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