It's okay to be different and tonight Goodgym Ipswich had a different coach, who was in a different town and different runners but with same Goodgym vibe.

Tonight was humid and warm, much like the climate I would imagine an elephant may like! After a brief update of the news about The Great Get Together, the launch of Goodgym Poole (51st area) and of course the big partnership on this week's run with the East of England Co-op we set off for what was Adeline's 48th run.

The task was a brilliant one, Ipswich has around fifty-five artistically decorated elephants as part of Elmers Big Parade dotted around the town courtesy of St Elizabeth Hospice and we set off to check them for damage and clean litter from around them. I am pleased to say they were all in good condition and litter was at a minimum.

I won't pretend I know where we went other than a shopping centre, a lovely park with a beautiful hill and the fancy waterfront with Elmer really getting around. Each Elmer had a different, design, story and name with many people taking an interest, not just Goodgym runners!

*Kerry took us on a wonderful route and a big thank you to him for guiding me round the town. *

As I said it was warm and the runners worked up a sweat but we still managed an interval lap in the park (75% of maximum sprint with little recoveries) and nearly 8kms.

A big personal thank you from me and maybe see you Colchester one Wednesday soon.

We had a debut and a tourist joining us tonight for the long run out to Castle Hill.

It was great to meet Belinda, a Goodgym Worthing centurion, was staying in Ipswich for work. Her hotel was literally a stone throw from our meeting point - good planning or what!!

Lizzie's first Group Run was slightly unorthadox in that she missed us at the start due to problems locating a place to park. Lesser people would have put this down to bad luck and headed home....but Lizzie drove to the task location, pulling up just as we arrived! So the welcome was not as structured as normal but brilliant to meet you.

Prior to setting out we recapped a busy weekend of events and races people had run - including the Woodbridge 10k and Kerry had raced a train in Norfolk (and beat it!)

The task was at a familiar location and involved some weeding in a small area and also cutting back a massively overgrown area - this was hampered by the availability of tools (only a saw and a set of secateurs . Robin and Kerry took these and set too on the shrubs with Lizzie and Nicola picking up off cuts, while the rest of the team weeded, dug and swept.

The shrub proved stubborn and years of tangled growth made it tricky to make any real impact with the limited tools. However the boys gave it a good go, diving deep into the undergrowth to try and find the key branches/trunk to cut.

The main team did a great job of weeding (mainly by hand) the small plot, leaving it looking ten times better than when we arrived.

On the run home there were a only a couple of takers for the side street intervals - mainly due to exertion of races over the weekend! But a steady, even pace by all totted up to a round trip of 5 miles.

Starting off with a big thank you for Andrew for stepping in to cover the start of tonight's session due to traffic chaos on the A12 conspiring to delay my arrival

Also massive congratulations to the same Andrew in reaching the 50 task milestone - the 4th Ipswich member to earn the coveted black shirt!

So, when I (eventually)arrived the task was well under way....and what a turnout - probably the highest attendance since our launch. Everyone was getting stuck in to the job of painting a classroom. I've never sen so many goodgym t-shirts in such a small space!

The task was set up by Andrew (a different one to our new black shirted Andrew) the school Head Teacher with the aim of making the room much brighter for a new teacher at the school. With so many hands the job was completed within 40 minutes and we headed off to run back to base which included a fartlek interval session along the Waterfront and taking in part of the Twilight 5k race route many of the group had done on Saturday with great success.

Next week we return to Castle Hill for a long(ish)run - find out more here

Massive congratulations to Steve on reaching 50 good deeds and earning his black t-shirt on tonight's task.

A big welcome to Jamie - Louise on her first group run and..... a very warm welcome back to Eleanor who had been travelling in New Zealand for several months but came back to Ipswich just because she missed Goodgym so much!

With all the festivities and chatter we almost forgot we had a 5 mile run to be getting on with

Arriving at Castle Hill Community Centre there was palpable disappointment when the scheduled outdoor task was replaced with indoor painting. However in true GG Ippo style everyone got stuck in and I tried to introduce a bit of competitive pressure by giving a time deadline to complete. This seemed to spur the team on with Mitch and Steve taking on the tricky recessed area above some lockers. In fact at one point it appeared Mitch had more paint on his hair than on the walls - luckily it wasn't paint but polystyrene from his head rubbing ceiling tiles!.

