Hello and welcome to another fine report.

Alas, Heidi and Nisar couldn't make it but we had 9 eager GoodGymers for tonight. James joined us for the first time, welcome! Naturally we had to wait for Andy who arrived late and then needed to spend a penny.

We headed off out to Old Moulsham on a nice little jaunt. Well done to Rob for completing the GoodGym women's night safety training which really makes you think and consider things you hadn't before. An important topic to discuss.

We met the group and dived into the leaflets, lovingly folded by dear leader Fay, to help promote Helen Rollason, CHESS and YMCA. Rich was still looking a bleary eyed from his weekend lads trip to Cincinnati and presented me with an excellent bright red babygrow. Might be my GoodGym Halloween run outfit! Thank you Rich.

It was a good job I did my pre-run safety briefing as Leanne BROKE A NAIL!!! After she was consoled she was fully qualified to dive back in. I chatted to Sallyann about her upcoming holiday, it basically sounds like a wine and yoga retreat...

We were going to go a shorter route back up the high street to see the Christmas lights (I know, crazy that they're up now) but after our discussion about the importance of women's safety we decided to run Kate back to her bike. James definitely didn't have a reason for wanting to go through the park but he did go to inspect an interesting bush he saw!

Once we returned back to ARU we outlined next week's task at Beaulieu (about 7km total run) and parted ways. Happy running!

With the Race for Business happening in the park and a few of our usual Wednesday night group helping them with some marshaling, we were a little short handed for our leafleting this evening. With only a few hours before the task was meant to start i was the only one who had signed up.. arrgghhh lol

On mentioning this to my fantastic wife, Jane, she said she could help as she was going for a run anyway but hadn't sorted dinner yet. So once we had finished could I get us some thing to eat in town? Being the superb husband that i am (wink) i agreed (meaning i would get some dinner too) and said i would meet her at an agreed point.

Shortly after this i noticed Nisar had signed up and Fay had said she was relieved from marshaling as they had too many. fantastic

As I arrived at our HQ i noticed Saeed walking towards me and ready to do some good tonight. Helping him sign up to the task just in time before it hit 6:30pm.

We walked over and met Fay and Jane along the way and started posting the bundles of leaflets in what must have been a Guinness World Record, and we were done so fast that Andy didn't have time to join in the fun. Sorry Andy, you should have run faster at the Race for Business lol

So, from being just me, it turned into 5. And was completed in record time... and only cost me a Big Mac and fries ;-P

Thanks all for coming, and hope to see you all again soon

Run Happy

Rich

Despite the much improved lighting situation, we still met just inside the door, with Bianca wearing three layers and two pairs of socks!

We set off after a hyped up run briefing from leading light Laurie where no one seemed to have any energy. Beatboxing on the way we met leading light leaflet legend Fay who had prepared a great haul including a youth disco which got Joe reminiscing. We split off into two groups and got to work. Doug raised the union flag with Brexit pride and Sallyann even managed to find a brand new beatbox!

We delivered all the leaflets, and even the extra ones that Chris seemed to find, and headed back to base. Angela swung off early to prepare for bicycle shopping and Andy couldn't be bothered to do the last beatbox. For shame! If we miss out by 20 points we know who to blame.

It is also the quiz this weekend on Sunday, and if anyone wants a lift to Barrow farm on Sunday morning for the task there do let me know.

Make sure you read the email from Laurie (cough Martin cough) about the run next week. We will be setting off from Lidl to the foodbank. It is a longer run and there is a list of stuff they need to bring. We may also head to the pub after. Beat the street ends next week during the run so we can all celebrate! Especially if we can catch the girl guides!

After being dazzled by Andy's festive t-shirt and Russell's festive Lidl hat, we did a squat-free warm up (especially for Martin) and made our way to Meadgate.

We found Fay and Sallyann waiting with the Grinch on the corner of Meadgate, and made a start on leafletting. Whilst leafletting, we found out that it was Russell's 50th good deed, and that he recently got engaged, so double congratulations to Russell, and a black tshirt will be in the post soon.

Everyone was so dazzled by the various Christmas lights on houses that we got separated into two groups for most of the run, only meeting back up at the end for our farewells! David's photo to the group unsurprisingly didn't help the other group to locate us.

Tonight was Martin's 25th good deed, and Jess's 8th, so we're hoping to see a couple more 50th's next year from at least these two new members!

Great effort everyone for our last good deed of 2023, with 8.5-ish km for the runners, and a huge amount of leaflets delivered for Farleigh, The Art Place, and the YMCA.

Thanks everyone for a great year, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2024. We've got the January challenge coming up, so please remember to make sure your Strava is linked to your GoodGym account.

See you all soon

Laurie

First of all thank you to Fay for the run pun :-))

5 of us managed to get out on a Wednesday evening to help post leaflet bundles around the mean streets of Chelmsford.

With Jess "running" late (get it) and Fay meeting us with the leaflets Joel, Andy and myself decided to keep warm while we waited and do some squats. We must have done at least 287,726 by the time Jess arrived ( I promise (( wink emoji)) ).

Then we set off into the night with head torches blazing the way until we arrived in the Westlands estate and met Fay with some excellently bundled leaflets ready for us to post.

And so we did, and actually managed to post all the bundles we had and even went to our extra individual leaflets until we arrived back where we started.

With a quick goodbye to Fay we set back off to warm up and get back to HQ ASAP.

Some of us will be partaking in a 12km run this weekend, wish us luck and then it will be out for our annual Xmas meal and to celebrate the year past ( there maybe some awards)

Next week we will be posting more leaflets in the Meadgate area

Thanks all for coming

Run Happy

Rich

8 GoodGymer's ran and walked to the YMCA to clear up

We were very happy to welcome Martin for his first session in Chelmsford, who we identified immediately as a keen runner in his red parkrun t-shirt!

After introducing ourselves, Fay and Sallyann set off on their walk to our very nearby task at the YMCA, whilst the rest of us ran a 2.5k route along one of our favourite routes to the task.

Our task was to clear furniture into a skip at the YMCA. Fay and Sallyann quickly dismantled some furniture, whilst the others carried heavy items from the other side of the building and down the stairs.

An indoor task was a great opportunity for lots of photos, particularly of Rich and Andy with various props and faces. We also couldn't help ourselves with a YMCA pose at the end.

Next week we're at St John's Church Hall, and the week after we're at Writtle GP Surgery (different start location), and we also have the quiz at the Ale House on Sunday 5th of March.

See you next time!

Laurie