We were two-tasking it again this evening, and really putting the ‘earth’ into Earth Hour on both our tasks.

A secondary SOS task to Cranbrook Community Food Garden

In an eleventh hour addition to our planned activity, task force member Becky J headed up a splinter group of four to one of our longest standing, favourite tasks, Cranbrook Community Food Garden. Writes Becky, “Just a mini detour en route to Cranbrook this evening, as fellow Task Force member Bryon challenged me to attempt navigating our route without assistance (always a challenge...). This added just one small loop to the run, but I'm all in favour of a little extra (accidental) mileage.

On arrival at the garden, we witnessed Storm Gareth had indeed left a trail of destruction in his wake, felling a tree and damaging fencing in the process. Bryon and Eimear set to work removing twigs from a boundary fence, while Tom and I began the tricky task of untangling climbing plants from a now broken trellis, before pulling down the arch.

Having successfully achieved this, (and, btw, saving a tree we feared may have to be pulled up in the process), we were then presented with a flat pack replacement arch (turns out flat pack instructions are easier in daylight, with a mug of strong coffee, than in a dark garden, deciphered under torchlight alone).

But Bryon and Eimear joined us and together we got the arch standing, just in time to pose for a couple of pics alongside our evening’s handiwork.”

Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue indeed.

Potting at Parkview

Meanwhile, I headed up the Parkview crew who were Glasshouse-bound to this most wonderful community hall on the Parkview Estate. Task owner Catherine met us with two tasks – potting bee-friendly plants and leafleting for the upcoming Spring Fayre - leaving no preparation stone unturned as she presented a proposed plant production line of such efficiency, the likes of which I’ve never seen before; ditto leafleting instructions (think hand drawn maps of the estate).

Two leaflet teams were dispatched onto the estate's many blocks, while the plant-potters, headed up by Luke, and initially Dave (who was then demoted to deputy by young Connie, who joined from the Parkview residents team to instruct on best plant-handling practice) grouped in two different areas of the hall.

It was a race to the finish, but by the time we left all 800 plants had been potted, and the area swept and scrubbed down. Wow.

Tempo run and tree pose

And so we headed to Victoria Park, led by Steve, for some fabulous speedwork headed up by both Tom and Steve, and finishing with a couple of resistance exercises.

And then it was back to our beautiful hotel base, where we were lucky enough to have Christina, a regular runner and qualified yoga teacher, lead us through some fabulous yoga stretches to finish.

Another totally neat night. More missions awesomely accomplished. More thoroughly relieved and appreciative task owners. Well. Done. You.

Monday shout-out’s

A very big shout out to tonight's first time runners, Ridwan, Anais and Eirini – thanks for making such a huge contribution on your first run, and we hope to see you really soon.

And thank you to Becky, for enabling the second task to happen, and for kind of saving the day and for taking some great pics, and writing the report.

Now, don’t forget, we’re doing it all again on Saturday when task force member Bryon leads up a brand new gardening task in E3 – yes, we’re putting the ‘earth’ back into Earth Hour for the second time this week. More details and sign up are here.

Have a brilliant week, won't you all, and hope to see you very soon.

A terrific-sized team again

30 runners gathered for this evening's task, always a popular one, as we headed to awesome Oxford House half a mile away in the heart of Bethnal Green, to start The Big Paint Job.

After a quick warm up, Luke stepped in to lead us all down the road to our task, taking in a little detour, to avoid The Longest Traffic LIghts In The World, and to squeeze in a microscopic little more mileage.

It's all in the prep

Sarah, our task owner, was BRILLIANTLY prepared as always: runners had been pre-assigned to two areas, complete with own rollers, brushes and paint trays.

What looked like a large office space upstairs to begin with, soon looked brand new as less-than-white walls were rapidly coated in bright new paint. The runners worked tirelessly in small teams, pausing only to assess their work, or, in Tom's case, to offer extra lighting to show up the faintest of smudges.

And, as always, 30 minutes in, half the team were task-less, having finished so quickly, and were soon tasked with the tricky job of cleaning all the rollers, and helping fellow runners out in the basement. The team work just went on and on.

