It was my first time run leading in Colchester so thank you for the warm welcome.

10 runners headed out to St Leonards Church in Lexden to do some tidying up.

This run is the longest in the Goodgym Colchester portfolio totalling bout 9km (5.2 miles) It was good to hear about the running exploits that had taken place over the weekend, well done to Ella for the Goodgym Budapest Half Marathon. Those that took part in the Colchester 10k at the weekend.

We headed out of Leisure World led by Fay (who knew the way!) and supported at the tail end by Ian. As soon as we were out of the park it was straight uphill on North Hill (I remember this from the Colchester Half!) to the top of the High Street. No need for a warm up, North Hill did it for us!

After that it was a pleasant mainly downhill run to the Church on Lexden Road where we were met by task owner David. The task was to clear shoots and weeds from the base of the walls and clear up autumn leaves still laying around the back of the church.

But before we set to work David let us have a look around inside the church and climb up to the spire to see the wonders of the 200+ year old clock mechanism, fascinating. The tick-tock of the mechanism was very calming. Looking straight up we could see all of the bells, no idea how they all got fitted inside there!

To the task, Ian Michelle and Bob tackled the weeds and Carl, Dan, Vanessa and Emma tackled the leaves. Soon they had filled the five bin bags of leaves with plenty left over for the next visit.

Time to head off back to Leisure World, Fay leading on the steady road incline. To make it interesting, if the front runners go too far ahead a big shout of “back” and they all had to run back to the back marker, we did this several times.

A slightly different way back allowed us to do ‘Wall Squats’ on part of the old town wall for two minutes. Arriving at Leisure World for the stretch down and a thank you from me for being such a great group to run lead.

See you again sometime, here or at my Goodgym home Chelmsford or parkrun.