Sticks and stones wont break our bones and the beast from the East wont harm us

Its been a day of weather watching - will it snow or wont it, will we be able to see the sticks we are meant to be moving or will they be buried in snow.

Someone was smiling on us - the promised deluge just never materialised but by gum it was cold. -2 said the car thermometer and with the wind chill it was about -6.

5 joined us at task while the other 7 braved the cold and the nigh on 5k run through the Abbey Park and past the National Space Centre to the Outdoor Pursuits.

Taskmaster Chris met us on site and was quick to record his thanks and admiration that we had turned out on such a bitter night. The task was to tidy about 150 metres of track that had recently been flailed - twigs and branches needed hand picking off the gravel path and grass verge and throwing into the hedge line.

As usual the group needed very little instruction and soon got stuck in. Chris summed up at the end by saying that what we had done in half an hour would have probably taken his grounds maintenance team a couple of days.

The group that made the trek back to town experienced a mile of snake sprints with everyone taking a turn to sprint to the front and set the pace. Steve showed us all a clean pair of heels with some impressive speed. Steve has been regularly visiting his coach once a week and a home extension has occupied a lot of his time but it was really nice to welcome him back tonight.

Rachel also revealed that she is doing her first half marathon in Warwick at the weekend and we all look forward to hearing how she gets on.

Strangely enough, on the coldest night of the year we had our best turnout to date - it all bodes well for when the warmer weather returns - whenever that may be???