17 runners attempted to paint a fence for InterAct

Hello! With the advent of decent evening light and a heady 17 degree weather today, we coincidentally had 17 runners! We were making our first visit back to InterAct since January and we were raring to go. After we reenacted our favourite exercise poses from last week (look out for the video come May/June!) we met the new Goodgymer Hannah who sadly missed the opportunity to see Laurie's head move wildly from her body (see photos). We ran the usual route down to InterAct and met the wonderful Susie who outlined the great work the charity does. They do offer Mental Health First Aid courses which are beneficial for both personal and professional development, so please do get in touch with her if they would be of interest to you.

We had several jobs to do - painting the raspberry plant beds green, painting the long fence, painting flower beds, building and installing solar torches and grabbing the old BBQ out of the skip as it wasn't allowed to be there! We jumped into it, with Jenny and Julie heading straight for the cabbage patch, Catherine and Joel went for the flowerbed (while trying to convince Joel that a rectangular BBQ was vastly superior, which it is), James C and James G heard the word 'BBQ' and ran off, Rachel went to build and place the torches, while everyone else grabbed brushes and got stuck in. All the areas which needed the green and brown paint got completed and we made a reasonable start on the fence - but with more to do next week!

Then came everyone's highlight I am sure...EGGS! InterAct had had a donation of 80 Easter Eggs earlier today for the children, staff and any volunteers they have. As we definitely count as the latter and obviously burnt lots of calories with running and painting, we were only too happy to oblige. Thanking Susie profusely, we left but not before posing with our prize eggs. Joseph held his aloft like Rafiki holds Simba in the Lion King, while Emily seemed to have acquired a week's worth of various foodstuffs. We split into two groups for the run on the way back, one to run 2.5k and the other 4k. I led the 2.5k posse with Ellie's boundless energy (welcome to you too!) looping back around us all and stretched to stave off injuries. With the others arriving shortly after, we reminded everyone about unlimited pizza on Friday and parted ways.

I hope you all had a cracking time and have an EGG-cellent Easter! See you next week. Don't eat all your egg at once!