Colchester GG is five years old. Seems like a long time, right? Well in around AD 917 the Saxons drove out the vikings out of Colchester and eventually built the Trinity Church! It is Colchester's oldest standing building and it is the only surviving Saxon building which has an arrowhead (triangle arches) doorway in the tower and features re-used Roman bricks.

Anyway, Helen organised a great task with Pam and Jan (Colchester in Bloom) to de-weed and trim back the graveyard. This patch of green is surrounded with a library and shops a bit like an oasis. The churchyard contains the burial place of William Gilberd, discoverer of electro-magneticism and Physician to Queen Elizabeth I too!! The difference we made was obvious and huge...bravo! Pam said the team did around 5 hours work in 50 minutes.

This week and for some time, Colchester will be tinged with sadness. On the week that Goodgym Colchester turned five a five year old tragically lost his life in the town. I was unsure whether to address this in a run report but Goodgym and all people whose careers help others and who give their spare time to help others can reflect and remember that life is precious and acting selflessly is a privilege.

In a ground breaking move, Goodgym Colchester have accepted support from The Gym, whose Assistant manager and Goodgymer Chloe, approached us and offered us a place to start and end our runs and a chance to spread the Goodgym vibes a bit further!

We went on a litter pick in Castle Park and by the River Colne. As we and many know, when there is warm weather there is litter. Just a reminder to anyone reading this who drops litter - it is a myth that people are paid to pick up your litter. The park rangers have plenty more to do, the council also have endless jobs to do other than pick up your litter and volunteers often do it. We do not want to. Dropping litter makes the park unsafe for toddlers and children, for wildlife and pets and the plastic in the river ends up in your food...fish ingest plastics and you probably eat fish! So use bins and take litter home. Simple.

But we love our park and we love the feeling that we make a difference. Safer and cleaner park. YES!

After our litter pick we set up a quick GG Colchester Olympics, with an obstacle course and hurdles combined with a relay! Just like at Parkrun, we were all winners! TEAM GG smashed it.

On our return to The Gym we had some cake and reflected on a lovely and reflective evening.