16 signed …. Only 7 dared to feel the heat. No one can blame them, it was a scorcher, a magnificent day! But with a task that had slipped from our grip the most magnificent seven ventured into the oven baked Richmond town to get some good done.

So school was out…sadly our task owner had cancelled at very short notice and the best use for the forecast 16 runners was work in progress right up until 30 minutes before we started the warm up. After much debate and some pre-running around the fences on Richmond Green seemed to be the place that we could make the most difference. This was supported later by the fact that a tourist runner expressed how appalled they were on initial viewing of the fence when we arrived… “I am disappointed in Richmond” was what was actually said.

So being quite patriotic about Richmond, I imagine there are some of you reading this that are already in tears, but fear not the run report is not over yet.

A big salute to the 7 that made it tonight and a particular welcome to one runner visiting, our very own founder, Ivo - It was lovely to have you join us.

Last night we celebrated “I Am Team GB”, Saturday 24th August was the nation’s biggest sports day, aiming to continue to inspire more people to be active; so, with banners and badges and our own relay race we played our part.

Richmond green was a buzz with many lounging in the sun and even though it was warm there was always room for a warm up. We kept it quite brief as we didn’t want to peak to early - we were keen to save enough juice for the 5km run ahead and still squeeze in our shuttle run competition where the winners got to blast the rest with some leaky pistols!

Feeling energised and a tad refreshed we took a tourist approach to the run, capturing Richmond Hill, the scenes from the top, a quick wave to Richmond park and then down to say hello to the cows on Petersham Common before making our way back along the river to the fences on Richmond Green.

Not only is Richmond Green famous for many a red headed orchestrated warm up, but it used to host Jousting tournaments in the Middle Ages (I feel the knights would be proud of our own tournaments) ,when English monarchs were living in or visiting what is now called Richmond. For over 400 years, Richmond Green has been edged by houses and commercial premises – built to provide accommodation for people serving or visiting Richmond Palace. In 1625 Charles I brought his court here to escape the plague in London and by the early 18th century these had become the homes of "minor nobility, diplomats, and court hangers-on.

So for this awesome community space in Richmond our task was to keep up appearances and address the not so white fences on the edge of the green. It started with a quick trip to the pub to ask the landlord for half a bucket (no it’s not what you think) …of hot water, and we had 3 rounds of this.

Back on the green we added some soapy flash and then armed with a small number of sponges and cloths we blitzed through as many of the posts as we could and all the while against the setting sun. It was lovely to hear a few passes by thanking us for our efforts and one couldn’t help feeling huge satisfaction in seeing the transformation in the colour of the fences by the time we had finished.

One can only hope too that in the brilliant light of day with fences now sparkling the words “I am disappointed in Richmond” will never be heard again.

All that was left to do was take our last photo in the dark and have a quick re-warm up to cool down…oh and of course, mull over a pun, quite painfully and then debate as ever who would like to write the run report (there was no jousting to determine the answer to this one.)

Next week we are running to Vineyard and hopefully all will be a little less chaotic so looking forward to seeing you then.

In the meantime, please consider how you think we should celebrate GoodGym’s birthday, we can share ideas over a drink next week after the run.