3 Goodgymers got their contributions towards the January challenge off to a great start with a 6km run to help Chase Meadow Community Centre with taking down their beautiful Christmas decorations.

On what was an unseasonably warm evening we started with a quick warm up in St Nicks Park before heading off towards the Community Centre. The run was a great chance to catch up on everyone's news over Christmas and plan towards upcoming races and challenges for 2023.

Upon arrival at the Centre we were confronted with the beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the foyer. It seemed such a shame to take the tree down and we felt a bit like the Grinch stealing Christmas! However all good things must come to an end, so Allan and Nigel set to work with removing the baubles from the tree. Next were the strings of beads and finally the very long string of 1000 lights! At the same time, Katherine grabbed a chair and removed baubles from along the ceiling and light fittings in the cafe area, as well as near the entrance door.

Once all the decorations were down and packed away, the next challenge was to fit the huge tree into the box! Thankfully we made light work of this and even had time to quickly run Henry hoover over the area where the tree had been, picking up any dropped needles and (some of) the glitter that had fallen from the baubles.

With everything packed away for another year (bah humbug), it was time to head back to St Nicks.