On a night when you have a 5 mile run lined up, the last thing you want is the forecast of heavy rain all evening

I was a touch pessimistic as I arrived at the waterfront. It was raining with no sign of a let up and I anticipated a low turnout.

I should have had more faith in the Goodgymmers of Ipswich with 15 of us laughing in the face of the rain gods and venturing out as it was persistently raining down.

We even had an advance party of Sally, Nicola and Ali setting off early with the intention of us catching up en route, however they were already painting by the time we arrived.

A big welcome to Amy who was joining us for the first time tonight. Kudos also to Sue, who missed us at the start due to arriving late at the Waterfront but cycled across town to catch us up on Norwich Road.

I didn't mention it prior to the run tonight because they weren't there at the start but congratulations to Ali on her run at the Haverhill Half Marathon on Sunday and to Sue who complete a personal challenge of running a solo half marathon distance on Friday.

Tonight's task was cancelled due to the snow a couple of weeks ago. We've been lucky through the winter to have had the opportunity to paint a number of rooms at Castle Hill Community Centre and we were returning to paint one of the larger rooms at the centre.

We arrived at Castle Hill dripping wet and already soaked through to base layers - did I mention it was raining quite hard? - but immediately the gang got stuck into painting a huge room with an open plan kitchen. There weren't not quite enough brushes and rollers for everyone, so we asked for some cloths to clean skirting boards, radiators, door frames and tables.

Fabulous teamwork saw the cutters in and rollers following snake like around the room. Within 30 minutes the room was complete, sparkling clean and surprisingly there was still a small amount of paint left!

There was a slight reluctance to don the wet layers for the return leg of the run , though some had managed to seek out working radiators to at least partially dry out jackets.

We splish-splashed our way along the 2.5 miles back to base in the "refreshing" enjoying the games of dodging the falling cats & dogs and wakes created by cars passing through lake-like puddles.

It was certainly a night to remember - challenging conditions to run but an epic task completed - terrific work by all.

Next week's task promises to be a good one. It's a relatively short run to a new task and bring a small back pack you can run with if possible.

See the details and sign up Here

Tonight we welcomed Kerry , Sally, Tom, Paul, Ali to their first Goodgym Group Run. Hope you all enjoyed your first Goodgym experience.

We also welcomed Jon Wright from BBC Radio Suffolk who came on the run and recorded some interviews for his show.

It was chilly evening and we started with a dynamic warm before taking a roundabout circuit to the Survivors in Transition Centre - anyone else noticed the route we ran tonight looks like a bit like a heart #stravaart !

We arrived at the centre and Bessie explained the task was to paint a room. With the number in our gang this evening we split into two teams enabling one group to complete the painting task and the second group to take on an ad lib task of litter picking along the waterfront.

Robin led the painting team while the litter pickers scoured the area. It was surprisingly clear but we managed to partially fill 3-4 black sacks before returning to observe the final stages of painting. We had be gone less than half an hour but there was a visible difference to be seen - amazing work as there were a number of beams in the walls to be cut around.

Two tasks on one Group Run - Surely we can claim double points on the National Challenge - and peg back the task count in the local derby with our Goodgym Norwich neighbours

We rounded off the evening with some intensive interval training. Splitting into teams of three for relay sprints. A fantastic effort by everyone .... despite the complaints about the timing - 15minutes is a "long" time apparently!!

See you next week https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-at-st-michael-s-community-centre