We met in the still light of Daveenas and great to welcome back Dan (its your 3rd run Dan!) after a knee injury. Also new tonight was Tim, a regular local parkrunner at Upton! It was great to have you Tim and you worked hard tonight!

Firstly congratulations to Robert who completed his first cross country this weekend! Cross Country is something different and the field is always strong so can be daunting!

Second big shout out to Nicola who tonight was on her 10th Good Deed! (Apologies I did not know this earlier!) and is the first person in Poole Goodgym to hit 10 deeds purely from attending Poole so woop woop!

It was only a mile run to the task tonight and the inclines were barely a mole hill (disappointing for some I know!) so it was straight onto the task area and a chance to do some flying 10's in Oakdale Park. Big Hello to the Oakdale runners out there training tonight too - many familiar faces who attend Goodgym too! There was some great form showing in the flying 10's that we need to carry on creating even when going steady!

At the task tonight we were met by Lesley from ORCA - Oakdale Residents Community Association. She was all prepared for us with compost, tools, wild flowers and bags. It was 2 beds at the front and a long bed at the back that on no one has taken responsibility for in a long time judging by the site of them. The council were more than happy for ORCA to take them on and us to lend a helping hand. They were pretty high with nettles, grass and old roots. It took 20 mins for 12 runners - a lot of pulling, a bag of rubbish (inc windscreen wipers, glasses and a lot of bottles!) and 3 very full bags of green waste to clear the beds. For no apparent reason, it was an all male front with Dan, Tim and Rob all working the front borders. They hosted a huge away of spiders, bugs and insects that left everyone a little itchy at the end! The long bed was cleared with some great chatter (well it was all women!) and the perfect number of runners to clear it all away, plant the wild flowers and clear away finishing the task on time! It was amazing the difference (check out the photos!) a 30 min group can make and it made the area look so much more tidy. The beds had become a litter drop for many and this is likely to reduce as the beds are so clear now. I look forward to driving past and enjoying it!

It is a big weekend ahead with Bournemouth Marathon Festival so good luck to all those doing the 5k - If I can recall correctly it is Julia, Hilary, Jayne, Patricia and for the 10k - Ali. For both 5k and 10k (take it easy!) is our Robert!