18 ran to Interact to prepare for the summer garden party

So much going on this week and we were not going to let a little rain prevent an awesome session. It was Kerri's last session with us last night. We are all really sad about that, but chose to celebrate her contribution to the team ahead of her return to Bath. This was Kerri's 26th Group run and she has completed both 5 and 10k in this time. She also just last week narrowly missed her parkrun pb (probably Richard's fault), and baked for us at Goodgym Chelmsford's first birthday party. Awesome stuff!

In good news we had two newbies this week! Jenny and Katie joined us for the first time this week and were brilliant at both the run and the task!

We set off to Interact at Moulsham mill for a special session that was going to be filmed for a county council video. We love helping interact as this was one of our first ever tasks back when the garden was pretty much an empty space. Now they are close to the completed plan, with the recently added lawn and patio. They are having a garden party to celebrate and to let more people know what great things they get up to.

Before this can happen we had loads of jobs to do to help make the place suitable to host guests. the list was a page long and went a little bit like this.

We moved some rubble, which wasn't much trouble. We put some boards behind the shed, being careful not to bump our head. Some scaffold boards were stacked up neat, beside the house by peoples feet. We picked up pallets looking great, and stacked them all beside the gate. We covered bricks in tarpaulin, making sure to get them all in. We stacked slabs from the patio, beside the house then off we go.

Before we left of course, some of the group made a sacrifice for the team and ate some sausages for the camera man (Alistair) whilst we completed the heavy lifting. Good work team!

So after that we did set off on a nice scenic run back alongside the river and via the Cathedral. Pausing for a photo or two. Several of us then went to the pub to say good bye to Kerri and wish her all the best for the future.

Next week we will be back to Mencap to do a little more painting and hopefully complete the job. Looking forward to it.

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!

12 painted the ideas hub and had a run in the park

Another fun session painting the panels in the ideas hub and I think we are close to finishing! We began by welcoming Newbies Barbara and Cheryl who were instantly sharing the banter with the group as we added more paint to the remaining panels around the hub. there was a meeting going on at 7.30 so we got stuck in with the task and made sure we were finished before the meeting started. by then we had painted the remaining panels on the stairs, and both end walls upstairs, the remainder of the barriers at the top of the stairs and the panels on the wall to the left. Essentially everything was white!

We managed to get everything washed up on time and headed off for a run through the park. As i am recovering from Sunday's marathon I decided to back mark and Greg led the team out and we regrouped at several check points. at the underpass we split into those who wanted to push the pace and do a slightly longer route and those who took a more direct route and we all ran off towards admirals park.

We decided no to do hills abut ran a flatish relay with teams split into 2 distance marked out by lamp posts. apologies for those who had difficulties in change over as we realized we were a little in the dark at the change over point!

After the sprints we had a steadier run back again split into a longer route led by Greg and the slightly shorter route back to the viaduct, where we regrouped and jogged back for a stretch.

Really good work by all in both the running and the paint work, the ideas hub do truly appreciate it, and the space will be able to be used by more people once the painting is complete.

catch up with you next week!