13 runners ran across Colchester town on a beautiful late summers evening to help out the residents of Plum Hall with their weedy gardens.

We met at Leisure World where Tav shared news of upcoming milestones and recent runs including a half marathon PB for Hannah! There are also plenty of missions coming up, so check out the Goodgym webiste and get signed up! We jogged into the park where we warmed up with a modified version of the knee game... competitors now also have to hold hands in order to prevent them from running away from each other whilst trying to tap each others' knees!

Up through town, past Pam's house, and through Abbey Fields we reached Plum Hall, a Colchester Borough Homes site. We were pleased to meet Louise there who joined us for our good deed of the evening. We were set to task weeding the grounds and the gardens of some of the residents. One of the residents is currently in hospital and knowing that she had been keen to have her garden weeded, we set to work clearing it for her for a welcome home surprise.

Once we had gathered up our bags of Garden Waste we headed across to Abbey Fields to join Gabs and his bootcampers where we played a game of tag. The blue team were clear winners, although Andy held on incredibly well as the final red team member ducking and dodging away from the team of blues. We ran back to our meeting place and wished each other well for the week ahead.

18 runners met at Leisure World to celebrate Goodgym Colchester’s 3rd birthday.

Run leader Tav started with our usual round up of news. The main topic being that Goodgym Colchester has turnt 3! And for our task we were going back to where it all started, The Food Bank.

In other news, Olympians were applauded for their efforts at the weekend. Egg and spoon and sack races were completed with gusto and a good time was had by all. Tav came first in both the 100m and 800m races and Ella came 2nd in the 5000m earning a PB of 20:34 too! Overall Colchester came fourth place for the shield! A mission was also successfully completed at the weekend, which saw goodgymers volunteering for junior Parkrun and then cleaning up the area afterwards following a concert the night before.

Dan Norkett celebrated his 50 good deeds tonight and we are starting to see the black t-shirts catching up with the red! Chrissie is a newly anointed member of the Taskforce and we are looking forward to new tasks coming our way. One potential new task was hinted at that would involve Goodgymers cleaning a boat, which is likely to be a GoodGym first!

Big news on the night we pruned and sprinted around Colchester town centre. Firstly we welcomedPaul to our merry group and I hope you enjoyed our sometimes peculiar but effective way of getting fit and doing good...

Secondly our hero of 21 good deeds, Dan cycled from John o' Groats to Lands End with just a sleeping bag and few pairs of socks! Epic.

Thirdly on the agenda was the Olympic team consisting of me, Ella, Jade and the Susie who stormed and destroyed North Hill during our sprint training. (As did everyone else - I am jealous that I could not join in). I never predict sporting outcomes but it is a certainty that Colchester will return heroes through racing and baking.

As I mentioned after we dead-headed the baskets in Vineyard Street, Crouch Street and Balkerne Hill we made our way from Pam's house to the home of hill sprints - North Hill. I asked for maximum effort up the hill and total recovery down and that is what I saw. After that we went to the quiet and tranquil Castle Park to stretch and and be mindful before saying goodbye...

Until next time mi amigos.