Todays 26.2 had eighteen Goodgymers attend the group run.

The news this week was about two community missions listed on the website, April 5th marshaling for a run for the Stroke association (please sign up as soon as you can) and Broomfield fun day on the 12th July helping to set up the event.

Tonights task was a litter pick on the periphery of Central Park so we set off from the Uni with a warm up of hop, skips and I forgot to do the leap year jumps! Rachel led from the front again and Rich tail ran. Soon arriving in the park and collecting the litter pickers and bin bags we then split into two groups with one group in Meteor Way and the other along Marconi Ponds. Laurie and Rich lead the groups. A thorough litter pick by the two teams meant we had time to do a Pyramid session at 5k pace around Central Park on a 300m loop. It was a 1-2-3-2-1 minutes with 30 seconds rest so we didn't cool down too quick.

Everyone seemed to have put a lot of effort in and it was time to head back to base for the warm down.

(So, the title had no relevance at all for the run apart from it is the 26th February 26.2...get it!)

Happy running until next week.

16 runners made a date of it leafletting Chelmer Village and Springfield

Hello everyone! My first GoodGym lead since the famed Halloween run report began with some superb Valentine's themed puns. It was a shame Doug couldn't make it tonight, as I know he is a huge fan. After everyone's laughter died down we took a photo, and definitely did a head count....

Rich warmed us up and we set off running up the bunny walks, past the prison and beyond Chelmer Village retail park. Loading everyone up with lots and lots of love, jelly babies and leaflets we headed off up Beeleigh Link. And then it all went perfectly to plan, with Russel C leading people wildly down Cusack Avenue (I took a photo of the street in case we had to do a missing persons report later) and we shot up the various roads trying to get furniture donations for BHF. After a brief moment of silence to remember those we lost, they turned up! From the top of there we headed to the pub, which our Endeavours deserved but sadly had a task to do so couldn't stop for a pint (that is for next week). We headed from there leafletting through Springfield to Simon's local, The Tulip, and back down to the river. We then did a Gerry special - lamppost sprints!

Everyone got a thorough workout and we headed back to ARU for some Valentine's chocolates and to polish off the jelly babies. Don't forget next Thursday is the February social - Chelmsford beer festival! We will be getting there at about 6pm and drinking it dry!

Thanks to everyone for coming, especially Kirk who was the only one who laughed at all of the jokes in the run briefing! I am just glad we made it back....

16 runners ran just under 6km to Interact for an outside tidy up

We were very glad to welcome Rhiannon this week, alongside some of our wonderful regulars for our group run to Interact. After congratulating Joel on his brilliant achievement of 150 good deeds we set off on our run, with Adam leading out and Rachel stylishly backmarking in a Specsavers hi-vis.

Once at Interact, there was some trouble finding the key to get into the greenhouse. However, after some solid detective work, we found the key to the tools and the biscuits.

Everyone got straight to work clearing the overgrown area outside the garden, working together to cut the weeds and pile them up together. After plenty of hard labour, we tidied up the tools and treated ourselves to the unopened pack of chocolate hobnobs left for us (thanks Susie!). We jogged back to ARU, where I found out that both Isabelle and Davis are running the London Marathon this year, with currently varied training plans. Best of luck to both for your training and on the day!

Thanks all for joining us, see you soon!

Laurie