In an hour of need, when all appeared lost, a team of fearless runners clad in red took on a 5k run to transform unwanted business waste into useful, crafty items for kids to play and create with at the Children's Scrapstore.

The group amassed under the still shining sun brought by the ever growing days. Laughs and chatter abound despite the daunting task at hand, these brave souls were not letting any worries slip into their minds. Even the fresh faces of the group were confident. Before long the introductions were complete, we knew names, group leaders and back markers, all that was left was to hit the road on the 2.5k run to our task.

WHOOSH!!!

Faster than a hyperactive bat's wing flapping in a hurricane we arrived to the welcome of our hosts Kelly and Lucy. The news was broken to us that we would not packing newsletters tonight...

KAAA-BLAM!!!!

Our hosts then broke out a list of task that would need to be done. The list was long but well structured, like an army of leaf cutter ants transporting identical sections of palm leaf over the Forth Road Bridge. Crack teams picked a task that best suited their super powers. New runner Ceri and Kim sorted nets so fast they could have captured Poseidon.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Others were cutting ropes with their specialist fabric melting powers, slicing through pipes with saws and pincers like ninja lobsters. The bobbin team were poetry in motion as the sliced thread from the bobbins creating webs and beards as they worked. It was a crate effort from the lads on the zip tying team and another team were certainly de-boxing clever.

WHAZUMPH!!!

In no time I was announcing that time was running out. Our heroes held their heads high, heeded the call and set to work finishing their task in hand and some even assisted others to ensure everything was complete. Filing cabinets were moved, and tools were returned. We assembled for a celebratory group photo complete with random scrappy accessories, were thanked by the wonderful ladies from the Scrapstore and headed back to Queen Square.

ZOOOOOMMM!!!!

Faster than you could say "jumping jilikers scrapman" we were back and completing some strength exercises to prepare us for more running and devious tasks to come. We stretched and punned like pros before heading off back to our very own Bat Cave in Vivo.

It was truly a story of the underdogs taking on the impossible this evening but all of you brave souls who dared to run and volunteer are an inspiration to all. You used your evening for good and for that you are all heroes, even if you don't wear bright yellow pants and own a fancy car that farts fire.

THE END

In our largest turn out of the year so far 30 runners helped on a triple challenge at the Children's Scrapstore in St Werburghs.

The Children's Scrapstore is an Aladdin's cave of things that can be used by children for creative play. The items are donated by local businesses and then the wonderful team at the Scrapstore sort and make them safe for children to play with. They had plenty for us to do this evening so it was great that we had so many runners. Including 5 new faces, welcome Lucy, Kirsty, Simon, Nik and Ellie!

After splitting into two groups for the run to St Werburghs, the meandering pacey group and the easy strollers . We timed it to perfection and met at the lights just up the road so we all arrived at the task together. Kelly from the Scrapstore welcomed us in and explained our three challenges.

• 1 - Distribute leaflets around the local area
• 2 - Move furniture from a hallway into the back office
• 3 - Process loads of items ready to be used
  

Alice led the 7 leafleteers into the streets to spread the word about the fun the could be had at a Scrapstore birthday party. While Woodwose Matt directed the 10 furniture shifters and everyone else took a work station in the warehouse and sorted that scrap.

The furniture team had an added challenge in the fact that the staff are very fussy about how things are arranged on their shelves and would not be happy if everything did not go back in it's right place. Being the sharp focused they are they took photos and, once relocated, put everything back on the shelves in the right place (hopefully...). In the warehouse Fi and newbie Kirsty took on the totally tubular task of cutting pipe into lengths. As you can see from the photos they got a bit carried away and started pretending to be robots at some points, well who wouldn't!? Others cut thread from bobbins, sorted phones, took apart chairs and cut nets. It was busier than carnival at Clapham Junction during rush hour.

As the time ran out the tasks were all pretty much complete and we had achieved far more than anyone had expected. We took a group photo (minus some of the leafleteers who were stuck outside because the door was locked, sorry!), split into two groups again and headed back to Queen Square. On our return the first group completed some drills of lunges, skips and grapevines before we all assembled at the end for a stretch. After a news update and Dave's genius pun suggestion we said goodbye to some while others came for out monthly eats, which was a lovely curry at Tikka Flame organised by the wonderful Paul.

Thanks to those who came along tonight, I hope you had a great time. We really showed how much a group of eager runners can do in such a short space of time. Good luck to all you Larmer Tree runners this weekend.

Scrappy Running,

Gary