15 runners ran just under 5km to litter pick in Chelmsford

On what began as a lovely Spring evening (until it got dark), we all signed in at ARU. After a run brief and confirmation that we weren't allowed to use explosives inside, we popped outside to congratulate Catherine on her 50th, James on his from last week and Joseph on his 20th! As a treat I had some party poppers I had prepared earlier and BANG off we went with the streamers coming down, special shout-out to Abigail and Anton who had the panache to fire them up so high that even I managed to get them in the photo. We cleaned up our own litter, the first of a lot we picked up, and did a brief warm up. Grabbing the pieces of kit, we set off.

Jogging to our first port of call we split into two and picked litter on differing sides of the river, before meeting in the middle. Laurie had the fullest sack so she won the prize of a photo opportunity. After Andy decided against taking the sleeping bag he found, and Jenny scarpering fast from the conversations about football, we tidied the final pieces of litter we could find as people were clamouring for running and fitness.

It was great to see the competitiveness, particularly between Adam vs Joel (aside from the former's cheating against Joseph) and Emily vs Mark. Good running everyone. Its good to mix up running; hills improve knee lift, joint mobility and strength. With the level of intensity, you might ache a little tomorrow! After Lindsay pointed out the fantastic Super moon (alas no photo), we then cunningly hid the litter pickers for me to collect on my way home (they were all there by the way!) and ran a longer route on the way back. With the option of extended distance up the avenues, four running legends, spearheaded by Max, took up my generous offer and met us back at base. While it wasn't the longest run, we did all put a lot of effort in which is always tough on a February evening. Once we returned to base, Catherine had a magnificent surprise for Joseph, a pack of his favourite biscuits, chocolate bourbons! As a student, Joseph was extra appreciative as it means he won't need to do grocery shopping for another four days.

Thanks for coming everyone, it is always great to see new faces return as it means as run leaders, we are doing something right!

Happy running,