Hanwell School of Boxing, a volunteer-led charity offering sports activities to young people of all backgrounds, moved to their current site in 2011. Tonight's task owner, Linda, had been one of the key players in making the move happen. She told us about the building’s history and the improvements made over the past fourteen years. But nothing lasts forever. The wooden posts that have stood at the entrance since 2011 were now rotten, and Linda thought it was time to replace them with five plastic bollards.

Five GoodGym runners who braved the drizzle on their 3 km run to Hanwell split into engineering and sweeping teams. The builders, Steph Ducat and Kash, had the job of removing the aged wooden posts and then digging a trench as per Linda's instructions. Paving blocks, no longer held in place by the poles, and tree roots were only minor challenges, solved by a mattock found by Linda and Steph's jigsaw puzzle skills. The real enemy was the stubborn old concrete, not easily removable to make space for the new bollards. The good news? Nothing is set in concrete at the GoodGym tasks, and there's always an option to change the approach.

After consulting Linda, the engineers agreed the best way forward was to set the new posts in place with minimal digging, then pour a mix of cement and water around them. Steph and Kash flattened the soil and laid the first layer of mixed cement - without a trowel! Who needs a trowel if you can use a random square piece of foam found on premises? The technique Linda suggested for the second layer was to scatter the cement around the poles, then pour water on top. The speed-engineering brought concrete results: maybe not the straightest poles, but certainly stable!

Meanwhile, Thaiza, Harvey and Sevan did what GoodGymers are best at in autumn: leaf sweeping. With rakes and brooms in hand, they set a goal to clear the whole tarmac surface leading to the boxing club. Ambitious! The leaves might not have been heavyweight, but there was an abundance of them. The sweeping team bagged as many leaves as they could fit in Linda's car, who would then distribute the green waste where it was needed. The rest of the fallen leaves had to be swept to the side - maybe for another time to bag. The result? A leaf-free driveway to the boxing school!

Before the team set off for another soggy 3km, Linda invited them inside the club and traditionally offered them hot chocolate and minced pies. The sweet treat was a lovely reward that powered the GoodGymers all the way back to Ealing Broadway.

Throughout today 9 goodgymers from Kingston and several others areas in this beautiful country of ours , took time out to buy and drop off items for the food bank.

No demon running here, just some older friends and some newer friends chatting on and having a smile! This was the second special collaboration social stations run for GoodGym Ealing and We Run Ealing. This time the aim was no more than run to every station with Ealing in the name!

The first one, Ealing Broadway, was easy - we all met there! And what a turn out! We more or less stuck together and completed a big loop. Even a last minute drizzle didn't dampen our spirits.

We will return, not with the the thin white duke (a link to the obscure title of this report), but with another round of Acton and Ealing station runs next year!

The rain held off in Ealing for the whole day, just until 18:45 when the Tuesday night group run started. Refreshed by a mild drizzle, a group of runners led by Sevan looped around Walpole Park to meet Kash - a single person in the walking "group" - at the tool store. Harvey, Steph and Sevan came to help pick up the tools, which Kash thought was awesome. It's nice to have mates who have your back around when you're aware of strangers hiding in the nearby bushes while you're busy unlocking padlocks!

With an ample supply of chopping and shovelling tools in two wheelbarrows, the quartet marched to Lammas Enclosure to meet Chris and Bryon at the Transition Orchard. With the task owner, Trevor, unable to make it to the session that night, Sevan explained two jobs that needed to be done.

First task, cutting back brambles in the small forest area destined to become a hedgehog habitat, was tackled by Bryon, Harvey, Steph and Kash, after agreeing that not everything that had thorns could be classified as a bramble and obliterated.

Chris and Sevan focused on another job: snipping brambles and mulching around fruit trees. First, of course, they had to identify the fruit trees. Bryon did well in that matter, spotting a tiny apple under one of the trees. But there were also tiny oak trees growing under the presumed apple tree. How did they get there? Maybe the apple was a foundling, too?

Thanks to teamwork, two work lights and head torches for everyone, the six GoodGymers achieved good results despite the darkness. Our unstoppable team keeps going all year round, no matter the season. Next week, we will run to help Hanwell School of Boxing, a charity that supports young people of varying ethnic backgrounds in participation in sports. Sign up now!

Ahead of the main event, the Northolt 10k, the regular Sunday Northala Fields junior parkrun still went ahead - of course! The rain clouds parted and the sun came shining through, but there was a lot of people milling around ahead of the 10k. The junior route needed to be kept clear to let the juniors have a fair crack at their run. One of our GoodGym runners was there for the 10k but volunteered to help with crowd control. This was greatly assisted by standing near a man with a megaphone!

Despite a small posse of cyclists arriving to rack their bikes and a takeaway delivery rider in a hurry taking a short cut, all passed off uneventfully - ahead of the full event! Well done junior parkrunners for another one ticked off!