*Dig deep Richard, welcome back for your second GoodGym run where we have a resurrection at the sequel to our Halloween graveyard shift. *

We headed along the high street and turned left up Richmond Hill, dodging the Monday night locals as usual. At the top of the hill we got stuck into a drill relay in pairs, consisting of incline press ups, lunges, tricep dips and squats between running back and forth to our partners, in what must have looked like we were doing some strange cricket runs. All we could think of is how scenic the top of the hill will look in about a month’s time when the clocks go forward. What does the Thames look like again?

After the drills we set off again downhill on Queens Road, before taking a right towards Old Richmond Cemetery, where we were greeted by the lovely Steve, Adrian, and my resurrected water bottle from our last visit at Halloween!

Steve briefed us on our task, and carefully squeezed a tale of fright that may have sent a lighthearted volunteer running but this was a grave affair and GG runners are not put off so easily.

We got into groups to start work on clearing the ivy and brambles off gravestones (AKA tug of war practice for our upcoming contest). Steve explained that this part of the cemetery was likely to have been closed off back in the 1930s era, so to say the ivy was overgrown would have been a huge understatement; making each stone we cleared quite a revelation of age and history. It soon turned into a game of ‘find-the-oldest-grave’, and the winner was Amy, with a winning year of 1878! Wow!

After some impressive de-brambling, we uncovered some unexpected gravestones (Hi Frances) and a couple of decorative snails who were taken to safety nearby. Sadly no sign of our toad friend from our last visit :( or the badgers and foxes that had been sighted earlier (we will see you next time guys!) This project within the Richmond Borough is likely to take some time due to the amount of wildlife and overgrown trees etc that have taken root over the years. So it is awesome to get the chance to not only uncover some history but help make it within our community.

Time was soon up, and Steve showed us the area we worked on last time and it was great to see the progress made since then. Thank you Adrian and Steve , look forward to seeing you again soon. And it was now time for our run back. We rejoined Queens Road and took a left down Sheen Road where Mark asked us to try Fartlek running where we ran extra fast between every other lamp post on the long stretch back towards Wholefoods.

Great run tonight everyone! Welcome back to Amy and Rosie, and a big well done to Victoria and Jane for completing the Big Half yesterday - cracking effort! Hope to see you next week with your medals.

P.S Looks like we are now in training for Tug of War in June - bring it on Twickenham.

More news...GG Kingston is happening so start telling your Kingston friends and let Mark know if you have any contacts in that area that could be potential tasks.

And we’re off… It’s the 2nd of January 2018 and undaunted by the bleak weather forecast or the weight of two weeks’ foraging in the Quality Street tub over the Christmas holidays, 12 runners reported for duty at Wholefoods in Richmond.

Mark promised us a gentle short run to ETNA in St Margarets, a local community centre, where we were due to finish a job we started last year, putting the weeds to bed for once and for all with some heavy duty matting and several bags of bark.

It kicked off with a game of ‘Where’s the wheelie?’, a bit like ‘Where’s Wally?’, although you’d expect it to be less challenging since the wheelie bin we were looking for could house a baby elephant (it took two search parties…).
Then it quickly became clear that this job was Mahmoud’s personal mission. Thwarted by too little time on our last visit, Mahmoud was determined to see the job through this time. He was so committed to the task, in fact, he even ran home to get better tools when those in the shed were found wanting. Then he set about cutting and laying matting like a man possessed, whilst we weeded and mulched around him. By this time, we were being pelted by rain and a little icy wind had whipped up around us, testing the spirit of even the most hard core GoodGym runner. The garden shed was starting to look pretty tempting. But Mahmoud, seeing one last bag of bark and with five minutes on the clock, persisted until all the bark was gone. He was definitely our player of the match.

So, 2018 got off to a stomping start with old and new faces joining us for the inaugural run of the year. Let’s hope the weather is a bit kinder to us for the rest of January.

Finally, remember to log all your runs on Strava/Runkeeper (and link it to your GoodGym profile) during January for the GoodGym challenge. Collectively across the UK, we are aiming to complete 5,000 good deeds and run 50,000 kms in a month. And then, of course, there is the chase for the glory of being the best team in the UK…

Welcome to Judith on your first run, I don't think Richmond has had a mother and daughter team, so it was good to have Heidi back and for her to bring you along, well played for getting stuck in at the task. Welcome back Thomas (lots of the newer runners were delighted to see you laden down with you graze snacks.)

Well done to all those runners who have signed up for events this year. One of the challenges mentioned was R.E.D January for the charity Mind, to raise awareness and funds for mental health. Jenna is running this one daily and whilst not necessarily participating for sponsorship, if anyone would like to donate then please contact her.

In amongst the news tonight , I should have mentioned that we have a "starter" run in the calendar for Jan 13th, if anybody you know is considering joining a GoodGym run but struggles with a Monday evening or wants to have a go with other newbies then this is the run for them. If you are already a GoodGym runner you can also use this to build up your mileage, so all welcome. The run details and task are listed on the website.

Finally, we left last year singing and for those that stuck around at the end of tonights run we started the new year in fine voice too as we sung "Happy Birthday" to Mahmoud. Definitely player of the match, holding his birthday celebrations at bay while he tends to his good deeds.

BTW.....BIRTHDAY'S ARE NEWS! You must tell us about them, we promise we won't give you the bumps!

Happy New Year all