We got on very well! From funnel time checking, to marshaling, to barcode scanning, to tail walking, to stuff I’ve missed, to…whatever it was Andy did… we did a pop up Goodgym at parkrun.

It also had a number of police officers highlighting the important issue of women’s safety on runs, with lots of survey responses collected. And even a woman getting the coveted 001 Parkrun. Incredible pace.

Remember - Goodgym does also do night safety training for men, to better help understand the issues that women have to go through. 97% of women have been harassed while out running and that is unacceptable.

Even though the evenings have started to darken that didn't deter myself, Jen , Richard and Russell from meeting at HQ for a slightly longer run to the Beaulieu community centre to help them with a spot of painting.

Arriving in no time we made our way upstairs where we found Sallyann and Nic already hard at work painting the walls of one of the ladies bathrooms. We all managed to squeeze in and hopefully give it a new lease of life.

Finishing up we washed brushes, posed for a photo and said our goodbyes. With Nic and Sallyann walking home and Russell and Richard running back a different route home than we came, Jen and I had a lovely chatty run back to HQ before saying goodbye.

Thanks for coming guys, hopefully we will be back there soon to continue the good work..

This weekend we will be volunteering at Chelmsford parkrun ( and then breakfast after)

If i don't see you before then please...

RUN HAPPY

Rich

A lower than usual turn out during holiday season, but we welcomed lovely new goodgymmers Jennifer and Nicola to the fold!

A chat and run (we get there eventually), Andy confirmed my suspicions that this may be one of our longer missions but with no pressure for speed we got listening to Jens big challenge for next year (100k!).

We met up with Fay and Sallyann (celebrating officially sacking off work at the end of the year) with two full bags of leaflets and skirted around a warren of houses, disappearing off around bends and cul de sacs to make sure everyone got some fun updates on what local charities are up to in the next few months.

Dreaming of dinners we managed to follow our steps back the way we came to the gym meeting spot, hoping the evenings stay light for a while longer.

Whoop whoop it's the sound of the GoodGym!

Time for another run, arriving on a warm summer eve and greeting Nicola, we had a chat and I'd planned a nice circular route to be led by Jane. We headed off into the light night. Hopefully Mohammed's leg will heal up soon and he can get back to running with us! He has a parkrun PB to attempt!

We chatted as we ran (of course) , Erin lamenting that her days of being able to attend multiple raves a weekend have passed her by, Joel lamenting he didn't have a million pounds in cash to spend on a house, and Ben not lamenting at all that he is going to Switzerland next week!

Superb job there everyone, Pastor Chris was very impressed and grateful at the amount we did, and that we survived the flesh wounds from all the brambles. Any excuse for me to wield an excessively sized scythe is always good.

Fay headed back to meet us at the gym and we set off. She called the police en route about a broken down car on a bend. Another good deed done.

Although we dwindled in numbers on the route back we still had strong appetite for cake, which Andy had clearly home made. Jane even took one home for Rich and he was kind enough to send a photo (NSFW) of him enjoying it. No good deed for that.

Can we promise cake next week? You never know! (But you defo got spoiled this first run, Nicola!)