Pre run celebrations all round - Kerry's birthday and congratulations to several Goodgymers who ran the Hadleigh 10 mile race on Sunday - lots of PBs and a Suffolk County medal winner - Well done Keith, Nick, Robin, Kerry and Daniela (who was absent tonight but was mentioned due to absolutely smashing a new PB!)

Also a warm welcome on a chilly night to Richard who was a Goodgym debutant tonight.

The task was a little different tonight in that helping the volunteers at the Ipswich Soup Kitchen meant we had time for a pretty lengthy run prior to the task.

We took a long loop incorporating some hill repeats before coming back onto the Waterfront where we split into 3 teams for interval relays in the shadow of a giant replica of Noah's Ark moored alongside the quay. Had I known beforehand the plan could have been splitting the group into twos instead of threes!.

Great teamwork and effort from everyone before we completed the next section of our run to meet up with the Soup Kitchen volunteers and help distribute our own donations alongside the hot drinks, soup and sandwiches.

The final leg of tonight's run back to base brought the distance total to 4.50 miles + the hill repeats & intervals. Top work gang!

A big Welcome to Goodgym debutant Ben who has justed moved back to the UK from Prague and made a beeline for Goodgym!

We had an dramatic start to the night when we had to evacuate our meeting place due to a fire alarm. As many students were leaving the building we didn't hang around to find out if there was a real emergency or a false alarm and headed off to run to a new venue for us.

Taking a slightly scenic route out to the 24th Ipswich Scouts HQ our outward run was a little over 2 miles and the usual Monday evening rain followed us all the way!.

Our task was to paint a room the Scouts use for meetings and hire - generating income towards a new roof for the building.

The group have become pretty good painters over the last few months - cutting in and rolling teams morphed from nowhere and started at opposite ends of the room. I have to say even I was impressed with the speed painting and pretty soon the job was done!

We even had time to acknowledge the achievements of all those who ran the Stowmarket Scenic 7 on Sunday - having forgotten to do so earlier (due to the fire alarm distraction!)

Unfortunately the run home was even wetter than the outward leg with several soakings from cars through puddles near the footpath. However the usual Goodgym spirit prevailed and the night ended with total round trip of 4.2 miles.

Next week we'll be running to hep out Ipswich Soup Kitchen - find out more and sign up HERE