The St.Mellitus church turned into a concert when I was reaching the entrance. Milly sneaked me in via the backdoor. I joined Steph who after running 50k this morning, decided to do 3 GoodGym tasks back to back. That's some hardcore dedication.

Steph was running the Tuck shop with Mary, a William Hobbayne member. Mary was taking the payments, and Steph was serving them the drinks and snacks.

I joined Steph and we were regularly snacking the leftover snacks( Crackers and blue cheese) while serving the drinks/snacks to the younglings/parents who filled the church hall.

Milly on the other hand was serving drinks to the VIP's who were performing tonight. And the band members were ripping the drums and guitar out.

Drinks were the best seller of the day, we ran out of water and soft drinks by the time we closed the tuck shop. Only 8 cans of Diet Coke were left.

And there was a huge queue outside the toilets which happens to be the case throughout the night.

Once we ran out of bottled water, we were serving tap water for some time. Milly and I were running back and forth between the sink and the counter.

It's a good thing that St. Patrick's day is on Sunday night this year, not Saturday. If it was a day earlier, many of the Junior parkrunners might not have rolled out or their beds and into their running shoes this morning after some late night partying.

A Sunday St. Pats also worked well for the GoodGymers in attendance, who can raise a glass tonight and not worry about leaving the Run Director in the lurch. There's only work to worry about on Monday morning after all.

This morning Harvey and Madhan were barcode scanning and Sevan was a timekeeper. Harvey also did some funnel management, putting stakes into the ground to make a cone rather a funnel, that was narrower at the start than the end.

There were a lot of marshals around the course this morning and Steph and Kash were assigned to marshal points 1 and 2 respectively. Kash was paired up with another marshal and given an important extra duty, to politely block corner cutters looking to shave a few seconds off their time. Kash agreed, told herself that none shall pass and none did.

Despite the wet weather, 33 runners made it around the course and through the funnel, managing to slide through a muddy spot that caught a few out.

After the earlier downpour, 5 GoodGymers met at Bodyline Studio for their group run to help HANGOT in Elthorne Park. They welcomed Ijo on her first group run, as well as Christos and Helene rejoining us after shorter breaks. In Hanwell, Bryon made a surprise appearance and, as the group walked towards the container past a group of scouts with head torches, there was a taller scout lurking behind them who turned out to be Milly!

With the super team of 8 complete, Sevan had to open the equipment container for the first time in the dark. No pressure 😅! Luckily or skillfully, he managed to open it to find only 3 wheelbarrows, which was a bit disappointing. The wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes were grabbed and a long, muddy walk to Osterley Lock began.

The team split between wood chip shovellers, barrowers and rakers. The wheelbarrows had to cross a bridge to get to the orchard which had a giant puddle on the far side. Different techniques were tried to keep shoes clean, but they mostly ended up wet and muddy by the end.

Madhan took charge of the shovelling station, Steph Ducat led the department of transport and Bryon directed incoming wheelbarrows towards the trees in need, helping Ijo with smoothing the mulch around the base of the trees. Apple, cherry, plum trees and more that we couldn't identify were given a thick layer of mulch, helping to keep them healthy through the spring.

After the initial mishap of going to the wrong building and trying to explain why I was there, I then got help from an old lady who guided me to the correct building.

Mr.J welcomed me and asked if I wanted a cup of tea before I started talking about the shopping. He didn't have a shopping list ready and told me to buy a 4-pint milk and bread. I then asked him whether he wanted this or that and lidl by lidl, Mr.J remembered the things he wanted.

Your hands are freezing - Mr.J said, when he shook hands with me.

When discussing the substitutes, MrJ said to just buy whatever is available and said he doesn't have allergies or particular preference for a brand/item. After getting a £20 note I then walked to the Lidl nearby.

There was a big queue, but it was a fast-moving one. But because I was paying by cash, it took me a few minutes to complete the shopping. Mr.J couldn't believe it when I said I walked to the shop and back. He thought I traveled by car.