We had a great turnout for a longer run than usual tonight - up to St Leonard's church to help with sewing some grass seed in the grounds. We started off by doing a warm up outside Leisure World, which included; marching on the spot, star jumps, squats, a lot of weaving about, plus handshakes and hugs, then set off to tackle the route at a steady pace. Leading the way was Ian, and taking care of back-marking duties was Michelle, with the rest of us at different stages of energy and bounce in between! Extra credit goes to Ella and Tav, two of our super-fit members, clocking up extra miles by doubling back and checking on progress. Many of the group are running the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday, so there was a lot of discussion about preparing for the race, and for those not running - preparing to spectate! Training has been a bit up and down recently, for some members, with the cold weather and snow, so a huge well done to everyone who has managed to get a few runs in here and there, as every little helps!

At the church, David explained that there was a service in progress, so we tried to be quiet, but many of us forgot immediately (oops!) in the excitement of spreading some appropriately-named 'miracle gro' grass seed across the prepared areas near the entrance to the church. Emily did a fantastic job of comprehensively using up all the seed, and Vanessa showed some very green fingers with her expert sowing techniques - well done everyone. As it's GoodGym, we made sure we took some photos, before re-grouping and heading back.

On the way back, we did some seriously snakey running, sticking together as a group and cheering each other on, as we individually sprinted to the front of the snake, then slowed to a jog. Kudos goes to Bob and Hannah for their super speedy sprinting! Several goodgymers told me that the run back felt much shorter as a result, hurrah! Also, well done and welcome back to Chris and Emma, who were re-joining after a little break, great running tonight folks, and quickly becoming regulars - Dan and Carl - really good to have you with us, hope you enjoyed the run. Back at Leisure World we did some stretching and cooled down.

Please note that if you're interested in Coach Runs or Mission Runs, all the info and guidance is on the website, and just give it a go. Tav mentioned that his Coach Runs have been really inspirational, and he will be channelling that inspiration into the half marathon on Sunday.

Finally, we must mention our two glorious prize winners this evening - Michelle and Ella both outdid themselves with their 'extreme running accessorising' for our competition. Between them they were stylishly wearing more gadgets, buffs, lights, bangles, flip belts, bum bags, and hair bands than you've ever seen - possibly more than the rest of us put together! Impressive stuff!

See you next time everyone, for some Good Gym Good Times!