18 ran to Interact to prepare for the summer garden party

So much going on this week and we were not going to let a little rain prevent an awesome session. It was Kerri's last session with us last night. We are all really sad about that, but chose to celebrate her contribution to the team ahead of her return to Bath. This was Kerri's 26th Group run and she has completed both 5 and 10k in this time. She also just last week narrowly missed her parkrun pb (probably Richard's fault), and baked for us at Goodgym Chelmsford's first birthday party. Awesome stuff!

In good news we had two newbies this week! Jenny and Katie joined us for the first time this week and were brilliant at both the run and the task!

We set off to Interact at Moulsham mill for a special session that was going to be filmed for a county council video. We love helping interact as this was one of our first ever tasks back when the garden was pretty much an empty space. Now they are close to the completed plan, with the recently added lawn and patio. They are having a garden party to celebrate and to let more people know what great things they get up to.

Before this can happen we had loads of jobs to do to help make the place suitable to host guests. the list was a page long and went a little bit like this.

We moved some rubble, which wasn't much trouble. We put some boards behind the shed, being careful not to bump our head. Some scaffold boards were stacked up neat, beside the house by peoples feet. We picked up pallets looking great, and stacked them all beside the gate. We covered bricks in tarpaulin, making sure to get them all in. We stacked slabs from the patio, beside the house then off we go.

Before we left of course, some of the group made a sacrifice for the team and ate some sausages for the camera man (Alistair) whilst we completed the heavy lifting. Good work team!

So after that we did set off on a nice scenic run back alongside the river and via the Cathedral. Pausing for a photo or two. Several of us then went to the pub to say good bye to Kerri and wish her all the best for the future.

Next week we will be back to Mencap to do a little more painting and hopefully complete the job. Looking forward to it.

26 brilliant runners explore parliament, Green Park, Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen of Spain!

It was a bit of a bonkers evening to be heading for a run around central London. Not only was the LSE campus buzzing with graduations, the King and Queen of Spain were on a state visit and so much of central London was blocked off. This made the usually busy rush hour areas EVEN BUSIER!

We nipped down to the river and headed along to Big Ben, sadly with a bit of scaffolding round him at the moment, but looking grand nonetheless. After a very busy cross over Parliament square, we celebrated as we reached St. James's park and a bit of space. Hooray!

A nice run around the lake led us to Buckingham Palace and a nice team photo. With that it was over the road into Green Park and a nice lap around. On coming back through Horseguard's Parade, it was clear that much of town was blocked off so run leader / not the best tour guide Katie led the group up and round, with a return stretch scooping below Covent Garden and the busy London streets.

Thanks to everyone who came along and you sure got quite a lot of London experiences in one run there!

17 ran to tackle a hedge for someone who couldn't manage it.

It was a double task day for Goodgym Chelmsford this Global running day, and we got stuck into the first task by helping the Ideas Hub to sort out a room in a nearby office ready for an event the next day. Tables were put together and chairs were moved and arranged, all after 6 flights of stairs! Great to see the return of Charlotte who is back from Uni and John who has not been for a while.

After our warm up task we set off on the run towards the main task, with a run through the high street and along the riverside path. We added an extra loop for those pushing the pace at the front and soon arrived at the hedge which had been enjoying the weather recently and was covering one window and working on the next. After retrieving the tools from the church we began chopping, lopping and clearing the hedge and surrounding vegetation to restore light to the flat. A good example of the sort of work we could do on missions for those who have been DBS checked, and something that can make so much difference to someone's quality of life.

Once the task was complete we set off back to the wooden bridge, and split into groups, one group running the three bridges and chasing group two who set off back to the hub! A great effort from both groups and we had a brief stretch in the rain!

I have posted the details of the Parkinsons event on Sunday on the facebook page here

and will add a discussion on our birthday party later today! see you this weekend or on next weeks run!

14 ran to Cathedral school to help in the grounds

A sunny clear sky offered a deceptively cold evening for 14 runners to meet at the ideas hub and run to Cathedral school before a further warm up on the play ground. An energetic warm up including some multi-directional lunges got us a little warmer but not necessarily prepared us for the task ahead.

Hardcore

Our task was the seemingly simple breaking up of the earth lining the school entrance so that it could be grassed over. The ground had been walked over wearing away the grass and compacting the earth making the ground very hard and difficult to break up. Despite the difficult conditions and less than perfect tools we worked as hard as the ground and made good progress, breaking up mot of the area before we set off on a run around the university and back to base.

Really pleased with how much we achieved and also pleased we have a few more tasks lined up! Next week we are back at the interact garden at Moulsham mill so a shorter run for those who have not been marathon training, or are recovering from one! Best wishes to Greg who is running London Marathon at the weekend, and all the other Goodgym runners who will be there! Those of us who feel 5k is a far more sensible distance will be at Parkrun this Saturday where we have some 50th runs for Joel and Rachel so please come down and support!