrowly missing knocking myself out whilst loading them in the car!) the team set about the tasks with immense energy,ability(!) and gusto.

With the help of the church hall illuminations together with our very own Uncle Ivo's shining lights there was a wonderful glow both internally and externally evolving from this amazing group of volunteers.

At least we made prorog'ress

Maybe a team of GG volunteers should step in and sort Brexit as, what they can achieve in 40 short minutes totally puts our politicians to shame on the political games being played in Westminster right now. I'm not sure they understand the true meaning of 'lets get it done' like my trusty team do.....

In the meantime Pam had set up her table with warming, delicious hot chocolate and biscuits for the brave ones who relished risking partaking in this guilty pleasure before running and fitness happened shortly afterwards!

......And get it done we certainly did .

What an amazing ground force makeover we saw on the borders! No back stop obstacles in our traditional English garden! With an appreciative and much appreciated thank you from Pam we had a quick photo and a promise to return next spring before we stashed the tools back in my car , rounded up Anne and headed off with strict direction and instructions for our walk, run and fitness session.

Eat, sleep, run, repeat the 800 metre circuit!

We took a steady run down to the sea before a one lap reconnoitre of the fitness route the team were just about to embark on. With walkers setting off in one direction around the block and the runners going the opposite way this ensured all participants were supported, encouraged and motivated.

4 times round the block at a challenging tempo ( 8 times for Jay) and with squats, squat jumps, burpees and lunges added as active recovery, the runners, in simple terms just 'got it done!'

After all that effort we took a relaxed run back to where we had parked, stretched and said our goodbyes for another week.

In other news

• Well done to Duncan and Lucy ( who got a PB ) at the Great south run.
• Happy Birthday Belinda :) :) :)
• Meet at Worthing leisure Centre next Monday at 6 pm
• November is nearly here and you know what that means

Have a great week

Julia :) xx