Monday and a meet up at the fantastic University building - such a lovely venue for our start location, and an exciting adventure for me as Colchester trainer. Chrissie who's also a Colchester runnner came along for the ride, and we welcomed Gemma for her first Goodgym run.

Since the task was incredibly close to the University, Ian had devised a circuitous route to give us a decent run before we got there. Andrew knew the route there, so he led the run as I backmarked to give us a nice 1 mile warm up before we met our task.

My, there was a lot to do. One team cleared furniture out of two rooms who's floors were to be painted, whilst another team started building a leaf mould bin, and breaking down pallets. We discovered a new tool specifically for this task, and rather like the Colchester runners, discovered that Ipswich runners also love smashing things up.

After the furniture removal, there was the floor to be dusted, and special masks were required for this. It was really dusty judging by what the masks looked like afterwards.

Meanwhile, plants were being rescued from dying by being re-potted to a new home, and blocks of wood were transported using wheelbarrows. Then the painting started.

A team of 4 got on with painting the floor in one room, and despite the short amount of time available, they managed to do it in just 20 minutes.

The tasks were complete, and Jo thanked us for our work and invited us back as often as we'd like. We all felt really good and took our long route back to do some circuit training on the quayside.

The circuit concentrated on single leg stability, which is crucial for distance runners avoiding injury. There will probably be some sore legs tomorrow.

Thanks for being a fab group of runners Ipswich, and thanks for having me!