Tonight's run report could be quite brief........

** Due to a breakdown in communication by the organiser our task fell through so we went to the pub**

However, that's not quite the whole story. We were due to carry out a task for Teapot Project taking unsold food (past it's best before date) from M & S to the YMCA, which unfortunately didn't materialise. It appears that the bank holiday opening hours caused a miscommunication and there was no one to meet us when we arrived at the M & S. Despite a number of phone calls and text messages we had no response and made the decision to abandon the task and head off to the nearby Christchurch Park.

On a beautiful warm bank holiday late evening the park looked amazing and was still fairly busy. Christchurch park is well know in the running community for 2 things - it is the winter/spring home to Ipswich parkrun and it is very hilly!

As it was Monday evening, rather than Saturday morning....... we were there for the hills! An initial "own pace" run up to the top of the park followed by some shorter hill intervals in the sun.

Once the hill session was completed we followed part of the parkrun course around the park and then wound our way back to to base.

With the sun going down over the boats the opportunity to see out the bank holiday weekend with a drink on the Waterfront couldn't be missed and we headed for the nearest pub.... stopping only for a group photo during which Steve made friends with a passing dog!.

So an evening that got off to a poor start at least ended on a high!

*Update: - message from Mischa at the Teapot Project : please accept my apologies. We're an entirely voluntary organisation working with limited resources and mistakes happen more frequent as a result of that; we're juggling so much, so we really appreciate your patience.

This evening we started by celebrating the marathon achievements of two regular Goodgymers. Nicola at her first session since completing the Manchester Marathon with a PB time; and Robin who ran, and just about survived the heat of the London Marathon yesterday and was still up for tonight's run too!

Our run tonight took us to the scene of our very first Goodgym Ipswich task - Activ Lives Peoples Community Garden. On arrival we were met by Danny who guided us through the vast expanse of gardens & allotments towards the top end of the gardens where our job was waiting.

Danny explained a bit about the work Activ Lives do and gave instructions on what was required tonight. Two jobs needed doing - to dig a hole in preparation for school children to construct the ideal stag beetle retreat, later this week. We learned from Danny that stag beetles spend most of their life underground as larvae only emerging for a few weeks to find a mate and reproduce. They love to be under soil in among rotting wood which the children would build around and in the hole in a few days time.

The second job was to clear a path around the bee keeping area of overgrown weeds and cover with fresh bark chippings - it was a long circular path and looked like a big challenge for us to complete.

Tom and Andrew took on the digging task while the rest of the team headed for the path. With exemplary team work we had a group moving through clearing weeds from both sides, and a "chipping" team moving along behind them refreshing the path with new bark.

Amazingly the whole path was completed with fresh bark chippings and looked fantastic. This despite Steve working so hard he managed to break his fork in half. We're not sure if Steve was too strong for the fork or he has Uri Geller super powers!

As the path was receiving the final barrow load of bark chips we looked across to see Andrew and Tom disappearing into the hole they were digging for the stags - literally only head and shoulders visible! All this within half hour.

It was quite a long walk to the exit back onto the road where we bid farewell to Danny... until next week when we visit another Activ Lives project. https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-out-in-chantry-park-walled-garden

On the journey back we added a few lamp post intervals to spice up the run, with everyone gathering back at the Waterfront for a stretch before heading home.

A really enjoyable task for fabulous charity done :)

At last a Monday evening with sunshine! What a treat to start and finish tonight's group run in daylight

We had a 2.5 mile run to get to the Castle Hill Community Centre. We have visited the centre several times during the winter to carry out painting tasks but this was our first outdoor task there.

We were met in the car park by Garath and directed to a massively overgrown corner full of bushes (which had morphed into a small forest of trees with huge trunks) and ivy everywhere. They needed the area cleared as the overgrowing bushes, were damaging an external wall and to re-landscape the area.

With limited tools available - 2 saws, 1 pair of loppers and a broom - this was going to be tough task. However everyone got stuck in immediately and within minutes a small skip was full to the brim with Clive jumping on the top to flatten it down.

Some real headway was made with some incisive sawing taking out huge swathes of bushes, branches and mangled roots. Tom managed to get swallowed by some of the bushes as he tried to lever out a particularly stubborn trunk / root.

The skip was now rammed and a growing pile of swan branches and chopped weeds and ivy was amassing on the ground.

Eventually we had to call a halt as time ran out but we'd made a massive impact in clearing most of the area.

The return leg of the run incorporated some train sprints and Steve led us home via his shortcut from last week.

This report can't end without reference to Kerry's story of arriving at Goodgym this evening - he ran from home down to the waterfront

While waiting the inevitable hour or two for the lights to change I thought to myself “that’s strange: I can’t see any runners in the building”. Maybe I was later than I thought, and everyone had already set off? No, looking at my watch I could see it was only 29 minutes past …… five. I’d fallen short in my little hand reading skills, and set off an hour early. Nothing for it to loop back home, sit down for half an hour, then run all the way back down again.

Brilliantly funny but also top dedication to run home and back again to meet us an hour later.

A big welcome to Jason and Will who joined us tonight for their first Goodgym Ipswich Group Run.

It was another rainy Monday evening - we've had a few those recently!

Congratulations were handed to those who had successful weekends with a whole host of events including the Manchester Marathon and Bromley 10k, but pride of place goes to Sue and Andrew who carried out the first Goodgym Ipswich mission on Saturday - you can read all about it here

Undeterred by the falling rain we set off for a 2.5 mile run across town to Highfield Nursery. This was our second visit to the nursery with the task of painting a room that hosts 2-4 year olds on a regular day.

Andrew and Carl met us and were well prepared with dust sheets, brushes, rollers and paint all laid out ready to go. And immediately everyone set to work. Almost naturally the group divides into "rollers" & "brushes" with "brushes" cutting in and taking on the intricate areas while the "rollers" cover the large expanses quickly and efficiently - there was some fabulous team work and the whole room was completed in around 30 minutes - Robin even had time for a short break in one of the children's chairs.

With the job complete we headed back on the return leg of the run completing just over 5 miles in total - with a longer run the additional fitness had to be saved for another day.

The return run was even wetter than the outward leg but there were no complaints as we splashed and chatted the whole way back.

Next week's run is a similar distance to the neighbouring Castle Hill Community Centre - more details and sign up HERE - it may even be dry!!