Warning! This group run contained a cloak, a tourist, a newbie, a Japanese relay race and 300 leaflets

Firstly, can I just say, I presume it was SO COLD TONIGHT to fully give our Camden tourist Beth a true taste of the North East?! As always we started the evening with loads to celebrate including a new runner (Hello Ellen!), a visiting runner (Yay Beth!) a cloaked runner - happy 51st Good Deed, Andrew! Not to mention a 6 month streak celebration for Charlotte and a super warm up in which we discovered Dave can make himself the tallest person in the group, and Abi has great balance until you actually tell her that.

We were off tonight on a task that thankfully required us to keep moving, as we embarked on a huge leaflet drop in the Arthur's Hill area of town for Vertical Veg for Greening Wingrove. There had been a slight panic that we had been given 2000 leaflets instead of 200, and here I must shout out Louise who spent a very rock and roll Saturday night counting them, to thankfully discover there were "only" 300. These leaflets are a vital way of getting the message out to the local community about a new project encouraging people to grow their own vegetables in their back yards. The super projects on offer from Greening Wingrove can be found on their website if you want to read more.

We scattered off in trios and pairs and managed to cover all the streets listed in the task request in a very swift 15 minutes, leaving extra time for the fitness session - yay! A quick reminder of some sprint technique, a quick warm up using lamp posts and a confusing five minutes arranging ourselves into teams for an Ekiden attempt. It's basically another name for a relay but since reading The Way of the Runner (Finn) I have been a little obsessed by the whole thing.

Ekiden (駅伝) = a long-distance running multistage relay race mostly held on roads. The Japanese term originally referred to a post-horse or stagecoach which transmitted communication by stages.

Our Ekiden comprised three short legs and one long sprint finish in which Nick and Darren were victorious, winning our praise and admiration rather than the classic Japanese prizes of household items such as bin bags and cling film. Well done to everyone for putting in loads of effort and cheering each other on, it was awesome.

The social tonight looked pretty good too as the social-ites headed off to The Stack, complete with a bag full of individually sliced cake courtesy of Andrew to celebrate his 50 good deeds. See photos for amazing cake evidence!

Don't forget, there are two fantastic community missions this week. Tomorrow where you can spend a chilled Tuesday morning tidying a school library and Sunday where there is digging to be done for Newcastle Parks. Get involved if you can.

Finally, it's a huge GOOD LUCK to Task Force hero Charlotte who is running in the PARIS MARATHON on Sunday! Have fun and smile every mile. Bon chance Charlotte!

Happy running and walking. See you all next week,

Anji x