This afternoon was a special run, and a special event that 6 of us thoroughly enjoyed.

We met in our usual beautiful hotel reception, where welcoming Town Hall Hotel staff showed us to this week's room, the divine De Montfort Suite, where we were hosting our London Marathon 2019 partnership event with the hotel.

This was the most fabulous space, and we had great fun even signing in, while speculating whether the grand piano was actually a Steinway. And then we tore ourselves away from this majestic space to enjoy a leisurely run to meet our very dear Friends of Meath Gardens, undoubtedly one of our most popular tasks. Here Tunde, Asia and Julia greeted us and wasted no time in dispatching us to the borders, already well populated by volunteer gardeners busy at work tackling stubborn nettles, dandelions (the toughest roots of them all, FYI), all while carefully avoiding daffs and shrubs.

We settled in, and were joined by Ellen and Will, whose first run it was. Not that you'd have known. Will took to productive weeding on a blustery Saturday afternoon like a duck to water.

After nearly 90 minutes of serious work, it was time to head back to the hotel for this afternoon's fitness session, leaving Tunde and the team still weeding. These guys don't stop!

And so we arrived back at our palatial home for the afternoon, and greeted Rachel and Lucy, our lovely marathon runners, joining us from the hotel. We enjoyed 50 minutes of mobility exercises, some very light stretching and several body scan exercises. The team participated in earnest, working so hard at focusing, and really seemed to switch off. No mean feat for soon-to-be Marathon runners and busy gardeners, so well done.

And then it was a wrap, and what a wonderful time we had.

Thank you to you all, for such a productive, enjoyable, friendly and welcoming afternoon for everyone. And we hope to see you again very soon.

We were a respectable sized crew again this evening, this time of 32 - just as well as we needed reinforcements for a second, eleventh hour task...

Two teams, lots done

Task force member Bryon had come to the rescue and stepped in to lead a team of 6 leafleting around the Parkview Estate for the community's forthcoming Winter Wellbeing event this weekend. With military planning (a last minute change of address plus factoring-in the yoga session taking place a mile away), the team headed off promptly before 7 to meet a very appreciative task owner.

Meanwhile, remaining runners gathered on the hotel steps for our usual intro, where I tried a bit of simple multi-tasking tonight, combining intro and warm-up exercises. More work needed is an understatement. We greeted tonight's new runners and ran through the evening's itinerary, which was tightly packed down to the very last minute tonight.

Heading just half a mile away to Oxford House, we arrived promptly to be greeted by task owner Sarah who speedily dispatched multiple teams to various parts of the building for a variety of cleaning and pre-decorating tasks. This task was surprisingly hard work - quite rewarding, getting stubborn chewing gum off floors and skirting boards back to pristine, but hard work nonetheless, and a BIG well done to The Loo Crew who really showed some cistern grime who was boss. A bit of a thankless one that one, however.

Bring it OM

And then 7.50 arrived: cloths were rinsed, buckets emptied again and we made our way to the theatre swapping scourers for stretches as Emma took the runners through 25 minutes of running-specific yoga poses and stretches. Lucky GoodGymers tonight, I say.

Sarah was over the moon with what everyone achieved again this evening - GoodGymers are such an energetic and productive lot, both task owners were really appreciative of you saving the day again.

And then we dispersed, some home, some back to the hotel, for a stretch and a cheerio,

Yet again, way to go Team Tower Hamlets.

Big shout-out's this week...

A big, big hello to tonight's fantastic first time runners: Dario, Lonnie, Rhian, Hannah, Lucie, and Sian, not all new to GG, but all new to Tower Hamlets! Lovely to see you, well done for all you achieved, and I hope we see you all again soon.

And a massive thanks for Bryon for leading the last minute leafleting task, and to your team for all you accomplished, and to Emma for a wonderful yoga session, and all your planning for a really great end to the evening.

And thank you to Joel for tonight's wicked pun, who really saved the day, and to Claire for coming up with our second, fantastic pun.

We're back ON SATURDAY THIS WEEK - and next Monday!

Next Monday, we’re heading back to The Royal London for our first visit of the year to Nancy and the team, as we join Barts Volunteers on the wards, and sprucing up the gardens. Details and sign up are here.

...While on Saturday, we have an awesome line-up for you: yep, no need to wait until Monday if you fancy some more GG Tower Hamlets action - our brilliant task force member Becky is leading a bulb-planting task, with Run Leader Chi hosting a fitness session beforehand. Sign up for one or both of these fabulous activities!