11 paint some more at the ideas hub then run to the hills!

those nice people at the ideas hub, the ones who let us use the room for free, put up even more panels for us to paint! how nice of them! We were soon working hard and brought brushes to add to the rollers provided so we could get in to the corners and edges. We top coated some we had painted previously and did the cutting in on some others. Some of the new panels were also given a healthy coat of white paint.

art work display

The panels we are painting are not just to make the hub look good but will be used to display art work from local artists and photographers. It also allows them to open the upper floor so they can use the space to overflow the coffee shop.

The paining done it's off for a run

Once we had run out of paint again we decided to check out the new art work on the underpass at waterhouse lane. The murals include a runner at Parkrun and is on the route! Also on the route is a nice (subjective!) hill so we "ran to the hills" before warming up on the flat and then having a hills relay!

A slight split in distances, left team tactics important, but despite a tactical race a logistics error left the race called as a draw!

A well judged effort by all and we ran back together with a pause under the viaduct before our stretch and debrief.

Don't forget to sign up for next weeks task at the interact charity [Here}(https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/if-you-have-not-been-to-goodgym-do-this-one)

And keep up with news on the Goodgym Chelmsford facebook page! news on the social coming soon!

see you next week.

12 ran the city to spread the Goodgym message.

After meeting at the ideas hub and finding out they have more work for us to do, we set off on a mission to spread the word on goodgym and what we do on our weekly runs. the aim was to visit as many charities and community projects as we could and see if we could offer them some help. we also wanted to highlight to the crew how many good causes are out there who might need our help. I have contacted many of these organisations before and thought that a more direct approach might be worth a try.

After designating back markers and taking turns to lead and navigate, the team added their own suggestions to the list and we hit around 15 doors, taking in all the sites of the city. One of our discussions centered around if it was really a city or if it was still really a town with a grander title! Greg offered a good knowledge of charitable organisations around town and Richard also contributed some good local knowledge to aid us on our tour.

A longish 7km covered in total and we were back to the hub for a stretch and a debrief. I will be offering prizes on a guess my marathon time quiz on the Goodgym Chelmsford Faceboook page, the only qualifying criteria is you have to have been to a goodgym run between Monday 13th Feb and Saturday 11th March with the marathon on the 12th. Prizes are likely to be running kit and well worth a guess! Nearest guess wins!

Also some of the team will be at the beer festival tomorrow, free entry before 6pm.

Catch up with you next week for more blurry subway photo's!

11 painted the ideas hub and ran around the city

We met in the ideas hub to complete our work on painting the panels around the walls and around the stairs. this should be the last session for a while as we have run out of paint! But we have done an awesome job with only a few small edges to complete the job.

• Painting by numbers *3 sessions at the Ideas hub *5 pots of paint *11 goodgym painters (ok 10 and me!) *18 wooden panels

After a clean up we set off on a loop around the city with the group splitting into two as we headed to BBC Essex, once reunited we ran across to Waterhouse lane and a few speedy chaps set off on another extra loop whilst the rest of us ran back through the park.

A quick stretch and we chatted about the news, hopefully see a few of the crew at Parkrun on Saturday, and i iwll try to update the facebook page on the social!

A big shout out to Lucy who brought Thomas along so gets a pair of red laces, and to Jack who was painting almost as fast as he can run!

7 Runners ran to Hylands School farm to reduce an unsafe muck heap

After our into speech and a big welcome to Hassana who joins us for the first time we set off for our warm up in the park. A stop under the viaduct was perfect for some flexibility exercises to get us going before continuing on to the School. We seamlessly navigated the route to the task where we met Jessica who runs the farm, where she briefed us on the task ahead. We paused for an introduction to some of the animals and wellington boots were issued to some of the team, before we began the task of shovelling our way through the now unstable muck heap! The “mostly straw” heap was quickly revealed to be a slightly inaccurate description but we pressed on regardless and made a huge dent in the heap and the surrounding area, loading the waste in to two large skips.
With a large area cleared and a reasonable depth of the heap removed we retreated to get cleaned up and had a further chat with the goats and turkeys before we split into two teams and the girls set off on the way back through the park. A few more minutes tidying up and the guys set off in pursuit! As we entered the park we thought the advance party had made it all the way back to the Hub, but we found them demonstrating perfect wall sits under the viaduct! (which they said they had been doing for “ages” whilst waiting for us!) A steady jog back and some stretches completed another great task, decidedly fun despite the subject matter!
Big shout out to those who helped at the santa run at the weekend, to Richard who ran his 10 mile race in his Goodgym tee and to Apryl who ran her 99th marathon. One more task next week before our break, hope to see you there!