On a lovely sunny (slightly cooler) wednesday evening 14 GoodGymers arrived at leisure world full of smiley optimism, excited to be heading off to help Colchester in Bloom at their community allotment. After a warm welcome by Fay and quick warm up outside the leisure centre the group headed off towards the station, over the bridge and up the hill to the allotment. Pam was there ready to meet us when we arrived and eager to get us started on the evening's tasks.

we split in to smaller groups to tackle a number of different jobs - Ian and Vannessa cleared a new pathway, Bob, Louise, Emily and Tav moved sleepers, Carl and Dan collected together slabs and Kate, Katherine, Jade and Emily moved the debris and bug hotel. Once we had successfully cleared a big area the team worked together to lay plastic and secure it in place with sleepers. The newly plastic'd area made a lovely space for doing some exercise and Emily lead us all in some Yoga moves (supervised by Pam) down dog, into cobra and a cheeky childs pose!

Pam was keen to keep us working but as usual time beat us and before we knew it we had to head back down the hill and return to the leisure centre. Along the way we stopped to do some squats before spliting in to pairs to race over the station bridge. Once back at Leisure World the team took a vote and it was decided we would work on our conditioning, doing a stretching session. we gathered in a circle and worked our way through the major muscles, making sure we had a very good stretch in deed!

Our Gee-geeers ran 20 furlongs to help Colchester Foodbank.

Hold onto your horses, this evening was full of horse play... but no foal play occurred and thankfully nobody bolted like a bucking bronco!

Our big news this week is that Goodgym Colchester is celebrating its 2nd birthday and nothing seemed more fitting than returning to Colchester Foodbank, as this was the very first task Goodgym Colchester ran to when it launched in 2016.

We were delighted to welcome Holly to her debut run and she proudly wore her party hat!

With our costo-mare-y party hats on and after a quick warm up with a game of knee tag, we set off to the mane event - there was not a long face in sight. When we arrived we were surprised with a birthday 'cake' from the Foodbank staff, which was fruitiful - berry good indeed! We were also greeted by Alfonse the panto horse!

Our GeeGeeers were quick to get to work with the task of cleaning the Foodbank, as it had become quite dusty in the recent heatwave - no spot was left untouched. Whilst the group put in a mare-athon effort, myself and Susie got to try on the panto horse suit, as we will be wearing it for the upcoming Panto Horse Derby on Sunday 23r23rd September, 11am-3pm, Colchester High Street! Then we practised the difficult bit... running in it! The hoofing around caused much amusement, but luckily we were on stable ground - a good job it was such stable ground, as we couldn't see neigh thing.

After all our horsing around we returned to Leisure World and a few of us carried on the run to a local watering hole, to continue with the birthday celebrations.

The party people really had to rein it in - clearly there ain't no party like a Goodgym party!

On that note, it is time to hit the hay...

Great effort everyone and plenty of laughs shared this evening! Thank you to Helen for front marking and Susie for back marking, greatly appreciated.

I was on the train back from London, thinking about all the things I had to do, how tired I was and how much I wanted to go home and then Chrissie sent a message saying she was planning to return to Goodgym tonight after a little period away. She was nervous about her return and about how fast she would be able to run – Tav replied first and Helen quickly after saying no one was left behind at Goodgym and we couldn’t wait to see her. I was quickly reminded Goodgym is about getting fit by doing good – together. It’s the people we meet and the connections we make that have us all hooked by the red t-shirt army and coming back every week! As soon as I arrived at the leisure centre, pulled on my red shirt and trainers I knew I was up for it and the train thoughts drifted away. As the others started to arrive I could feel the excitement of running with friends on a sunny evening.

A fabulous 13 of us turned up to run. We did the usual headcount and then quickly headed off, warming up as we went. We ran through castle park, enjoying its summer splendour and through the streets of the town centre. We dipped under the under pass and on the abbey fields before reaching the Cannons residential home. As promised we found the trowels, bulbs and planting plans in the porch. We spilt in to teams of three and set about the grounds, digging holes and planting bulbs. Ella, Dan and Bob filled the watering cans and made sure the new flowers got a sprinkle – helping to make sure are hard work and efforts will explode into colour for the residence next year.

Tav climbed a tree with the help of Bob, whilst the rest of us did the plank challenge in the garden. Ella came out victorious, beating Bob by they smallest of margins and maybe a little help of a delayed start! Once all the planting was done, and equipment returned we set back off for the journey home. Meandering back across the fields and through the town!

Next week is Goodgym social night – drinks and food at the old new inn!

A lot of great news this week: Massive congrats to Hannah and Doc for completing the Brighton marathon; also congrats to Bob for a parkrun PB and Tav for a 10k PB in Brighton too! A big hooray to Emily for her 50th GoodGym Good Deed! Finally a very happy birthday to Michelle who we will have to sing to next week!

Lovely sunny day = happy GoodGym faces and even a few tanned arms turning up at Leisure World.

Limbered up outside Leisure World with some high knees and stretches, led by Tav.

Our front marker Emily led us off to the allotment where Pam was eagerly awaiting.

Trimming, weeding and watering were the tasks of the evening. Pam was, as usual, very happy with the work we carried out and excitedly showed us the fruits of our last labour which we had spent digging holes for the planting of trees.

Marathon heroes Hannah and Doc were celebrated in our fitness challenge: to run 26 railway bridge sprints between us in two teams.

Excellent competitive sprinting from all, we then made our way back to Leisure World to complete Tav’s task: the creation of a human GoodGym logo.

Never underestimate the skills of Good Gym Colchester’s human masterpieces. A great group effort (and Ian finally in the right position 😉) resulted in an almighty GG we should all be thoroughly proud of.

Training ended with a squat hold competition. Well done to four winners: Vanessa, Helen, Bob and Carl!

Stats:

14 runners

Run: 4 kilometers

Sprints: 26 in teams

Tricep dips: many

Squat hold: up to 2mins 30 seconds

Smiles: loads

Spade, trowel and fork action: epic.