Tonight 10 runners ran 2.5km to our well loved allotment patch overlooking Colchester town to prepare plants ready for Colchester to bloom again next year.

We welcomed Dale to his first GoodGym outing, he had read about us in an article in the local paper and had always wanted to come and take part. Fortunately for us his little girls encouraged him to come along this week and his smiles helped him fit right in.

Having received our instructions from Helen, our run leader for the evening who gave us a good idea about what to focus on when we got to our task, we made our way outside the meeting place and got on with our fun warm-up. This is a great part of the evening as we shake off whatever the day brought and prepare to enjoy honest fitness in good company. Despite the uphill route to the allotment we all reached the well tended planters safely and in good time. Pam who manages Colchester In Bloom gave instructions for the tasks she wanted us to do. She had brought with her some rare plants that looked most spectacular in the fading light.

We broke out into subgroups and got on with a range of potting, digging and spreading tasks and within minutes we had transformed whole areas of the allotment. Gardening with a friendly team like this makes great progress very quickly and it’s easy to step back and know that you have made an impact. With Bob acting as a human floodlight, Pam invited us to gorge on the many sun-ripened tomatoes fruiting on the plants. What a feast. Despite the heavy rains earlier in the day the soil was surprisingly dry and took some effort digging up. A full workout was had by all. Despite being on his first outing with us Dale was quickly into the task and chatting with everybody in the group.

With a splendid invite to all Colchester GoodGymers to celebrate the work of Colchester in bloom at the town Hall ringing in our ears we ran back into town. Looking back on our group resplendent in their head torches resembling coal pit miners we ran to one of Helen’s legendary fitness sessions taking in ramps and stairs on the way. Our fun fitness session lasted about 20 minutes and certainly Fred Astaire would be proud of our quick footwork as we glided up and down.

After a well earned warm-down back at our starting point we looked forward to next week’s task at Colchester food bank, do come and join us!

Alex reminded us that there's a Goodgym themed social on Saturday - so contact him or Katherine for more details!