We thought the run of rainy Mondays had been broken.....turns out that was short lived as tonight was a very soggy evening.

Small numbers tonight perhaps due to a few races over the weekend including the Cambridge Half Marathon. The weather didn't look too bad as we arrived on the Waterfront but the rain started as we set out for the 2.5 mile run across town to Castle Hill Community Centre and was in full flow by the time we left the Centre.

Our task was to continue painting the toilets we had started on our last visit. Unfortunately due to the low number and limited painting equipment, progress was a little slower than usual and we weren't able to complete as much as we would have liked. The base coat of blue in the ladies was particularly challenging to cover up !

With heavy rain coming down, there was a slight reluctance to exit the main doors of the centre to start the return leg of the run. But after the first few splashy steps we enjoyed that hard core feeling you get when running in adverse conditions and even managed to avoid any soakings from passing cars...... though we were pretty much soaked through on arrival back at base.

Good work from everyone - hope you've dried out!

Prior to heading out into the wind we celebrated the weekend achievements with a number of regulars having done the Tarpley 10 or 20 mile race locally and Colchester Nick completing the Brighton Half Marathon.

It was a very simple task tonight - litter picking a fairly small grassy area right on the edge of the river on behalf of Rivercare. It was dark and the "bat lights" were put to good use seeking out rubbish among the long grass. We managed to fill two large bags with an array of debris.

Once the litter was picked we headed to the floodlit Suffolk College grounds for a challenging pyramid interval session - only 30 secs recovery between each set of effort s ranging from 30 secs to 2mins 30 secs and back down the other side.

Everyone put in a great shift to maintain a good pace throughout particularly those who had 20 miles in their legs from yesterday!

Another fab Goodgym evening and, as Tom pointed out at the end of the night, there was something missing... it wasn't raining for the first time in weeks!!

We started by celebrating Daniela's 50th good deed achieved during the Community Mission at Ranelagh School on Saturday..... it's taken a few weeks to get over the line but another GG Ipswich black shirt achieved - Congratulations!

We also welcomed Laura along as a visitor to Ipswich from Tower Hamlets. Hope you enjoyed the evening and we may see you again.

Our task destination is one of the closest to our base so we incorporated some relay intervals into the short run up to Brickmakers Wood, where Rob greeted the team and set out the jobs he wanted us to do.

The main chore was to clear some rubbish into a skip and move a mound of logs (as a result of tree felling) from outside into the warehouse and pile them neatly. They also need some fire wood sawn and bagged ready for selling to raise funds. Alongside this was some generally tidying the area for a visit for University students tomorrow.

As usual the gang got stuck in enthusiastically with wheel barrows, loaded with logs flying to & fro. The massive pile of elm logs reducing outside and stacking inside, while in another area Daniela, Laura and Eleanor were sawing furiously to create bags of firewood.

Finally there was lots of gentle sweeping up (trying not to cause excessive dust!). Once again we managed to achieve a huge amount in a short time - helping out at Brickmakers is always satisfying and it feels great to be able to help such a wonderful charity.

We then headed off to the floodlit grounds of Suffolk College for a team relay with runs or jumps based on a pack of cards before heading to the pub to mark Daniela's mile stone with cake!

What a bright, sunny but chilly morning as we gathered in Christchurch Park after Ipswich parkrun for our January Starter Session.

It was mostly usual suspects but Robin joined us for his first Goodgym experience - good to have you join us!

We set off for Ranelagh Primary School at an easy pace with nearly all of the group having completed parkrun beforehand as part of recording breaking field of 590. Those hills are putting people off!

We were met at the school by Caretaker Phil (and his family)with a skip and a whole fleet of wheel barrows. The task was to clear some ground of cut down branches, rubble and and an old chicken coop. The aim being to clear the area so the school can take down some fencing and increase the are the children can play in.

It was quite physical - some of the rubble and slabs being heavy and loaded for transportation to the skip by wheel barrow. There was a constant train of barrows flying backwards and forwards across the playground to the skip.

As usual the Goodgym team got stuck in with tremendous enthusiasm and were cheered along by Issac (Phil's son and, I'm sure, a future site manager!)

The pile of rubble and trees were gradually decreased but the big wooden chicken coop was problem. The size didn't enable it to go through the small door from the playground to the skip. There were suggestions of throwing it over a 10ft wall at which point my risk assessment was being torn up!.

