11 runners ran 5k to help their local community in Colchester.

Much to everyone's relief the weather was much drier than our soggy Valentine's last week and the group were keen to get going once they heard what this evening's task would be.

A few members of the group asked what game we would be playing for our warm-up with me leading the run tonight and they were not disappointed when they discovered 'Man the Lifeboats' was on the cards. Our jolly Goodgymers ducked and crouched when the boom came, stood to attention on the Captain's arrival, climbed the rigs when called for and then clung to each other when they heard "Man overboard"! All warmed up we set off on our run to Emmaus.

Emmaus is a fantastic charity that works to help the homeless. Emmaus champions are given accommodation and an allowance and in return they work within their community. This evening we were helping out in the Emmaus warehouse, where many items are recieved as donations and then sold or upcycled to raise vital funds. Our role was to sort a large donation of vinyl records into catergories, as a buyer will be visiting on Friday with the intention of buying the job lot and seeing the records in catergorised groups would help assist with the sale.

Everyone was quick to get involved sorting hundreds of vinyls into disco, classical, country and western, singles and 78s categories. However, many of the vinyls did makes us stop and think, as they didn't always fit into these given categories or were titles some of us did not recognise the genre, so we added a Misc box into the list. Ian was particularly excited by a vinyl recording he found of the commentary from a Colchester United vs Leeds football match in the early 70s with an iconic image on the cover. We all enjoyed the music that was playing for us as we worked and the disco light that helped set such a positive mood.

John from Emmaus was very impressed with the speed at which we were able to organise so many vinyl records and thanked us all before we set off on our way to do hill sprints on North Hill.

The Hill sprints on North Hill were a first for quite a few members of the group and they made a fantastic effort to give it all they had - well done everyone.

Congratulations to Tav for finishing 1st at the Mersea parkrun on Saturday (although he did forget his barcode - doh!) and to Ella for finishing in 9th overall (2nd woman). Congratulations, too, to Ian who today is celebrating the 37th anniversary of the first date with his beloved wife, but still made the time to join us doing good in the community.

Next Wednesday (28th Feb) will be our social at the Noodle Bar on North Hill, meeting there at 8.15pm. Ian had booked a table for 10 people, but will increase it to 14 due to popular demand.

See you next week and well done on a great effort tonight.