*It was a nice, warm, April day and a momentous one for our dedicated runner Chrissie. 50 good deeds and new T-shirt soon. *

Apologies for the cricket style report title as tonight was all about planting, weeding, watering and fitness. No willow or leather in sight although we often run past a cricket pitch opposite our lovely Castle Park.

Anyway, it was brilliant to see everyone and the London Marathon was in our thoughts early on as we saw Wali and his guide runner Gareth, who are regular Colchester Parkrunners, featured on the news as they take on the London Marathon on Sunday. Good luck to them.

Lighter evenings mean we are able to run in the park and Ella led the way with some athletics drills to warm up our legs and engage our core muscles. You will all get the hang of it and feel the benefits soon and it was great to learn some new warm up exercises.

We conquered Balkerne Hill, caught up with our walkers/joggers and met Pam on Crouch Street to make the flower beds and baskets lush and beautiful. The group had three tasks - weeding, planting and watering but as always they went above and beyond and cleared litter too.

Pam was very happy and the visible difference was fabulous. The invisible difference will be seen when the watered plants quench their thirsts and burst into bloom.

Off we went again to the park, Chrissie collected 50 high fives and then she organised some fitness games - 50 burpees, 50 sit ups and 50 seconds best effort hard running. Can you see the connection?

On Saturday we jointly takeover Colchester Parkrun and it will be great to see you all, running, volunteering or just strolling in the park! Next week we return to the Foodbank...get your lifting muscles ready!

GREAT EFFORT TONIGHT! WEDNESDAYS ARE ALWAYS A PLEASURE!