Jane was first to the gym, keen to escape her desk (even if it is opposite the pub). Richard had sprinted to get his interval training in. Andy arrived, refreshed from his holiday. We detoured a bit on route to the pub to avoid some of the traffic where the bag of leaflets were waiting for us.

Richard very kindly got the first (and only) round in (because we were just too efficient).

Sallyann slid on to the table like a ninja completing her 100th good deed!

Leaflets were bundled and folded so everyone will know about some excellent local schemes - Santa fun runs, panto, carols, Christmas tree collections, and the work by CHESS in the community.

With the Race for Business happening in the park and a few of our usual Wednesday night group helping them with some marshaling, we were a little short handed for our leafleting this evening. With only a few hours before the task was meant to start i was the only one who had signed up.. arrgghhh lol

On mentioning this to my fantastic wife, Jane, she said she could help as she was going for a run anyway but hadn't sorted dinner yet. So once we had finished could I get us some thing to eat in town? Being the superb husband that i am (wink) i agreed (meaning i would get some dinner too) and said i would meet her at an agreed point.

Shortly after this i noticed Nisar had signed up and Fay had said she was relieved from marshaling as they had too many. fantastic

As I arrived at our HQ i noticed Saeed walking towards me and ready to do some good tonight. Helping him sign up to the task just in time before it hit 6:30pm.

We walked over and met Fay and Jane along the way and started posting the bundles of leaflets in what must have been a Guinness World Record, and we were done so fast that Andy didn't have time to join in the fun. Sorry Andy, you should have run faster at the Race for Business lol

So, from being just me, it turned into 5. And was completed in record time... and only cost me a Big Mac and fries ;-P

Thanks all for coming, and hope to see you all again soon

Run Happy

Rich

Despite the much improved lighting situation, we still met just inside the door, with Bianca wearing three layers and two pairs of socks!

We set off after a hyped up run briefing from leading light Laurie where no one seemed to have any energy. Beatboxing on the way we met leading light leaflet legend Fay who had prepared a great haul including a youth disco which got Joe reminiscing. We split off into two groups and got to work. Doug raised the union flag with Brexit pride and Sallyann even managed to find a brand new beatbox!

We delivered all the leaflets, and even the extra ones that Chris seemed to find, and headed back to base. Angela swung off early to prepare for bicycle shopping and Andy couldn't be bothered to do the last beatbox. For shame! If we miss out by 20 points we know who to blame.

It is also the quiz this weekend on Sunday, and if anyone wants a lift to Barrow farm on Sunday morning for the task there do let me know.

Make sure you read the email from Laurie (cough Martin cough) about the run next week. We will be setting off from Lidl to the foodbank. It is a longer run and there is a list of stuff they need to bring. We may also head to the pub after. Beat the street ends next week during the run so we can all celebrate! Especially if we can catch the girl guides!

There I was going about my usual Sunday business when all of a sudden I got a phone call - due to the expected cold temperatures (and maybe snow!) tonight, the Essex Highways staff helping collect the trees for Farleigh Hospice couldn't make it!

Being the hero I am, I stepped up. Andy grabbed a van from his mate and we were ready to rock and roll. We drove around Boreham grabbing trees, with a midway break to empty the van and for snacks and coffee.

3 houses hadn't left their trees out and one house wasn't actually in Boreham but we got the rest. We dropped them back at the farm to be chipped up. The large pile in the background you can see is about 3000 trees! Amazing work everyone who has collected trees, raising an estimated £50,000 for the charity's wonderful work.

We were profusely thanked for stepping in at the last minute and they told Andy 'make sure you thank your son too'. I don't know whether to be offended or not...

One thing to note is Andy is very sweary when driving a white van.

After being dazzled by Andy's festive t-shirt and Russell's festive Lidl hat, we did a squat-free warm up (especially for Martin) and made our way to Meadgate.

We found Fay and Sallyann waiting with the Grinch on the corner of Meadgate, and made a start on leafletting. Whilst leafletting, we found out that it was Russell's 50th good deed, and that he recently got engaged, so double congratulations to Russell, and a black tshirt will be in the post soon.

Everyone was so dazzled by the various Christmas lights on houses that we got separated into two groups for most of the run, only meeting back up at the end for our farewells! David's photo to the group unsurprisingly didn't help the other group to locate us.

Tonight was Martin's 25th good deed, and Jess's 8th, so we're hoping to see a couple more 50th's next year from at least these two new members!

Great effort everyone for our last good deed of 2023, with 8.5-ish km for the runners, and a huge amount of leaflets delivered for Farleigh, The Art Place, and the YMCA.

Thanks everyone for a great year, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2024. We've got the January challenge coming up, so please remember to make sure your Strava is linked to your GoodGym account.

See you all soon

Laurie

Six GoodGymers got up at the crack of dawn to help set up the annual Farleigh Santa Fun Run. We met Selina who put us to work helping unload the van, before we set off round the course putting out flags and signage to make sure the Santas didn't get lost. By the time we got back to the event village there were Santas everywhere!

Rich left us to go back to his sick bed and Andy went off to transform into Saint Nick to take part in the race. The rest of us treated ourselves to breakfast as a reward for our hard work. We bumped into Joel and Abbi en route who joined us for something to eat. While we were there we did some research ready for the quiz this evening.

Our next group run will be another lot of leaf clearing at St John's Hall, hope to see you there.