With temperatures hitting 35 degrees, this was never going to be an evening for speedy runs. The team wisely swapped the run for a walk to the task, arriving slightly later than usual - but with the mission still being crystal clear.

Sevan: “Everybody be cool, this is a litter pick!”
Kash “Any of you rubbish tricks move and I'll bin every last bit of ya!”

The assignment was simple: clear the alleyway all the way down towards Park Royale, tackling the usual collection of discarded fast-food wrappers, cans, and mystery debris lurking in the bushes.

As the team spread out with litter pickers and bags, accompanied by Harvey’s improvised Dick Dale & The Del-Tones beatbox soundtrack, the conversations drifted into full-on Tarantino territory.

Steph: “You know what we call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?”
Harvey: “You don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?”
Steph: “No, man, we got the metric system. We wouldn't know what a Quarter Pounder is.”
Harvey: “What'd you call it?”
Steph: “We call it a Royale with Cheese.”
Harvey: “Royale with Cheese. What do you call a Big Mac?”
Steph: “Big Mac's a Big Mac, but we call it Le Big Mac.”
Harvey: “Le Big Mac! Ahaha, what do you call a Whopper?”
Steph: “I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.”

The GoodGymers didn’t need to go into Burger King either. Burger King came to them. Wrappers, drink cups and abandoned fries cartons flooded the top section of the alleyway. Sadly, despite reaching Park Royale, the team found very little actual “Royale with Cheese” evidence, only Captain Morgan bottles coming in all shapes and sizes.

Among the haul were disposable vapes, sweets packaging, beer cans and enough assorted rubbish to fill three bags, alongside a couple of small fly-tips cleared from the passage. Like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, some mysteries remained unsolved. Who leaves this much litter behind? Why were there so many Captain Morgan bottles in one place? Who planted a Heineken tree? And most importantly: where was the cheese?

Still, there was good news beneath the grime. Compared to the previous visits, the alleyway was noticeably cleaner, proving that repeated community action really is making a difference. The path to Park Royale may not have been paved with gold, but after one sweaty evening with GoodGym, it was at least a little less paved with rubbish.

Mr E was a collector of literature and other reading material. His flat was full of papers. Books, magazines, leaflets, newspapers. All piled up on tables and filled in bags. It was time for Mr E to let go of them a little bit at a time.

When Kash and Sevan entered his flat, Mr E pointed to the big problem that he had, some thick blue rubble bags on his sofa. They needed to be recycled, so the GoodGymers lugged them down the stairs and as the contents spilled out into the recycling bin, they looked at what was inside. All of the bags were filled with newspapers. Old ones, from 2014, 2015 and other editions that Mr E must have found notable. One that jumped out at Kash was from 2009, pronouncing the death of Michael Jackson. Unlike (or like) Michael Jackson, the newspapers were both black and white and they were all getting recycled, no matter how newsworthy their stories once were.

With that quick task completed, Kash and Sevan offered to help Mr E sort through the piles of papers and books sitting on his dining table. Some of them Mr E said that he paid a lot of money for and the valuable ones, he wanted to donate to the library. Together, they managed to dispose of a few leaflets, but Mr E wanted to work through the rest once he was in better health. That meant that the classic Around Ealing magazines - in colour - will have to wait for next time.

For part 2 of today's (ultra) marathon volunteering session for Queen of the Suburbs, the last 25km runners passed through and the first 50km runners were close behind with 29km already in their legs.

Each group or runners wanted different things from the GoodGym staffed aid station, with the 25k-ers mostly grabbing water and quickly moving on. The last pair through were a mother and daughter who were walking the distance. The mum was 75 years old. What an absolute legend to be walking and completing Queen of the Suburbs on such a hot day 🙇.

The 50k runners were more likely to stop and refuel, including familiar faces - and GoodGymers - Steph and Shan. Top food options for everyone were bananas and Ritz crackers, unsurprisingly. The 50km runners were much more pickle curious too than those covering the shorter distance. No one was brave enough to drink the pickle juice. Pickles munching was more common as there was a rumour that they were packed with electrolytes. One runner even broke out in song:

"Last night a pickle saved my life" 💃

Each runner was recommended to take 1 litre of water with them to the next aid station and a lot of jugs were poured and water sloshed around. A few runners showed poor bladder control. Some were directed to the toilets and the others were unable to reseal their water bladders after they were topped up by Kash, Maria, Richard and Sevan. They needed a lot of fiddling around to get moving again.

Half way through the session, reinforcements were called for. More bananas were delivered to avoid a shortage and sun cream too with the temperature rising and the sun getting stronger. Harvey arrived fresh from Pitshanger Junior parkrun to help the morale of runners and their supporters. He was almost mistaken for a QotS runner, except that he didn't look sweaty enough or tired enough.

After 11:30, the number of runners passing through tailed off. There was a lot of waiting around and the last run-walker eventually made it to the aid station at 12:45. That triggered a quick wrap up, with food and drinks being packed into a van and the aid station torn down. All that was left were the wet patches on the ground, the memories of the interesting people who'd passed through and the big thank you given to us by the organisers:

"A huge thank you to you and all the GoodGym runners. Have a great rest of the long weekend!"