What better way to get back into Community Missions in Ipswich than to push wheelbarrows, full of chopped logs up a short hill - hill sprints, strength work and good deeds all combined into a fun hour.

Ipswich GoodGym-ers returned to help out at the Eden Rose Coppice Trust, on a bright and sunny Monday evening in Brickmakers Wood.

So with teamwork at the fore our task was simple - transport two large piles of logs from the warehouse shed up a small incline so that the charity trustees could continue to build a garden for cancer patients and their families to enjoy the calm and tranquility of this urban oasis.

It didn't take long for our members to find a rhythm of loading, rolling and stacking the logs and we surpised ourselves in how quickly we made a dent in the two piles of logs.

New member Ayrden](/runners/ayrden-jackson) drew the short straw, or in this case, the larger logs and helped create new seating around the pond area.

In no time at all 2 tonnes (we may have exaggerated for effect) where lifted and shifted - leaving just a little bit of sweeping to collect the kindling.

With a job well done we then set off on an easy pace 5K run around town and carried on the chatter about future group runs, and race days to come.

So after a long, long wait Good Friday was finally the day when Ipswich members came together again to run. After a few days of sunshine and short sleeves and with the introductions completed, talk soon turned to the weather - and whether one, two or more layers were needed to protect from the breeze coming off the waterfront marina.

With Ipswich town centre eerily quite on what is usually a busy shopping day we were able to enjoy plenty of space to run together in a covid-secure manner.

Setting off at a nice steady pace the group consisting of Carolyn, Nicola, Miranda, Laura and Kerry, as well as Run Leader, Alan, were soon into their stride, discussing their experiences of running over the last twelve months and across three separate lockdowns. And everyone agreed that the thing that everyone had missed most was the chance to run socially, in groups, where the chat was as important, if not more important, than the pace.

In a blink the 5K run was complete - small but significantly important steps forward as we all move forward towards more running opportunities, more local organisations to help, and more GoodGym friendships to be made.

I thought we were going to miss the worst of the weather tonight - I was wrong!

Arriving at our University meeting point it was a bit windy but dry and not too cold. It was lovely to see some "nearly new" faces in Jo and Laura, both of whom hadn't been to a Goodgym run for a while - welcome back!

During our warm up it began the rain began to fall... and as we set off the wind seemed to increase in strength - not the ideal weather for a task of delivering around 500 flyers on behalf of the British Heart Foundation. The flyers were promoting their furniture and electrical shop and aimed at increasing donations to the stock.

We had a designated residential areas to cover within a 1- 1.5 mile radius of the shop. We split into groups - one covering the border of the roughly "oval" shape on our map; the other covering all the roads in the middle. By the time we all met back at the starting point it was raining hard but super work meant the majority of the flyers were in people's letter boxes.

We moved across to a second area nearer the shop itself and again covered a myraid of streets in quick time. The advantage of this task is that everyone keeps moving and avoids getting too cold.

With only a handful of flyers left we headed to the floodlit car park in Portman Road for a brief but intense interval relay session before heading back to base.

Fabulous effort in trying conditions from everyone. We started with 500 flyers and had just 42 left over - hopefully our "first class" deliveries will help increase furniture and electrical stock donations to the shop.

Don't forget this Saturday's additional "Starter Session" meeting after Ipswich parkrun in Christchurch Park. Hope to see lots of you there. Come along early and enjoy a parkrun beforehand - there will be lots of us doing the same!