A very warm welcome to our new runners Gabriel and Gareth last night — great to have you along for your first GG Wandsworth session!

We started with our usual warm-up, plus the random question of the evening:What is the only dog that doesn’t have a pink tongue? The answer of course was the Chow Chow, whose tongue is famously blue-black. Now fully warmed up — and considerably more knowledgeable about canine anatomy — we set off towards Battersea Park for a rather special visit.

First stop on the magical mystery tour was the Thrive Garden, where we picked up our tools before heading deeper into the park to visit the Battersea Park's resident monk. The famous Peace Pagoda was built in 1985 by the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order as a focus for peace and is one of around 80 such pagodas around the world. Reverend Gyoro Nagase helped construct the Battersea Pagoda and maintains it to this day.

Our mission for the evening was to give his garden a good tidy up. Armed with rakes, bags and plenty of muscle, the team got stuck in. Leaves were raked up and packed away — despite the bag having a significant hole in it which provided an unexpected extra challenge as we attempted to transport the leaves without simply redistributing them across the park!

There was weeding and clearing to be done, along with planting a new salvia bush. Before long the area was looking considerably tidier. The monk came out to thank us and was clearly very happy with the transformation — always a lovely way to finish a task.

But we weren't done for the evening. We squeezed in a two-minute fitness challenge, seeing how many reps of jump squats, shoulder taps and plank jacks. The numbers and form were very impressive! Well done everybody.

Tools returned, it was time to head back to base for some stretches and, of course, that hill. And apparently we didn't suffer enough, because there was even a request for more hill sprints! Ask and you will receive - more sprints are coming soon to a hill near you.

Next week…

We're heading to Doddington community garden followed by our monthly pub quiz social! Everyone is welcome — whether you're joining us for the run, the task, the quiz or all three!

See you there! 🏃‍♂️🌿🍻