26 brilliant runners explore parliament, Green Park, Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen of Spain!

It was a bit of a bonkers evening to be heading for a run around central London. Not only was the LSE campus buzzing with graduations, the King and Queen of Spain were on a state visit and so much of central London was blocked off. This made the usually busy rush hour areas EVEN BUSIER!

We nipped down to the river and headed along to Big Ben, sadly with a bit of scaffolding round him at the moment, but looking grand nonetheless. After a very busy cross over Parliament square, we celebrated as we reached St. James's park and a bit of space. Hooray!

A nice run around the lake led us to Buckingham Palace and a nice team photo. With that it was over the road into Green Park and a nice lap around. On coming back through Horseguard's Parade, it was clear that much of town was blocked off so run leader / not the best tour guide Katie led the group up and round, with a return stretch scooping below Covent Garden and the busy London streets.

Thanks to everyone who came along and you sure got quite a lot of London experiences in one run there!

17 ran to tackle a hedge for someone who couldn't manage it.

It was a double task day for Goodgym Chelmsford this Global running day, and we got stuck into the first task by helping the Ideas Hub to sort out a room in a nearby office ready for an event the next day. Tables were put together and chairs were moved and arranged, all after 6 flights of stairs! Great to see the return of Charlotte who is back from Uni and John who has not been for a while.

After our warm up task we set off on the run towards the main task, with a run through the high street and along the riverside path. We added an extra loop for those pushing the pace at the front and soon arrived at the hedge which had been enjoying the weather recently and was covering one window and working on the next. After retrieving the tools from the church we began chopping, lopping and clearing the hedge and surrounding vegetation to restore light to the flat. A good example of the sort of work we could do on missions for those who have been DBS checked, and something that can make so much difference to someone's quality of life.

Once the task was complete we set off back to the wooden bridge, and split into groups, one group running the three bridges and chasing group two who set off back to the hub! A great effort from both groups and we had a brief stretch in the rain!

I have posted the details of the Parkinsons event on Sunday on the facebook page here

and will add a discussion on our birthday party later today! see you this weekend or on next weeks run!

14 ran to Cathedral school to help in the grounds

A sunny clear sky offered a deceptively cold evening for 14 runners to meet at the ideas hub and run to Cathedral school before a further warm up on the play ground. An energetic warm up including some multi-directional lunges got us a little warmer but not necessarily prepared us for the task ahead.

Hardcore

Our task was the seemingly simple breaking up of the earth lining the school entrance so that it could be grassed over. The ground had been walked over wearing away the grass and compacting the earth making the ground very hard and difficult to break up. Despite the difficult conditions and less than perfect tools we worked as hard as the ground and made good progress, breaking up mot of the area before we set off on a run around the university and back to base.

Really pleased with how much we achieved and also pleased we have a few more tasks lined up! Next week we are back at the interact garden at Moulsham mill so a shorter run for those who have not been marathon training, or are recovering from one! Best wishes to Greg who is running London Marathon at the weekend, and all the other Goodgym runners who will be there! Those of us who feel 5k is a far more sensible distance will be at Parkrun this Saturday where we have some 50th runs for Joel and Rachel so please come down and support!

16 ran to Our Lady Immaculate School to help repair damage to the garden

Really good to meet in the light for this weeks session and the crew were in good spirits. It was good to welcome Lewis back after a long lay off and our highest total for the year of 15!

We were so efficient this week that we managed to get to the task before the task owner, so added a short loop through the park used the extra few minutes effectively.

Caretaker Mr Gilbey met us on site and explained the task. We were to remove some broken posts that lined a garden path and replace them with new ones. These would be joined by wire and had trailing plants climbing them. Big thanks to Richard who quickly got to work with the saw and put the first post in to the ground. After wrestling with a vine over a post, we began measuring, checking with the spirit level, removing old stumps (one of which put up quite a fight) and banging in the brackets for the new posts.

We all managed to contribute and the posts were put up by the time the light began to fade. we were offered fruit juice and sweets, and to be polite we managed to eat most of them before setting off on a run. After a brief debate on the merits of eating chocolate before sprint efforts we ran a relay anyway, and the first runner back on each leg decided the exercise we would do whilst the next leg was running. Star jumps, press ups, squats and dips were easily dispatched along with the sprints before we headed back to base for a stretch. I really enjoyed this session and hope everyone else did too!

We discussed the Goodgym Olympics, next weeks task (another school visit) and the social (all details on our facebook page!) see you next week!

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.

Twelve tackle the task of taming terrible topiary

This week we gave our Goodgym crew a taste of how missions work and how important they can be. John from Springfield park baptist church brought this task to our attention. One of his Parishioners Brian has been unable to maintain the area in front of his house and the area has been left unattended for some time. As the area is beside the road we were able to get stuck in and clear the area in no time. The hedge was so over grown you could hardly see the windows, let a lone see out of them, so our main task was to clear the higher branches so they were clear and a view was once again visible.

After our 2.3k run we collected tools from the church and John came back with us to explain the task. We also collected the 2 wheelie bins to fill and put the reminder into plastic bags. The hedge was exceptionally prickly but no major injuries were recorded!

This left us time for one of my favorite sessions, the three bridges relay! As the route led us back to the wooden bridge with newbie Jem pushing the pace, we paused there and split into teams. After a closely fought first leg or two the teams began to edge away from each other, but as I ran last leg and was not back to see the winning team we may have to call a draw??

A slightly steadier run back to base and a stretch whilst we discussed the days events completed the session. Great work by all bringing some light to someones life, hopefully in more ways than one.

14 runners ran to Moulsham mill to help Interact charity.

The first run of 2017 brought some new faces to add to the familiar mix of regulars but before we gathered for the main task a few of us met to help Little stars circus take down their rig before they moved to new premises. Gerry, Joel and Rachel joined Ken to assist them in moving the frame work which had taken them a whole day to put up, and we managed to take it down in about 20 minutes!

On to the main event and it was great to welcome new people to the goodgym team, Maria and Lilian among the first to arrive. Also great to meet Sarah who had her documents signed so she can get set up and run to a coach. Please let me know if you would like more information on coach runs to the elderly and isolated.

After our introductions we set off on the short run to the Mill and met Adam who said a few words about interact and their work with young people with learning difficulties. the task was outlined and we all set to work washing down the walls before painting everything that stood still long enough! Newbies Lizzie and Kim were quickly in to action while Cat and Gerry led with their previously hidden decorating knowledge!

A second team including Richard and Lida headded off to clean the kitchens (yes two kitchens!) which included a game of how many Goodgymmers does it take to put a fridge door back together? (one if it's Caroline, apparently) and "can you post this photo, because my mum will never believe I am cleaning!"

Once completed, equipment collected and brushes cleaned we split into two groups, the "direct route back to base" group and the "extra bridge loop and see if we can catch them" group. As I completed an extra loop with Richard most people were back before me so I have no idea who won! either way we all arrived back safely to the hub and had a debrief whilst we stretched.

Really pleased with the session and the turn out on a cold evening, don't forget we are running back to do another coat of paint in our starter session on Saturday morning, meeting at the ideas hub at 10am, which will give some of us a chance to run or volunteer at parkrun first. Bring those red shirts!

Next week we return to Hylands school farm, always a firm favorite with the crew, but maybe not one to wear your best kit! Wellies and overalls can be provided if needed!

see you soon!