Ten degrees and daylight – what a difference a week makes. A compact but efficient team of eight runners met at Wholefoods for the first British Summertime GoodGym run, including new runner, Sophie (welcome!), Louisa back for her second run, Richard back for his third run and a guest appearance from Ealing runner, Larissa.

Our task for the evening was a return visit to ETNA, the East Twickenham community centre in St Margarets, to carry on beating back the weeds and to tidy up the herb garden. But first, Mark, our pocket rocket trainer, wanted to make sure we wouldn’t forget him whilst on the second week of his holiday and had challenged us with some hill work.

Off we set through Richmond’s town centre, up Richmond Hill to a fabulous viewpoint of the Thames just dipping into shadow as the sun set and here we briefly paused before running down and up a steep incline linking Richmond Hill and Petersham Road. It has to be said that I’m not sure I was getting too many friendly looks as the team reached the summit… Now I know how Mark feels.

Then it was (mostly) all downhill, along the river and over the bridge to ETNA in St Margarets. ETNA is a great neighbourhood community centre offering all sorts of services from preschool to pilates to counselling and support groups. Once there, everyone got stuck into some weeding, clearing the ground for mulching the next time but leaving the bluebells to flower for a few weeks. The herb garden was tidied up nicely and smelling fragrant by the time we packed up for the run back to Wholefoods.

Mark’s back next week and wouldn’t a bank holiday run be just the thing to work off some of the chocolate eggs you get through at the weekend?

In other news, we’re looking for a Richmond mission to film. If you are running to a coach who has a task that might be suitable for a mission, let Mark know.