Arriving at our usual spot on a hot, hot summer's eve, we greeted Jess for her first good deed! Ben arrived looking incredibly fly in his new red t-shirt. A wonderful, as always, introduction from Laurie, and we set off running just over 3km on the way there. While we ran we discussed our 5th place at the quiz this Sunday, Joel still adamant dinosaurs are not animals. Must be all those pints he had this afternoon. I did love Erin calling 'big long necky bois' and 'spiky, spiny bois' as her favourite types of dino though.

Arriving at the hub, we started painting the gaps we had on the benches. We worked hard and hopefully they're now ready for the coats of colour in a few months. Thanks for having us Ormiston Families and thanks for arranging all the great tasks, Fay! As we posed for a photo with our handiwork, Sallyann got a well deserved round of applause for reaching her 50th good deed! Still think she should have got on Joe's shoulders for the photo though...

We ran back to base and parted ways in the surprisingly dark (but still warm) evening. Great to meet you Jess and hope you come back!

Some socials coming up to keep an eye out for too!

*9 Goodgymers ran 5.4km to meet 2 more Goodgymers to help out Ormiston Familes at the prison! *

We met and lamented the change in weather, and our mouths dropped open as a collective when The Secret Weapon Martin whipped out his courgette collection. Phwoar. Richard didn't know where to look.

We headed on out to get painting another undercoat on the benches. The incredibly thirsty benches soaked up the paint while we beavered away. Fay regaled tales of how her dad used to play football against the prison team and Sallyann helped me out with my crevice issues. Joe got stuck in with an unusual painting technique of lying on the floor, spider on the right nipple.

Thanks to Ormiston Families for having us, and especially to the helper (sorry I didn't get the name!) who brought us water. Great work everyone.

We ran back pretty quickly trying to look out for the supermoon/ blue moon but alas nothing. Erin and I even got mugged off by Joel, for shame for shame.

After we got back we handed out Athletic Brewing tasty brews and planned socials. Back Inn Time after a GG session this month and a fancy dress bar crawl in October! Watch this space for dates! Pub quiz this Sunday at the Ale House too!

On a warm evening we met raring to go. Great to see Angela back for her second good deed! Andy is still recovering from his back injury so there were two options for length of route. As the longer group set off Ben arrived! Always keen to have new runners and he changed his shoes and off we set! Great to see our legendary Laurie back after tooth surgery too!

We arrived at the prison and had benches to paint! The plan for them is another coat next week, then multi-coloured stripes (like the fence of the play area) to help be more welcoming to the children. Ormiston Families have plans to add hop scotch and other games outside to help the children on the visits to the prison. They do fantastic work in what must be an incredibly difficult scenario. We got as much done as possible and wrapped the brushes and bags for next week. One superb bench, the others a bit more suspect.

After we jogged back, the shorter route being 100m less than the longer one, and hearing about Erin's lifestyle as a playa, we then headed to the ARU forest garden.

Fay brought Paisley along and also brought some crisps and delicious beers courtesy of Athletic Brewing! I've had over 2500 unique beers on Untappd and it is genuinely one of the best non-alcoholic beers I've ever had! We enjoyed a chat with the beers and then headed home, pockets full of extra cans.

Thanks everyone for coming, and thanks to Athletic Brewing for the treat! Goodgymers get 20% off their entire range online.

After a late task cancellation we arranged to head over to the prison again to visit the Ormiston Families Charity who provides a warm and friendly welcome to those visiting family and friends at HMP Chelmsford.

Our task was to give the area a good tidy up and make the place a little more welcoming to everyone who came to visit. We were provided with litter pickers, bags and gloves, brooms and a dustpan and brush and set about moving all the rubbish and cigarette butts from outside the center.

I think we made a good impression and saw a noticeable difference collecting several big bags full of rubbish. whilst cleaning there was much discussion about missions and lots of us are keen to get mission verified and be available to do some missions, helping those who are elderly or isolated. most of us thought a Saturday after Parkrun would be ideal but would try to fit in with what was needed. We also discussed setting up for bubble rush a week on Sunday!

Then all done we set off to the park for a 1 mile time trial. We have decided to try out a few track events in the build up to the world championships athletics which starts soon, and although the mile is not in the program (the 1500m is!) we thought that would be a good place to start. We had run a mile a few weeks ago and some of us were keen to beat our times from before, whilst others were new to the event. There was a great effort by all and some great times put down by the team!

Next week we will add another event , and may even look at field events!

12 ran to the prison to paint round the play area (for visitors!)

Another hot evening and 12 Goodgym runners set off to paint around the play area at the Ormiston Centre outside the prison.

Ormiston Families provides a warm and friendly welcome to the visitor, visiting family and friends at HMP Chelmsford. The Visit Centre offers advice, support and information to families. Our work also extends into the prison where we provide support to prisoners and their children offering them the opportunity to spend quality time together during one of our special Children's Visits.

They have a play area for those bringing children to the prison and this was in need of some painting, so we were just the crew for the job! We picked a panel each and set about painting the fence, which we made a huge difference to over the allotted time. As we had a longer run to the venue we decided to not add loads on for the way home, but ran via the Cathedral on the way home.

Anyone wanting to find out more about Ormiston Families as a whole charity can find more info at www.ormistonfamilies.org.uk

17 ran to Ormiston Families at HMP Chelmsford to paint and clear leaves

A slightly chilly but dry evening saw 17 runners meet up at the University to run the short distance to the prison to help the Ormiston families clear leaves from their foot paths and to complete the paintwork.

Ormiston families are a charity who help those visiting people in prison, helping to make their visits less stressful. They have a small play area with a wooden fence around it, which we painted a few weeks ago and we came back to complete the job. This was achieved with great enthusiasm and probably looks great, although it was a little bit dark to tell if there were any missed bits! I am confident the job was immaculate and the fence is now weather proofed and all the same colour!

Whilst the painting was being completed the rest of us cleared leaves. I am not sure how they got this many leaves into the area from the trees around the site, but bag after bag was filled and the ground changed from an autumnal brown back to the intended concrete colour. This will mke access much easier for those with buggys and will make for an all round safer environment.

As the leaf collectors competed their task just before the painters, we collected in the car park and began some running drills to keep warm! Some ankle flexes, high knees and some sprints later we split into two groups for the run back. One group insisting on adding a little extra distance back to base.

Another really good session, great to see some faces return for a run and to see our regulars working their way towards a black tee shirt!