Thankfully Phil was able to find a large hammer and crow bar to break it apart and we could deliver bit by bit into the skip.

With the wooden coop gone the area was clear and the before and after photo shows the amount of work done. - Fantastic!

With parkrun already done the run back to the park was a social pace via the town centre before dispersing for breakfast!

I thought we were going to miss the worst of the weather tonight - I was wrong!

Arriving at our University meeting point it was a bit windy but dry and not too cold. It was lovely to see some "nearly new" faces in Jo and Laura, both of whom hadn't been to a Goodgym run for a while - welcome back!

During our warm up it began the rain began to fall... and as we set off the wind seemed to increase in strength - not the ideal weather for a task of delivering around 500 flyers on behalf of the British Heart Foundation. The flyers were promoting their furniture and electrical shop and aimed at increasing donations to the stock.

We had a designated residential areas to cover within a 1- 1.5 mile radius of the shop. We split into groups - one covering the border of the roughly "oval" shape on our map; the other covering all the roads in the middle. By the time we all met back at the starting point it was raining hard but super work meant the majority of the flyers were in people's letter boxes.

We moved across to a second area nearer the shop itself and again covered a myraid of streets in quick time. The advantage of this task is that everyone keeps moving and avoids getting too cold.

With only a handful of flyers left we headed to the floodlit car park in Portman Road for a brief but intense interval relay session before heading back to base.

Fabulous effort in trying conditions from everyone. We started with 500 flyers and had just 42 left over - hopefully our "first class" deliveries will help increase furniture and electrical stock donations to the shop.

Don't forget this Saturday's additional "Starter Session" meeting after Ipswich parkrun in Christchurch Park. Hope to see lots of you there. Come along early and enjoy a parkrun beforehand - there will be lots of us doing the same!

We had an excellent turnout for a rare Ipswich Community Mission - 11 Goodgymers arriving at the new FIND Food Bank premises to help clear borders of rubble, stones, rubbish and overgrown weeds.

It was great to see so many people contributing to the January task total, including Bethan who was making her Goodgym debut! - hope to see you again soon.

It was quite a demanding task with the car park borders fairly overgrown but also full of stones and a variety of rubblish items. We filled numerous bags of heavy rubble as well as cutting back some wildly overgrown bushes before pulling out grass and weeds and lots of loose leaves. The aim being to clear as much as possible for the borders to covered in top soil and planted with trees.

On a task like this it can be hard to see the progress being made but the piles of bags and branches grew and grew.

Eventually we called it day and enjoyed a warming drink in side the food bank building.

Great work everyone!

Monday's Group Run info and task on behalf of BHF is now available to sign up HERE

We have a January "Starter Session" next Saturday straight after the Ipswich parkrun running to Ranelagh Primary School - see more info and sign up HERE

A big welcome back to our first Group Run of the new year and new decade!

It was fab to see everyone again ready and raring to go, even if there was a little bit of back to work blues around. But nothing could dampen the smile on Robin's face...sporting his brand new 100 task T-shirt (back in red!)

Prior to setting off we had a pep talk on how we will be competing against other Goodgym areas in the JANUARY CHALLENGE on distance run and good deeds done. We have aCommunity Mission at FIND Foodbank set up for this Saturday to start the challenge off with a bang - and hopefully add to our good deed tally.

As well as this, don't miss out on a bonus "starter" Group Run on Saturday 18th January which is ideal to bring someone along who hasn't tried out a Godgym task /run before as well as rack up the good deed total!

Our run out tonight is one of our longer ones at about 2.5 miles each way to the Castle Hill Community Centre and there was lots of catch up chatting along the way. The regular task of painting at the centre was quite an easy one tonight with just the scuffs and marks needing "touching up" round the walls where furniture had marked the paint work and one area affected by damp from a leak. This was all done in super quick time, which meant we could take advantage of a reasonable size hall for a few rounds of core strength/balance circuits.

Much enjoyment was had from observing a "range of techniques" and facial expressions during the single leg balance exercises - no photos to be shared!

The run back was only notable for Hayley and Brittany going AWOL ! It turned out they were faster than they thought and had got a big lead on the rest of the group......all was well when were reunited back at base!

A fantastic start to the new year - hope to see some of you on Saturday at the foodbank Community Mission.