It's another Wednesday thankfully which can only mean one thing-GoodGym !

We met as usual at Leisure World and were joined by new member Emily.

Welcome to her and we hope she enjoys many evenings with GoodGym in the future.

This was the first time our beloved leader Angela wasn't there since we started back in August,but I'm sure we can forgive her just this once...

Would it be a case of while the cats away the mice would play......?

She was replaced(if that's possible) by Axel from GoodGym HQ and after a brief warm up the 15 wonderful GoodGym people headed to St Leonard's church in Lexden.

We went through the Kings Meadow,then up Balkerne Hill(a chance to practice our hill technique),along Crouch Street and then along Lexden Road which I think is one of the best roads to run on in Colchester as you can get a decent pace up , has a nice wide path for a group to run on and is well lit.

We arrived at the task after a enjoyable run .We were ready for the evenings task of leaf clearing.

During the task there was the usual banter(some directed at Tommy but we all love you really Tommy!) and chat.We had Tommy running up and down the hill to empty the sacks of leaves,trying to get him to go quicker every time.

Everyone worked hard while we were there and in no time we'd made a massive improvement to the path leading up to the church.

The church in question is a special place for Angela & David as it's where they were married.

On a personal note it is for me too as my Dad's ashes are interred in the Garden of Rest at the back of the churchyard.

After the task we ran back to base via the same route we came on with different groups setting off at different times.

Well I same the same route as I understand Tommys group were briefly heading towards Stanway !

We all arrived back at base for the usual warm down .

Thank you to Axel for looking after us tonight.

Another excellent evening of GoodGym.Well done to everyone.

Looking forward to next Wednesday evening mafter which we will be having our monthly social at the New Inn.

Ian Bown

19 runners deliver 100 posters for CoHoC

We gathered together for our longest run to date. Sue and Lucy had completed the Chelmsford Marathon on Sunday, and Tav the Greenwich 10k. All had had very successful races and were looking forward to a gentle run to help ease their aching muscles.

In our pre-run briefing, we learnt about Colchester Hospitals Charity, and how they are raising money for the Time Garden - a garden for End of Life Patients at Colchester Hospital. Whilst many of our tasks involve gardening, and we will no doubt be called in to help maintain the Time Garden, Wednesday's task involved delivering posters to the businesses on Whitehall Industrial Estate.

I made sure to mention the risk of paper cuts in the pre-run risk assessment, and then proceeded to demonstrate that risk by getting a paper cut whilst putting the posters in my backpack!

Genius!

The posters were to advertise the Santa Run in Castle Park, a great event, and I'm sure some of us will take part.

We made the longer run to Whitehall Industrial Estate, and regrouped to come up with a plan to cover the area. We split in half taking opposite sides of the road. Unfortunately, parts of the industrial estate were locked and we couldn't deliver posters to them. In addition, some places didn't have post boxes. But, we made sure that those that did have delivery slots were adorned with a lovely poster!

We got 100 posters delivered in 15 minutes actually it was more like 17 but still good going, it would have taken one or two people much longer than that.

After we'd finished the task, half of us ran back to Leisure World, lead by Lucy, and half of us ran to the New Inn pub for our monthly social. This was a welcome change of scene organised by Ian. I think everyone was really impressed by the good value and good quality food, as well as being able to move onto cozy sofas after we'd finished eating.

Well done every one!

Run Report by Angela Isherwood

Next week, same task, different location - we'll be running up to Severalls to deliver more posters - an even longer run than this week. Sign up here

October, 9 runners, a grey morning, a sunny day, some talking to do and some litter to pick.

We met up for a #runandtalk session on what started as a sunny evening and soon dropped down a wet and somewhat wintery session. After a bit of a task let down, we jogged around the Rye getting nice and warmed up whilst welcoming Ellen to her first ever GoodGym experience.

Then it was into teams, gloves on, black bin bags in hand and a direction each to go in to litter pick. The idea being to clean up the area where we live as well as have a chance to chat to each other.

Shoes, balls and cans later, we rendezvoused and it was time for our regular time trial. 720 metres against ourselves. There's a regular route we use and we had already recce'd it during our warm up. Amazing first effort for some and repeat effort for others.

EVERYONE matched or bettered their time

Time to work you harder, and that we did....

5 exercises as the heavens opened. Did someone say #nationalburpeeday? Burpees, mountain climbers, complete abs, squat jumps and planks climbs... 10 of each, 9 of each, 8 of each.... I could go on but it'll seem never-ending. You get the idea and everyone kept each other going. Despite the burn, despite the sweat and the rain.

Such an amazing effort could only be rewarded with... a gentle jog home. We stretched off, we dried off and washed our hands clean of anything untoward.

Running, doing good, having a chat and getting fit check.