It was all yellow in the (Cold-)playground as we all went barking mad. Well we got into the swing of things at least…

A bright but chilly Monday evening saw the Goodgym gang gathered at Wholefoods for a fun-filled task in Marble Hill Park. Mark and Jenna were away so the run was led by Olivia of House Ealing, and while we missed Mark’s warm-up enormously (ahem!) nobody was complaining too much that Olivia’s version was a little less strenuous 😉

Olivia, by the way, is GoodGym’s new guru of participation, driving up membership and involvement across the whole of the GG network – so if you want to share your ideas look her up and get in touch!

Off we went from Wholefoods, taking a familiar route up the hill and weaving through the streets back to Hill Rise and down onto Petersham Road, past “our” flower bed (coming up nicely now!) and then coming face to face with the nemesis that is Nightingale Lane. Without breaking stride we bent heads and powered up the hill, cheering each other on and high-fiving at the top. Good to get that one out of the way nice and early…

Then it was a short run back down and across the bridge, down through East Twickenham and to our destination, Marble Hill Park (whose beautiful grand house, we learned from the entry-sign, was home to George II’s mistress) and its playground of swings and zipwires – a trip down memory lane for those of us who grew up nearby 😊

We were welcomed by task owner Claire and divided into two groups. One group was briefed to turn over and rake the wood chips under the swings - these guys definitely did give a fork (or rake); and the other group grabbed pots of yellow paint (kindly donated by Dulux) and gave the wooden frames a sunny spruce-up - they definitely didn't give their work the brush off (pretty sure this pun came up last time...).

We set to work and were soon making great progress, no doubt spurred on by the promise of a go on the biggest rope swing as rewards for our efforts. It was great to be out doing good in the mellow evening light, and as usual the team did an excellent job on both parts of the task. A couple of Tarzan and Jane impressions on the rope swing later we rounded it off with a photo of a classic GoodGym group pose – with some bikes and trikes that might have been a little on the small side. And then we wound our way back to Richmond for some hill sprint relays and Sally squats!

A big welcome to Millie who recently moved up from Bournemouth (where she was already a GoodGymer) and joined the Richmond ranks, and huge thanks to Olivia for filling in for Mark so brilliantly 😊