We all enjoy a bit of cleaning, especially when it is not in our own homes! Our task this evening was a good clean of Rookery House, a space used by adults with learning disabilities to do various artwork. When we entered the space, we were greeted with wonderfully colourful artwork on the walls and were very impressed with all of the murals. In particular there was a very striking ginger cat and a lovely Mersea Island mural as well as various Disney characters. We got to work hoovering, wiping, sweeping and dusting. Kudos to Stu for tackling the loo and Phil for making the windows lovely and see through again! It was great to see our relatively new members Andrew and Yee and the return of Josh. Also a pleasure to have the lovely Helen, Louise and Dan too of course! We were quick but efficient in our task as the England semi-final awaited those of us keen to watch. We headed off just before the roaring pub crowds could get fully going!

Thanks everyone for a super shiny job!

*It was a nice, warm, April day and a momentous one for our dedicated runner Chrissie. 50 good deeds and new T-shirt soon. *

Apologies for the cricket style report title as tonight was all about planting, weeding, watering and fitness. No willow or leather in sight although we often run past a cricket pitch opposite our lovely Castle Park.

Anyway, it was brilliant to see everyone and the London Marathon was in our thoughts early on as we saw Wali and his guide runner Gareth, who are regular Colchester Parkrunners, featured on the news as they take on the London Marathon on Sunday. Good luck to them.

Lighter evenings mean we are able to run in the park and Ella led the way with some athletics drills to warm up our legs and engage our core muscles. You will all get the hang of it and feel the benefits soon and it was great to learn some new warm up exercises.

We conquered Balkerne Hill, caught up with our walkers/joggers and met Pam on Crouch Street to make the flower beds and baskets lush and beautiful. The group had three tasks - weeding, planting and watering but as always they went above and beyond and cleared litter too.

Pam was very happy and the visible difference was fabulous. The invisible difference will be seen when the watered plants quench their thirsts and burst into bloom.

Off we went again to the park, Chrissie collected 50 high fives and then she organised some fitness games - 50 burpees, 50 sit ups and 50 seconds best effort hard running. Can you see the connection?

On Saturday we jointly takeover Colchester Parkrun and it will be great to see you all, running, volunteering or just strolling in the park! Next week we return to the Foodbank...get your lifting muscles ready!

GREAT EFFORT TONIGHT! WEDNESDAYS ARE ALWAYS A PLEASURE!

21 spirightly runners met at Colchester Leisure World from 6:45pm for a 7pm kick-off.

Goodgym run leader, Tav, started by delivering the running news for the week. Goodgymers, Ian and Hannah completed the Bromley 10k, with Hannah achieving a PB! Meanwhile Goodgymers Tav, Ella and Faye were at Brighton Marathon, all completed 10ks and then cheered on the marathoners!

Saturday 27th April sees the Goodgym and GB Bootcamp takeover for Parkrun, a list of volunteers has now been submitted but all are welcome to come along and help on the day.

With everyone updated on the weeks news, we set off for our task including a warm up as we went. We started with high knees and butt kicks straight out of leisure world working our way up to a side step. The warm up got even more creative as we left Castle park and we had a group flossing session followed by tricep dips in the subway.

We picked up another goodgymer on our way, taking us to 21! (Great number, and also my age now and for any foreseeable birthdays)

We arrived at Worsnop House where the residents were happy to see us and cups of tea were offered without hesitation. Although being the conscientious lot we are, we were eager to get on with the task in hand. Unfortunately, the tools required for the task were locked up and with no-one around with the keys we were left tool-less.

However, we didn’t let that stop us! Being not only conscientious but resourceful we set about doing the best we could with some black bin bags and a couple of brooms, paths were swept and any rubbish cleared away. Job done.

Seeing as we made light work of that, we headed over to the Old Rec, to complete a Junior Park run (2k, 2 laps). We managed to do about a 1/3 of the course given most of us are least double the age of the junior runners, I don’t think we did too badly!

Goodgymers then set off back to Leisure World for a stretching session and then homeward bound having improved their fitness with a 7km run.

*Yet another Goodgym evening full of energy and inspiration. *

Tonight we not only helped Next Chapter but also met Toby and Harriet who are organising a 400m race for young people with disabilities on the 4th of May at the University of Essex at 2.30pm.

We started with lots of news and congratulated Emily on her successful Ibiza Marathon with lots of hills as well as Hannah for her great run at Norwich Half Marathon. I reminded people of our upcoming Parkrun takeover on the 27th April with the volunteer roles disappearing fast.

After a moving warm up along the River the group set off on the 1.5 mile run to our destination and set about the task of removing overgrown weeds and grass, trimming and chopping trees and hedges and generally improving the area and increasing the visibility for staff. We found a few hidden gems such as a children's book, a little unicorn toy and a Woody from Toy Story toy.

We were told about the amazing work that Next Chapter do and how they help people before Toby and Harriet took centre stage to tell us about Wheeler Walk Way, their fund-raising and how Goodgymers can help through promoting the event and helping to volunteer.

Both Next Chapter and Toby (and Harriet) got a huge round of applause.

After a few photos we set off for a little bit of hill work. Sophie, Jade and Beth and Hannah particularly impressing with their efforts. The group paired off and ran a section of East Hill at 1/2 pace then 3/4 before sprinting in a final flourish. We weaved our magical footwork back to Leisure World where the group helped with some wonderful stretching.

Finally a giant Goodgym welcome to Sophie, Josh, Harriet and Toby. You are always welcome back.