After the first long weekend of the year, 7 keen runners EGGER to show off their St Lucian tans and to swap friendly wild animal encounters, gathered in room 41 for the briefing, with our usual leader who had finally deemed it warm enough, to shed the winter running suit and to show off those limbs. We whistled through a warm up, including a game of 'chuck a pair of gloves at your partner', discussed whether suncream was needed at 7pm, but agreed that insect repellent would be a good idea, then set-off on the run.

As if to punish us, by the mistaken distance accusations last week (i.e. Not 10k gate) Mark led us back along the stinky route, on another 'not quite 10k run'. Back over to help Sustrans out for the 2nd week running, this time for a bit more of a physical task such as rock bagging and weeding - Forking concrete.

We set about the patch of ground that we had started to clear last year, this time without the sticky bore plants and worrying smells in the dark. They had already made a great start on the area, with the help of an early GG runner, Jane, so we were there to rake up the rest of the weeds and turn over the rock solid soil. Dave bent a fork in the process, Kate wished for her feather bird tool and Jenna got her kings and saints of England in a muddle. Who pulled the sword and who slayed the dragon?? By George/Arthur!

After our time was up we flexed our muscles for a picture and set off back to hq, back down the oh so stinky lane, for a few warm down stretches.

Don't forget to check out the upcoming community missions including Saturday's planting on the platform at Berrylands Station, as well as the Thames path trundle, organised by Jenna and Kingstons 1st birthday party in May, including pub quizzes, post market picnics and sports day games...

Also Best of Luck to all taking on the Marathon this weekend especially Kingston's own Nik West and Nicola Cage-Brimelow (we are sharing you with Portsmouth still!)

Next week less of a stinker and shorter running (Walkable even if you prefer) so spread the word!

7 of us took on a long run (phew) and a pretty physical task (phew phew) tonight to help Sustrans down in Old Malden.

With the usual GG Kingston leadership team on a well-deserved break sunning themselves in the Costa Del Cotswolds, it was my privilege to step in and (attempt to) cover for this week.

After meeting a potential new recruit in the Guildhall along to get his DBS check done, we went out to run through our news, and to warm-up.

Big-ups to Kate who had clocked-up 4 deeds across the weekend, and was back already tonight for another. You can take your trigger finger over here and cheer her on.

Also I got a quick plug in for the next lot of race volunteering with Virgin Sport we’re doing, at the Hackney Half in May. You get a free bib for another Virgin Sport race for your time, it’s a great chance to get GoodGym in front of lots of people all at once, and for you to meet people from other GG areas. Details here.

With one of the Kingston GG regulars about to run the London Marathon, there was some talk of the potential for ‘organised’ GG cheering at the event. It appears there isn’t a page for it on the website, so if you’re interested, perhaps e-mail HQ and get them to see about listing it.

“What number am I?”

Whilst we warmed-up, we disclosed our favoured animal-related movies – perhaps unsurprisingly, Walt Disney had the market mostly cornered. Oddly enough, contemplating royal lion cubs and freakishly fertile Dalmatians was distracting enough that everyone managed to forget which number they were in the headcount. Perhaps it’s easy to be judgemental though when you’ve elected yourself number 1.

I was chuffed to discover the team had been studying the treasure map Mark had prepared for us ahead of time, so had a good sense of what to expect along the way. Our journey down was a mixed bag of sights and smells… from quiet suburban streets of trees groaning under Spring blossoms, to the sewage treatment works. Thanks Mark! I guess if you’re after the pot of gold, don’t be too surprised if the rainbow passes by a load of concrete cylinders full of whatsname. (The report title is thanks to Jane btw. I don’t want the credit / blame for throwing shade at Mark’s choice of route too loudly.)

After a few improvised exercises along the way including tricep dips off a pub bench, and scaling the stairs of Berrylands station, we managed to find our task owners in the park. With time against us we skipped over the intro about the cause straight to health and safety. As such, when you get a moment, have a look here about what Sustrans are doing in the area, and why your contribution tonight matters. With the time it took us to get all the way down there, in order to get back again for 8.30, we realised we would have needed to leave straight-away (whoops!) so the time the team put in to dominate the woodchip was above and beyond the usual time-frame, so thanks so much everyone! Nevertheless, with some unruly old wheelbarrows and a pair or rakes, the team covered a remarkably large area of ground with woodchip in such a brief window. Ultimately these will form more effective paths for people to pass through the space on bikes and on foot.

‘Sticky’ what?

In his zeal to spread woodchips, Rob permitted some nearby stinging nettles to deploy their self-defence mechanism on his leg. This prompted another of our team (who shan’t be named) to protest as the presence of ‘sticky willies.’ We didn’t ask.

Again due to time, we weren’t able to attack the hot drinks and cakes beckoning us from under a gazebo that Sustrans had laid on… what lovely hospitality! So with night about to happen, we left the Sustrans volunteers to their work (and cake) and set off back. It was a nice run back through the dark quiet suburbs, and seemingly the sewage had already gone to bed, cause it seemed to smell less on the way back.

After a thorough stretch to go with our long run, we went our ways, not even too far behind time either, ace!

Mark is back next week (phew) and you'll be clearing and weeding with Sustrans, so sign-up now quick before it sells out.

Thanks so much for having me all and I look forward to seeing you again soon I hope… Danny

A 14 strong team tonight in it for the long run! That's right, tonight we had a run just under the 10km mark to achieve and we did good! After a swift warm up of swinging legs and curtsey lunges we headed off through the Kingston streets with one clear message in our minds - don't leave anyone behind! In true GG spirit the front runners ran back, the mid runners ran further back and the back markers ensured we all ended up at the task. Even Fionn became Flash Gordan sprinting back and forth to ensure everyone was present. With such a lengthy run it was great to see such team work in play and thanks to Mark's head torch we didn't get lost.

Our task tonight was at Sustrans , a charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle in the borough, how did they do this? Building cycle paths, putting on cycle challenges and promoting how good this type of travel is for the environment. We were met by the very helpful Lucy and Annie who had gloves, forks, shovels and refreshments to keep us going.

We needed all the help we could get!

This was a meaty gardening task, we removed nettles, weeds, and took on the mighty "sticky thistle balls" (the correct name for them is "Burdock") . Burdock readily attaches itself to clothes and fur, or in tonight's case - hair! That's right, poor *Kate * was attacked by a number of these little critters that had to be carefully removed.

There's no end to a good deed with GoodGym

Many of us were the running wounded by the end of this arduous task with stings, itching, new hair dos and the stench of some dog mess lingering on someone's shoe but we soldiered on. We headed back to the Guildhall, lighting up the streets with our headtorches and proud of what we had achieved tonight.

We covered so much ground , well done everyone!

Look forward to doing more good next Tuesday in Kingston