We’re all rooting for Earth Hour at GG!!

A chilly Richmond evening welcomed nineteen (count ‘em!) GoodGym gals and guys (with quite a contingent of new faces – we’re already very "frond" of you guys), in celebration of Earth Hour for an unbeleafably fun task that really grew on us. As usual, Mark put us through our paces with his highly creative workout, this time drawing inspiration from a wide range of animals to keep us on our toes (/paws/hooves/knuckles/claws). Once we’d completed enough animal poses to make our own little zoo we set off up our first hill – as tonight also saw us taking part in our very own Richmond Three (Little) Peaks Challenge. Aren’t we lucky?

Whacky Wildlife Warmup!!#earthhour #wildlife #fun #goodgym #richmond #running #fitness #volunteering pic.twitter.com/FEUr5IMtd8

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) 26 March 2019

A jolly chat along the way up Kings Road and then Queens Road for our second Peak, and before we knew it we were passing the Star and Garter and careening down the hill to the start point. We picked up trays of tiny plantlings, trowels and baby spades and headed off along an ominously dark path that looked like it belonged in a scene from a horror movie that would make you jump behind the sofa. Brave souls as ever, we flipped our headlights to full beam and struck out into the gloom.

Our task, set by the Thames Landscape group was to plant primrose plants along the borders of the path, presumably because yellow flowers would make it a bit less scary. Ken the task owner threw the gauntlet down for us to plant as many bulbs as we could so we were fired up and raring to deliver! Met by the lovely Jean Loveland at the task who briefed us and pointed us in the right direction we got stuck in, and soon enough we were racing along. Plant, anyone? Who's got a hole free? (Ahem). But we were a little too leisurely to begin with and totally underestimated the number of the mini suckers we had in the trays, leading to some frantic power plant-ing as Mark gave us our 5-minute warning. The fun tasks really do go too fast, and despite our efforts there were a couple of unfinished trays - can we go back and tuck the rest of them into bed?

A quick drop off of the gnome spades and we set off again, heading for the biggest and most daunting of Richmond’s Peaks – the dreaded Nightingale Lane. The trick on this one is to build up gradually and go for a heads-down push as you get round the bend… as usual Jay left us all for dust, but then he eats 10 Nightingales for breakfast. Not really, he’s really quite gentle to birds of all kinds.

Back at Wholefoods and a warm down, this time without the zoological theme, and it was time to head home. A very warm welcome to our newbies – Kate, Charlie, Emma, Annabel, Nicola, Mike, Nat and Tonje, and well done on a first (or in some cases second) group run and task completed in style – you grow girls! (and boys!)

Great to hear all the run news as well folks! Keep up the good work