In super quick time - beating my time deadline - we were done and the room did look good for having this second coat.

On the run home there were some fartlek intervals on offer on side roads and hills , with most of the group (other than Alex and Mitch) ignoring them and preferring a steady pace for the 2.5 mile homeward leg.

We had a chat about the how tasks have become a little difficult to secure recently and if any charities or community organisations are reading this and could use some free volunteer manpower for any tasks on a Monday evening - get in touch!

We've also got the first ever Ipswich Goodgym Community Mission coming up on Friday 19 April - you can find all the details and sign up HERE

A small but perfectly formed group gathered for our first daylight Group Run this year - with Kerry sporting his brand new black Goodgym T-shirt -(literally just out of the packet), earned on his 50th good deed last week and Mitch back again following his Goodgym debut last week also.

Tonight was a "Plogging" task

“Plogging” is combining jogging with "plocka", the Swedish word “to pick”. The idea being you pick up litter while running.

Our destination was Holywells Park where we could combine plogging with a specially requested "Hills" fitness session. This special request was made by Lizzie on our FB page during the week, when I asked what would people like as a fitness session. Lizzie was the only one to reply.

With no other proposals - Hills it was!

On arriving in the park we split into two groups - we'd brought litter pickers and bags - one group heading to the top of the park and working down while the other started at the bottom. 3 bags of rubbished collected with the oddest finds being a flat football and a chair leg!

So the hill session commenced with the first few being short intervals - effort up / recovery down - lulling everyone into a false sense of reasonable comfort. Then came the "sting" 10 mins of long intervals - the park providing a fabulously winding uphill path through lush green grass.

What fun we all had - and how everyone loved Lizzie's suggestion!

Finally we head back to base taking in a large chunk of the Great East Run Course that passes through the park, before taking a steep downhill on Cliff Lane and flattening out along the Waterfront, where we added a few "back to front" sprints in train formation to complete our Plogging & Hills set.

FIVE - OH - Huge congratulations to Kerry

The big news from tonight is Kerry achieving his 50th good deed and the coveted black Goodgym T-shirt. Kerry is the only the second GG Ipswich person to reach 50 deeds following in Robin's footsteps.

And at the other end of the spectrum Mitch was making his Goodgym debut - click on the links to give them both a cheer!

For tonight's Group Run we teamed up with #Earth Hour to do good for the community across the UK. Earth Hour is the world’s biggest switch off event. Each year, millions of people around the world switch off their lights and organise events – at home, in their community or in their towns or cities – to show they care about the future of our planet.

Our task was to litter pick an area adjacent to Brickmakers Wood.

As the location was close we took a circuitous route taking in the infamous Devonshire Road - a short but extremely steep hill - following a manic game of tag as part of a warm up!

I'd tactically parked my car with the litter pickers, gloves and bags in Back Hamlet close to the entrance to Brickmakers Wood so, on arrival the kit was distributed and the group spread out. With the area we need to cover being very long and fairly narrow it didn't take too long to get it all looking pristine! We had a slight delay in re-grouping as Laura's group were having way too much fun trying to retrieve cans from behind a wire fence!

Once all the litter picking kit was safely back in the car - we headed off on a mission inspired by Steve. Some of the group have recently had a few problems with finding parking close to our meeting point on the Waterfront. Steve had spotted a nearby car park that could be an option but wasn't sure of any restrictions; so we ran to have a look and it could be an option!

Our little car park detour took us into the grounds of the college and we found a well lit flat area for a partners HIIT session - shuttle runs alternating with sets for balance, co-ordination, leg and core strength. The timing for each set being dictated by how quickly your partner could complete the shuttle run.

It all went until the last set - Wall Sits and group 2 played some time wasting tactics (walking and even hiding round a corner) while their partners thighs were burning!

A landmark evening for Kerry with a good task for one of our regular host organisations alongside a fabulous workout - Goodgym rocks!