On a glorious Wednesday summer evening we gathered at the HQ for another great group run and task.

Firstly, I'd like to welcome Angela to the group for her first run with us. Hope you enjoyed yourself and our chatty little group.

Tonights task was to deliver leaflets for 6 different charities that Fay had taken time during the week to fold (400 of them) together to make an easy bundle to post. As always, Thank you Fay.

Before we set off Martin produced a bag full of courgettes that he had spare and needed to find a good home for. And Leanne also had some rhubarb that she wanted to share with the group. Deciding that running with these wouldn't be wise we left them in Leanne's car and set off to meet Fay and Sallyann.

We met them just outside Springfield Baptist Church with bags full of leaflets and distributed them to all and set-off down Sandford road. Splitting into 2 groups we managed to not lose each other and even not to miss a letterbox.

Carrying on until almost all the leaflets were delivered we headed back to HQ and retrieved the rhubarb and courgettes and distributed them to those who wanted them.

As always thanks for coming guys, literally couldn't have done it without you.

Next week we will be going to the visitors center at Chelmsford prison to paint their outdoor area. ( there will also be a social after the run with some non alcoholic beer if you want to stay on)

Run Happy

Rich

13 ran to Kids Inspire to do a garden make over

Our first day in our new home, Anglia Ruskin University was a great success! We (Probably) all went to the right place and enjoyed our first run across town to Kids inspire.

At the Task we were met by Caitlin who told us about the good work Kid's inspire do, working with kids that need a variety of individual therapies to group work including drama and film making. Read more about Kids inspire Here

After the task was set up Catilin also directed us in a photo shoot highlighting our happy selves working hard in our Goodgym Tee shirts. Obviously we are all accustomed to such things and were expert models. Some excellent photo's will be shared soon! Keep an eye on our twitter and facebook feeds! and follow Kids inspire for their's! Some are included below!

After several discussions on which plants were weeds and which were not, we cleared much or the ground not covered by pretty things. We also got stuck in to the raised beds making them accessible and ready for more planting!

Obviously we still had time to add a couple of runs up and down the "Avenues" on the way home, making sure everyone had a good workout.

Next week we are back to Interact to fill a skip! please bring your muscles, and if we struggle we may have to add more regular upper body work to the session!

Lastly, best of luck to Richard E on his impending arrival! We are excitedly awaiting the announcement!

Well, we were there at Kids Inspire!

Welcome back to James G who hasn't been for a while. Congrats to Kirk for his sixth consecutive PB at parkrun on Saturday...will he make it 7?

Eight runners met at B&M car park and ran 3,5km to the offices of Kids Inspire.

We were met by Louise who promptly offered everyone some chocolate bars and drinks, no holding back there from the runners!

Our task was to sort out the excess of Christmas presents that didn't get to be used. Kids Inspire send out nearly 2,000 presents to Children and their families and these are the ones that didn't manage to get sent out in the short window available. These will be donated to Charity shops or saved for the next Christmas. We sorted them out into different categories, stacked them away and put the Christmas decs into another room.

Rachel found a joke book and threw a few "Knock, knock" jokes out to us for our amusement.

Job done and we headed off on the 3.5k back to B&M, led by Rich, Joel and Kirk. Rachel, Laurie and Sallyanne tail running.

There were twelve runners attending tonights group run.

Here is this weeks news:

Interact/M&S - For the next four Sundays, bag packing is on offer at the Westway store from 10:30am to 12:30am. You can do just an hour if you want, missions are being set up so please sign up but also let Susie (susie.nankivell@interact.org.uk) know directly that you will be attending so she can book you in.

Next weeks group run - This is a singing run! We will be going to the Cathedral where Mencap have their annual Christmas Carol service (bring a donation) We will set off from the UNI about 7pm but if anyone would like an easy 5k beforehand then meet at 6:30pm and I will take you on a route. If not, meet at 7pm to walk over to the Cathedral.

Santa Fun Run Set up - This is a Mission event on Sunday morning 8th December with a meet in Central Park at 06:45am to help set up the event, if you want to help break down the event later in the morning, just let me know. (gerry@goodgym.org) You can also sign up to run its about 5k and costs £12 including a Santa Suit butyou need to do this by Monday 2nd December.

No Group runs over the Xmas/New Year period, last group run this year will be the 18th December.

Tonights group run was leafleting for Kids Inspire around the Old Moulsham area. We set off from the Uni doing some warm up exercises and taking our usual route to the high street, to really get the heart rate up we did a caterpillar run for about 300m until a photo opportunity presented itself with a giant bauble that everyone could get inside!

Kids Inspire awarded us their prestigious "Volunteers of the Month" award, thankyou!

After the leafleting was done we headed to Bell Meadow to do a few effort sessions. First up was to split into pairs of fast and slow runners, then heading off in different directions on a 400m loop you meet your partner and hi-fived then headed back the way you came. We did this twice and to finish a handicap race of about 300m with the slowest heading off first with the fastest last chasing down to the finish.

A lot of heavy breathing ensued meaning everyone put in an effort, well done.

Back to the Uni for a stretch down.

On a lovely crisp Sunday morning, 5 goodgymers went to Admirals Park to help the clean up after the fireworks party.

All the plastic and cardboard bits from the fireworks made it quite the struggle but we got loads. Also the added benefit of raising £25 per person for Kids Inspire, £125!

Thanks to Rich, Fay, Russell and Laurie for coming

Glad the weather held,

See you Wednesday!

Six runners met at the dark B&M car park to run the 3.5km to the KIds Inspire, Catherine and Fay used horse power to get to Kids Inspire as they are nursing injuries. We welcomed Simon to his second group run which was a bit less traumatic than last week with the wasps. Rich pressed on at a canter up Baddow Road with the rest of us hanging on but it was a really good paced run.

We arrived at Kids Inspire to be met by Louise who let us in out of the drizzle teveryone to a table of water and biscuits which everyone tucked into with Gusto!

Fay & Catherine arrived so we set to work cleaning up some internal window panes that had a lot of sticky tape which needed removing, after a lot of spraying and wiping the window panes were sparkling like new. :)

Guess what...Yes, Rich headed out leading the six runners back with Simon chasing fast behind and myself, Paul, Marianne and Russell bringing up the rear, swiftly back to the Army & Navy.

You can help raise £25 for Kids Inspire by volunteering at the Firework Clean up on November 3rd in Admirals Park, full details will be on our website and facebook, why not include it in your Sunday run, you will also be helping to clear up the parkrun route. A win win.