16 runners ran 5k to help their local community in Colchester

Welcome back to GoodGym everyone, and Happy New Year! We congratulated Ella and Chrissie on their brilliant parkrun pb's at Christmas and noted that Ian, Michelle and Bob (to name but a few) had all done lots of running over the festive season, well done folks!

It was a great turnout for the first GoodGym group run of the year - and we ran to one of our favourite sites - Firstsite. This time we didn't get to smash anything up, but we did get to do a huge amount of work in a short time, helping Eddie the site manager to keep the contemporary art gallery's grounds looking beautiful.

It was still rather windy, from the after effects of Storm Eleanor, which had brought down some branches onto the grass in front of the building, and stirred up lots of leaves everywhere. So Eddie split us into three groups, and we set to work. One group sawed up the branches, another group cut back and tidied the foliage, and swept leaves, and the third group were assigned a patch to clear over by 15 Queen Street, bagging up leaves and litter.

Firstsite was fully booked with various groups leading sessions inside, which looked intriguing, and we also made a note to return to see the Grayson Perry exhibition properly.

Once we'd finished our tasks, we re-grouped and headed off to North Hill for a couple of hill repeats - great for fitness but also great practise for our local parkrun, which is rather hilly! We tried to focus on using our arms better, to propel us up the hill, as this can make it easier. We then headed back around the park to Leisureworld for some cool-down stretches and a chat before making our way home.