A bright eyed and fleet footed group of 15 Goodgymers gathered at Colchester Leisure Centre for a wonderful Wednesday night of running and helping in the community.

Before heading off, Tav reminded everyone of Saturday's (22nd February) afternoon mission run to The Cannons to help clear the leaf debris left behind from the recent storms and make it a safer environment for the residents. We need a friendly and willing team to make this happen so please sign up using the website and enjoy time running then sweeping, with like-minded people.

He also promoted the annual GoodGym Shindig, a chance for a weekend with other lovely GoodGymers blitzing ideas, socialising, exercising and helping to move the organisation on to ever better things. Again, details on the website or speak to Tav.

We were able to congratulate Etienne on achieving 10+ deeds and Vanessa on reaching 100. Etienne's huge smile spoke volumes and, as I'm Vanessa, I can write that the journey to getting my wings has been a joy and hugely owing to the friendlier than friendly Colchester runners and an excellent coach. Thank you and well done Etienne. Brighton half marathon for Nick and Vanessa this weekend so let's hope for fair weather!

Tonight's venue was Level Best Art Cafe which was in need of a spruce up. Ella led the walkers and Tav led the runners in a well rehearsed warm up on route with high legs, leg flicks and lunges. We sploshed through the park and up Castle Road, chatting and sharing torchlight. We were met by Colin who talked through the learning opportunities provided by the Dacon Trust for people with disabilities to upskill in cooking, art and gardening. We are hopeful that some participants may also be able to exercise with GoodGym which would be superb. Then the cleaning magic! All was slickly done with great team work and lots of elbow grease; masterly floor mopping, wiping down of tables, chairs and skirting and a thorough clean of the art room. The bathroom cleaning team made the room sparkle and kudos to Louise who stretched all over the floor to remove sticky mess! We were rewarded with delicious chocolate cake, handmade by Level Best students and Colin shared insight on current projects. We admired the art and took contact cards and links to blogs, connecting with the community the GoodGym way!

Our run back to Leisure World was made easier with a snappy warm up of static sprints and then we flew up the high street, through Balkerne gate and down Balkerne hill. Walkers and runners united and speedier people were kept working with extra sprint runs. Our session ended with a thorough cool-down led by Tav, who threw in a ski-ing stretch to manipulate the ankles and an elongated curtsey which flexed our muscles but made us into rather pathetic-athletic ballerinas!

Well done everybody and hope to see you all on the 26th February for an energetic Colchester in Bloom.

It's the first GoodGym Colchester of the month which means our task tonight was at the Foodbank! 11 of us gathered at Leisure World where Tav told us this week's news, including Etienne's PB at parkrun. Well done Etienne a very impressive time! Tav also read out a testimonial from the Pioneer sailing trust after our Community Mission at the weekend. Despite the horrific weather, we managed to help derail some curtains and shift some mattresses but we are sure to be back to do a proper cleaning of the decks in January. Shari and the other volunteers were very grateful, describing us as 'cheerful, committed humans'. It is nice to be appreciated :)

After a quick but vigorous warm up outside Leisure World, including 'squat thrust triple pulses'(!), we set off along the river path to the Foodbank where the ever-enthusiastic Mike met us. We split into teams of three to (1)load the van with crates of food (2)clean the warehouse and (3) clean the kitchen and toilet. With sheer efficiency we got the task done in good time. Mike told us that leading up to the Christmas period, the foodbank are running a 'reverse advent calendar' which involves putting a food item aside for each day of December, in order to present a gifted donation of 24 items for the month. This definitely sounds like something we could do as a GoodGym group effort. They are particularly looking for items such as long life juice, tinned fruit, deodorant and nappies. Beans are not currently something they are short of.... After the task, we headed off,up East Hill for a rather spontaneous fitness session in Roman Road car park. Much to the amusement of a man who was trying to get his car out of there. We split into pairs for lunging walks, jumping squats, squat holds and split lunge jumps. FInishing it off with a wall squat competition. Well done Vanessa the winner, with a 2 minute 20 second squat hold!! And Bob being a close one second behind her. Legs of steel!

After a few extra ab exercises on the hard ground by the outdoor gym, we stretched off and called it a night. Well done all!

Tonight was a chance to creep it real and do a bumper fitness session and help tidy up a family Halloween party put on by dedicated social care professionals from Essex County Council. Goodgym Ipswich have been haunting us recently with Nick, a regular at both areas, in the headlines for his 1 hour 56 minute half marathon in Wimbledon. Bow down, witches! Also with us tonight was Andrew our tourist guest and Ipswich founder member. Holly was back from Goodgym Exeter to eat, drink and be scary too. There were some lovely efforts with fancy dress, Alex the friendly ghost, Katherine as Frankensteins monster, Ella the West Yorkshire Witch, Emma as an undeveloped were-wolf and Vanessa with a skeleton mascot. I would make a skeleton joke but it would not be humerus.

So...we dodged the Ben Elton fans and warmed up ready for a whirlwind tour of spooky Colchester. Firstly we did 5 minutes of ghoulish hill sprints on Balkerne Hill, before heading to Culver Square for some monstrous upper body and leg strength work. We stuck to the shadows on Eld Lane and ended up doing some batty runs before we tricked our way into the Mulberry Tree Family Centre for some treats (and the task). The team worked like blood thirsty vampires to clear all the decorations and were treated to leftover pumpkins, cupcakes and crisps! Tired, we headed back to base like zombies all looking forward to Saturdays community mission in Brightlingsea!

*Firstly a big Goodgym Colchester welcome to Lauren who made a delightful debut alongside Ettienne returning for his second run. *

We began the evening with wonderful news about Southend-On-Sea 10k particpants meeting their goals and getting PB's. Ella (PB), Emma (under an hour) and I braved the weather, although the rain stopped for us while we ran, to do a lovely seafront race.

We congratulated Goodgym Crewe on their launch and mentioned the great fun we had at *Silver Sunday *- celebrating the contribution of older people to society at the library and spreading the word about Goodgym.

I mentioned the upcoming socials and missions that will be dedicated to our Coach Runners Emily and Rachael.

Jonathan Pie was in town so there were plenty of people at Leisure World but we ran off up the hill in the chilly autumn air warming up on route and lighting our paths with our torches. At the top of the hill in town we met the marvelous Alison who had just completed her yoga session and kindly hung around to let us in. Alison briefed the eager runners as to their tasks - cleaning the loo's, the art area, the details around doors, the windows and skirting boards, the display area and changing the hazard tape on the step. Everyone cracked on and the before and after photos (as well as the fresh clean smell) showed how well we did. Wiped, mopped, taped, polished, shined - done and dusted!

We said goodbye after Alison told everyone about Level Best's wonderful work with adults with learning disabilities (and some photos) as it was time to cruise down the hill and smash out a circuit at the outside gym. In pairs, with runners completing a 250 metre lap as timers, the group completed 7 different exercises for a full body workout...even some bat impressions somehow appeared.

We stretched off at the gym and inside back at Leisure World to complete a productive and fun evening and everyone left looking forward to Parkrunning and next weeks task...as well as our super exciting Community Mission in November to spruce up the Pioneer Oyster Smack who, by the way, Alison at Level Best had promoted Goodgym to...such a nice compliment to your work everyone!

Good luck to the Tiptree 10 (miles) runners on Sunday!