It was a lovely autumn evening. Clear skies but cool weather and ideal for 25 of us to take to the streets and tackle those stubborn roots at Grenville Road Gardens we've been talking about.

We greeted seven newcomers this evening! Plus a few faces we haven't seen for a while.

We congratulated Aidan on completing his first coach run and then split into two groups for the 2.5k run up to the gardens. En route we discussed the best pre-race food to eat. There were some pretty standard, sensible suggestions for what to munch on the morning of the race such as bananas, porridge, granola, muesli, weetabix, honey on toast; and proposals for the night before included a big pasta meal and baked potatoes. Then there was the suggestion of eggs or steak!

If it works for you, then go for it!

Sarah met us at Grenville Road where it was already pretty dark. But we had lots of headtorches and mobile phone torches propped up in branches so weren't troubled.

Jobs for the evening were: 1) Get those roots up 2) Clear leaves from the edge of the garden (it's definitely autumn) and 3) trim some lavender bushes. We split into different groups and set about our tasks. The lavender ladies and leaf lot had no trouble completing their tasks, but those pesky roots ... well, there were just too many of them. But no need to feel defeated because there were a couple of big stumpy victories and we've made continuation of the task that much easier for the next group (maybe us). If you compare the area to its condition three weeks ago you can see our contribution is enormous and FROGG are very grateful for our help.

For the run back we split into three groups. Patrick led the speedsters/gluttons for punishment, Steve led the steady group and Simon led the philosophers (those who like to be able to run and discuss stuff at the same time). We all seemed to converge at Emirates for various stair drills, hill running and interval-style bits and pieces before jogging back to the pool.

We tried out a couple of new stretches and for stretch of the week revisited "the frog" (very apt) from last time.

Nobody managed to decrypt the tweet and win the £50 chocolate prize. It's too late now, but keep your eyes peeled for another competition.

Next week we're going to Barnsbury Community Centre to shift a load of topsoil. Great upper body workout guaranteed and tell your friends because it's a starter session. If you need any more persuasion, Patrick M hinted that he might bring "snickerdoodles".

See you then,

Simon

P.S. Check out Claire's post about the evening and GoodGym and a great review