Hitting the floor for some flexibility work

And then it was after 8 and we gathered in the wonderful theatre area for our Pilates flexibility session. The team were on fire tonight! In a packed theatre, they balanced, and stretched and strengthened - every last rep executed brilliantly, and without a peep. Gold stars all round.

And no sooner had we arrived, it seems, flushed and fresh faced from our run, than we were posing on the ramp for our cheerio pics, to a very appreciative task owner.

Our thank you's - and our shout-out's

A massive warm welcome to Alica and Toto who joined us for the first time, making an immense contribution to this evening’s activity! We hope to see you again very soon.

Thanks from the whole group to our wonderful Task Force, who ran some brilliant activities this weekend, and to Becky G for backmarking this evening too, and to Luke for leading and navigating our run to the task.

...And our new task next week!

Next week, we’re at a brand new task when we’re heading to Victoria Park - yes the Victoria Park - to help the Park Ranger Team spread mulch. And then we’ll be running. This is one not to be missed, so sign up now.

Chilly – but cheerful

31 runners gathered in Bethnal Green tonight to head out to Weavers Adventure Playground, one of our very favourite tasks. The 4-degree January chill was no match for this determined lot as we congregated outside our hotel meeting point for our headcount, amidst lots of excited chatter.

Such was the chill in the air, we decided to head to nearby Middleton Green for a quick warm up lap, followed by a couple of dynamic mobility exercises to get us in the mood for shovelling sand and lifting tyres. Everyone took this very well, as we 'enjoyed' skater squats on the basketball court, having chased Steve around the small park.

Truly tough tasks

Shortly after 7.15 we arrived at the playground to be greeted by task owner Alex who was well prepared with a line up of tough but interesting tasks. The first crew headed to the sandpit to shovel sand into wheelbarrows and then out into tyres on the go-kart track. No mean feat, I can tell you.

Another group gathered beneath the trampoline to pull up weeds and shrubs; a third group shifted tyres from one tyre mountain to another (and then stacked a further tyre mountain tidily), while a fourth group washed and scrubbed furniture and children's toys.

Too speedy for their own good

Sounds like a lot? It was but guess what? 20 minutes in and half the runners were taskless, "They work too fast!" bemoaned Alex. Best. Criticism. Ever. And so further tasks were created. A new crew were despatched behind the hall to move garden furniture and goal posts (no, that's not a typo, and was a close shave shifting that thing in the air at one point, btw - #youhadonejob), while another team then moved timber at lightning speed from one side of the play area to another.

And then there was still time leftover. The majority of the team then gathered in the hall for our workout of the night (a few stayed out to get the job done.) There seemed to be many disgruntled faces during the workout tonight, which I wasn't sure was down to the floor surface which made for a miserable side plank, or my lack of height in a big hall, making for a difficult-to-follow exercise demo. Or the mean exercises. Don't think the latter.

And then it was 8.20 and we were saying cheerio to Alex, who expressed a short-but-heartfelt thanks for all that we do, and the difference it makes to him and to the children who use the playground. It really is nothing short of a miracle.

And then we were home-and-hotel bound, another productive and enjoyable night under our belt.

Shout-out's galore this week...

From us all, thank you to Steve, Luke and Bryon for leading and navigating our run out, and for Steve heading up our impromptu opening speed session.

Thanks to Ivo and Will for lovely back marking, and to David for this week’s wonderful pun, and to Dave who helped out with music tech at the start of the evening so we could all plank to music.

A very, very big warm welcome to our wonderful new runners tonight: Daniel, Christina, Becki, Vaida, Sarah and Karkay. What work! What a Monday night effort. What we all want to know is, when are you coming back?? I hope you had a wonderful night, and thanks for helping to make this evening so fun and productive.

Moving on to our next exciting events for you…

So, moving on…Next week, we’re two-tasking it at least (might even be 3 – watch this space), heading to Hollybush & Cranbrook gardens, followed by some running – details are here, while don’t forget on Sat Feb 9th, our fabulous Task Force member and parkrun co-ordinator, Becky G, is heading up our next Mile End parkrun pacing collaboration. Details and sign up for that are here.

Right, I’m off. Well done again for absolutely blowing January blues right out of the water; for being the most productive and fun crew to be found in East London.

Have a wonderful week, and I hope to see you very, very soon.