13 Goodgymers run to St Johns Green for 2 tasks

Happy New Year! There was a bustle of excitement in the entrance of Leisure World on Wednesday night, as after a 2 week hiatus, Goodgym was back.

Yay!

We were especially honoured to have Gillian join us from London and she talked about getting mission verified, Coach running, and showed us a map where the waiting coaches live to encourage someone nearby to sign up to coach running.

And, Michelle returned. Congratulations to her on her house move and exams.

In expectation of the new year rush, I had 2 tasks prepared for us this evening.

#1 Planting Bulbs for Colchester in Bloom #2 Delivering Letters for CoHoC

As its so cold, having a task outdoors is a bit of a challenge, so those who didn’t want to get too cold opted to deliver posters, and Naomi, Tav and Chris got loads delivered all around St John’s Green.

The rest of us were planting bulbs and clearing rubbish and leaves from two ‘garden’ sections at the St John’s Green entrance of the underpass beneath Southway. We had LOADs of bulbs that had been donated by Colchester Castle Park.

25 minutes later and we regrouped having planted lots of bulbs, that we really hoped weren’t garlic, and delivered at least 150 posters.

We made sure to show all the joys of Colchester to Gillian, so a brisk run past the top of the High Street Elephants for some hill reps on North hill. Just 3 reps to ease us into new year before making our way back to Leisure World.

Thanks to Rosie for coming up with the bloomin' marvellous title

Our next Group run is a parkrun and Goodgym this Saturday, where we will be litter picking for RiverCare in and around Castle park. Please meet me by the bandstand to register your attendance from 9:30 - If you think you won’t have finished parkrun by 9:45, please show up early to parkrun so you can sign in before running. And sign up HERE

15 goodgymers run 10k delivering posters and fliers for CoHoC

This week we had a sequel. Like any good movie sequel, it was bigger, better, longer faster with more special effects. No seriously, the firework going off just as I got to the turning off Ipswich Road was really a special effect I hadn't bargained for!

Tonight we welcomed 6 new runners from the Emmaus community. Because of some task jiggling, what would have been a shorter run on the 2nd November actually became our longest run to date, but that didn't detract them, and there was the usual chatter and anticipation as we set off on our run.

Because it was a long run and relatively short task, the fitness session took place on the run, and Angela explained an uphill running technique at the base of Ipswich road which will become key for those planning on doing Colchester Half Marathon Sign up here

Ian was so excited about this new technique as it made running up Ipswich road a breeze, and he will definitely be using it going forward.

We got to The Crescent to deliver the posters, and unlike last week, some businesses were still open so we could go in and tell them about the Santa run as well. Once the posters were delivered, we said good bye to Sue and Helen, (as they had already run from Severall's to meet us at Leisure World - they did the run in reverse), and made our way back to Leisure world.

This time we ran via Mill Road and Northern Approach, and Angela managed to even include a jungle adventure detour on what most thought was a completely residential route.

We made our way back to Leisure World for a stretch and debrief, and Angela reminded the runners about the DBS Doc Check Party taking place at parkrun this week You must sign up if you intend for your docs to be checked.

Next week, we'll be returning for some Wombling for Rivercare - Sign up here - Make sure you bring your gloves and headtorches!

Run Report written by Angela Isherwood