On a very cold night all the pre run chat was about layers and that some of our Goodgym crew were arriving in shorts!

There was also kudos given to those who had run the Beenfleet 15 mile race or Cross Country league on Sunday as well as celebrating JJ's 250th parkrun on Saturday.

It was great to have Jenny and Nicole join us for their first Monday night Group Run after coming along to the January starter session last week. Jenny also bringing Rachel for her Goodgym debut!

The run to our destination was almost exactly a mile but started with a climb up the notorious Bishops Hill, which everyone loved! The front runners particularly enjoyed the challenge - only realising when they reached the top that they would be turning around to go back down and pick up the bark marker group - what fun!

Arriving at the FIND Foodbank we were met by Maureen who asked our team to get stuck into a variety of cleaning tasks including a floor scrubbing machine. With a large group floors were hoovered, fridges cleaned and surfaces dusted and wiped. Much hilarity ensued when the floor scrubber came into action.

With several of us trying to follow the instructions and only managing to get too much water on the floor, we eventually got the machine going with Kerry in the driving seat. However the machine was driving Kerry rather than the other way round. Eventually control was retained with JJ's assistance - nudging it towards the opposite direction. Steve also had a bash at driving and with the experience of watching Kerry managed a little more control evene managing to get into corners.

The machine - and the pilots - did a great job of cleaning the floor, but did leave the floor quite wet. To avoid dirty trainer footprints all over the floor, the solution became a "dance off" with lots of Goodgymers shuffling around with towels on their feet drying and the floor and leaving it sparkling clean!

With Bishops hill conquered on our run out we took an alternative route back with the steep downhill along Cliff Lane before finishing the evening with a group fartlek session.

A super turnout and great to see everyone on a bitterly cold evening - see you all next week for the final Group Run in January

Almost half the group on today's task were making their Goodgym debut!

A big welcome to Laura , Anna, Jenny , Nicole, Kathryn and Mandy. It was wonderful to have you join us and I hope you enjoyed your first taste of Goodgym. It's always good to see the familiar faces of the regular crew too!!

It was a bit chilly but dry so after a brief warm up we set off on a loop taking in the whole of Ipswich Waterfront, avoiding what appeared to be some kind of pokemon convention with crowds of people staring at their phones all along our route! Daniella took on our back marker role with Andrew volunteering to be walk leader ( with no takers!) Thanks to both of you for your help today.

With my car strategically placed containing our litter pickers, bags and gloves, we regrouped and "tooled up" for some "plogging" along the river path on behalf of Rivercare

Splitting into two groups - one heading out to the Bridge marking the boundary of the river segment we wanted to cover - and the other starting from the Skate Park end. Within 30 minutes the groups met up with Jenny claiming kudos for the only notable "find" a pair of old pants!

We then took a direct route back to the Uni to finish the session with little running based strength circuit - step ups, and squats mixed with press ups, planks and dips - Oh what fun we had!

Fabulous work from everyone!

Our next Group run will be a relatively short one as we head to one our favourite venues, Brickmakers Wood on Monday evening - Find out more info and sign up HERE