Lo and behold another Wednesday, another lovely GoodGym.

Leah turned up first, wearing a full puffer jacket like an absolute psychopath in the blazing 13 degree sunshine before ripping her sleeves off to make it a gilet.

Mohammed quickly signed up before the deadline, fresh from taking four minutes off his Parkrun personal best this weekend, great work! It was great to meet Dawn who had seen us on Facebook too! As a former teacher, she could be the best we've had at actually remembering people's names.

We ran to Tyrells school to get dug in. Martyn built a trench while sadly letting me know that jerusalem artichokes are actually awful to prepare so when they're finally grown they wont even be nice. Which is annoying. Russell decided to break a fork and complain about having to go to the office to work. I took some lovely photos, all of them seem to have Ben in: pogo stick attempt, sitting on a window ledge, group shot, or even just his thigh in the 'after' pic! Fay told us about a genuinely remarkable good deed she did this weekend. I'd only asked her if she had any hilarious dating stories for the run report... As we left we noticed Sallyann appeared to have a poop bag with her...no questions were asked about what she dug up.

We ran back a slightly shorter route than planned, took a photo and Dawn saved me with a lift home.

Great running and moving of earth! Bit of a wild task I know but it all helps prepare the area for the children to have as a sustainable, outdoor space.

Only 7 of us met at the gym last night but we doubled in numbers for maybe one of our biggest groups (?) to hang out with The Ideas Hub and friends in the park.

Richard made a surprise appearance, spotted Mohammed maybe doing some warmup laps before 6.30. Leah provided mobile security services (the car boot) and Rich was very happy to talk about his new shoes to someone other than poor Jane. Martin arrived and we were all officially early to set off for a loop of the park before 6.45.

At the park we found Fay and Sallyann and waited for Edith from the Ideas Hub.

The plan was to chat and have fun with some people who have recently moved to town and want to practice English where it might not be their first (or second!) language. It was clear that football is universal, and there was some light jesting about who is currently losing to who while we walked to the gym equipment in Admirals park for a very serious and structured work out.

And by that I obviously mean have a mess about.

The plan is to do some more of these going forward, so if you want to show us how many chin-ups you can do or just have a wiggle on the surfer, come and have a chat!

2 sacks collected, 1 mile covered, Area looks better.

On a glorious sunny spring evening Jane and I arrived at the old factory gym ready to strut our sexy selves along to Hearing Help Essex .

Tonights task was to paint some of their picnic benches in their garden ready for the summer months. After a brief chat about Robert's excellent double half marathon weekend and Mohammed's brand new Goodgym T-shirt we set off at our usual Sexy pace ( apart from Erin and Jane who ran off chatting away ).

Just before we arrived we met Sallyann in the car park as she is recovering from a sore back but ready to paint those benches.

Unfortunately, Sophie from HHE wasn't able to meet us as she had a family emergency but left us instructions of where to find the paint and brushes, and what they were wanting us to do.

Richard and Mohammed posed for a photo with the benches before we got started ( before photo) and then we moved them onto the grass, the benches not Richard and Mohammad. The paint and brushes were in the greenhouse and as i collected them i realized that the 2 pots were different colours. I decided which one looked nicer and we set to work. Kate was alittle worried about getting paint in her goodgym t-shirt until someone pointed out Joel's t-shirt and that all the paint and stains were in fact badges of honour for years of service.

With all 3 benches painted we washed the brushes and trays and stood for a group photo (after photo). I took this as an opportunity to try and do a group heel click photo. Some heel clicks were done internally 😜. Andy's , as always, needs work 😎

A job well done, we set off into the sunset with a smile on our faces and again continued our sexy pace back to base.

If you'd like to know more about sexy pace please read https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jul/24/slow-running-revolution-sexy-pace-enjoy-the-race

its a way of life and what we are all about.

Thanks for coming guys and see you all next time.

Run Happy

Rich

Turns out, only I wanted to!

Anyway, we had a longer run tonight ahead of us to Beaulieu and were so raring to go I even forgot to take a pic. Did an action shot and happy with how clear it is!

Leah was very confident she knew the route there (ish), and led us right to where we wanted to be - a playground! Richard climbed into the tunnel after deciding he wouldn't get stuck, Mohammed clambered on top, and Steve surfed his way to glory.

We then crossed to the new pavement they'd built since last time we were there and met the rest of the gang. While it was supposed to be a painting task, it had switched to cleaning walls and windows after a paint snaffoo.

Leanne began to shamelessly brag about how she is one of a hundred people who is going to be swimming the marathon equivalent in September this year (everyone who knows her knows how much she loves to brag). Fay rudely asked me what was up with my face. Sallyann has sadly put her back out so had to do photos and joyfully pose with Charles with me. We finished up after Martin opined that he had deja vu in cleaning walls, right down to being asked to do the high stuff.

As we were leaving, it happened. Andy Holmes. Voted greatest DJ of all time (or something like that). Congrats! Sadly he turned away when I pretended to drop the trophy.

We headed back to get out of the car park before road closures and went on our merry way. Next week is painting at Meadow View!

We were back at Barrow farm helping dig a trench along the fence to keep the brambles at bay. Mohammed worked like a trooper while I opted for some slightly less energetic weeding! Good progress was made and Mohammed tried his first Jaffa cake. The verdict: delicious (obviously!)

Our next session is some painting at Beaulieu Community Centre, which means a slightly longer run this week. Sign up here