A cracking evening at one of our favourite spots — Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground, which always delivers on the rewarding session front.

We had a nice little group run: Nick, Rue, John, Adam and Brad joined me in setting off from the Aquatics Centre, jogging up the canal in glorious evening light — about as lovely a warm-up as we'll get. We were joined by Chloe, Joke and Paul at the playground, and got a warm welcome from task owner Ange.

For the record: a Newham task, held in Hackney, with Chloe, John and Rue over from Tower Hamlets. Three boroughs, one sandpile...

The task itself? A mound of sand to shift. Not just any sand — this had been donated from the London Stadium long jump pit, freshly dug out after Saturday's Diamond League meet. Our job was to move what we could over to the sandpit part of the playground.

Cue a shifting and spreading production line: shovels flying, wheelbarrows trundling back and forth, and plenty of teamwork as barrow after barrow were ferried across, with only a small number of mechanical and loading issues.

A couple of surprising things - first, that the stadium needs brand new sand every single time — and second, just how much of it there is. But actually when you think about it, world-class long jumpers probably do cover a fair bit of ground, so the pit must need to be pretty deep to land in safely. A quick google afterwards confirmed it: a competition long jump pit needs somewhere in the region of 6–9 cubic metres of sand. Worth retaining that for when it comes up in a pub quiz.

By the end of our session, we'd made a visible dent and felt like we'd had a workout. Huge thanks to Ange for having us. And a brilliant turnout — it genuinely made the difference, because these tasks simply don't happen without people showing up. So thank you to everyone who came along and we'd love to see you all again soon 💪

As we stood under the big tree this morning in perfect running conditions, we knew we were thin on the ground volunteer wise, so it needed a couple of shout outs to the parent community who were arriving from all directions to get all the high viz's filled and the marshal spots complete, but thankfully we got there in the end - one lucky (unsuspecting) mum and dad even got volunteered by their daughter to fill the tailwalker role and one of the marshalling spots...

Thankfully Hilary was on hand to fill her usual spot at gate 1, and we soon had this week's participants lined up and eager to get started and with our event ambassador Melanie on time keeping duty, it was soon 3-2-1 Go! and they were off.

An almost dead heat for 1st and 2nd required Run Director Nick to use his refereeing skills to adjudicate on who got token #1...and we soon had our regular stream of finishers, accompanied by a lot of cheering from the sidelines, coming down the finish funnel - and when our recently cajoled tailwalker crossed the line (still smiling), event #381 was complete, and 29 runners and 11 volunteers had enjoyed another successful morning at the sunny Fields.

Our green-fingered contact Sybil at Emmanuel Church invited us over to St Mary's Allotments to help get the site spick and span ahead of their Cabin Open Day on 18th July — and for once we got to see the place in glorious daylight! Three of us — me, Adam and Eugene — jogged down from Freaks and Geeks to get some extra kilometers in before the graft began.

There was plenty to be getting on with: creeping ivy to cut back, weeds to chop and clear from around the social area where the plot holders hoped to expand their gathering space.

We tackled the area under a magnificent plane tree first, setting about the carpet of dried leaves and weeds — raking, bagging and clearing until the ground was transformed. With that conquered, Adam spotted the creeping ivy that had been quietly plotting a takeover of the fence line and embarked on a side quest that proved difficult to drag him away from. There's always one more strand of ivy, apparently.

One thing the task description didn't mention: the dust. Every armful of dried leaves sent up a cloud of it, and before long the allotment echoed to a chorus of sneezes. But by the end of our time there we had a dozen or so bulging bags of garden waste lined up under the tree, a beautifully cleared social area, and fence lines on the way to being liberated from their ivy overcoats. The before-and-after is genuinely satisfying, and the space is looking ready to welcome visitors on the 18th.

As is tradition, Sybil's legendary generosity appeared right on cue at the end of the task — this time in the form of mac and cheese croquettes and spring rolls amongst other things. Seemed like an excellent idea at the time, less so on the run home. Worth it though.

Huge thanks to Sybil and the plot holders for having us back and working alongside us — it's always a pleasure, and as Sybil says, it shows what can be done with a bit of effort, determination and teamwork.

If you fancy getting fit while doing good in Newham, come and join us — new faces always welcome!