12 ran to do some litter picking by Riverside Ice and Leisure

After it seemed as if it had never stopped raining all day , finally the sun came out (ish)and we knew GoodGym was ready to roll......or start picking. So our task tonight was to do a spot of litter picking around the entrance to Riverside and then along the river bank.

Before I start i just want to say a BIG congrats to James and Cara on their half marathons on the weekend and hope all goes well in both of their marathon preps. Also , welcome back Adam and Vicky for your second group runs. hopefully we have become your Wednesday evenings :-)

So, before we could get stuck into the litter picking we needed to pick up the equipment that Laurie had been looking after from last time we went litter picking. We set off at a steady chatting pace and made our way through the bunny walks and got ourselves kitted out with gloves and bin bags and litter pickers.

When we arrived at the entrance to Riverside we quickly formed into groups and worked our way through the areas that needed a tidy up and little pieces of rubbish picked up. Catherine suggested a game of who can find the strangest item and after some great attempts i think Roger won with his find of a £10 note. He did say he would be putting into a charity box after he had cleaned it , but we'll get back you on what actually happened to it :-P

Once we had worked our way down towards the entrance to Tesco we collected the bin bags and put them into the big dustbins just off the high street. We managed to fill 5 bin bags full of rubbish which i think is a sterling effort from everyone and has made a massive difference to the area .

As we started to make our way back we said good bye to Joel as he was going the other direction and then we went to first drop off the equipment then to do a fitness session in the bunny walks.

For the fitness session we did lamppost drills.. run to the 3rd lamppost then turn around and jog 1 lamppost back, then walk 1 back, then turn around and repeat. The idea being to raise your heart rate then lower it, then raise it again. And you all smashed it, Well done.

We arrived back and stretched off and discussed Thursday nights social, which will be the pub quiz at the Golden Fleece in Chelmsford and we will be meeting at 7pm. Hope to see you all there and by the sounds of it , it should be a good turn out and who knows.....maybe we'll win....

11 runners ran 4.8k to InterAct to paint their TV Room

With Spring in full flow we met at our usual spot at ARU while it was still light. We welcome two new Goodgymers to the fray, Vicky and Adam. After congratulating James G on his 50th Parkrun we lunged our way towards the High Street.

We jogged our way to Moulsham Mill and arrived at InterAct. Susie and the team have won the latest Tesco Charity competition and so we needed to continue our work painting to make the TV room fresh for the Easter Egg hunt next week. We set to work sanding, dusting, painting and, in my case, getting in the way. We made an impact to the appearance of the room and chatted merrily while we painted. After some lovely biscuits and a photo by the dartboard, we set off into the night. We owe you a session of hoovering though Susie!

We sped off towards the bridges by the record office. The energetic ones amongst us (clearly they didn't paint hard enough) did a slightly longer route with interval sprints across the bridges. We made our way back in good time for a stretch and it was nice to see Kate after she popped out of the campus bar building!

Thanks to everyone for coming, particularly Vicky and Adam! I hope to see you all either at Parkrun on Saturday, GoodGym next Wednesday or the Golden Fleece next Thursday for our pub quiz social.

10 runners ran to Mencap to give it a clean

We were glad to have our weekly dose of good deeds after the bad weather last week, and we had a great turn out of runners for it too. We were all sad to hear that Gerry has injured himself and couldn't lead the run this week, and we all hope he recovers quickly!

To warm up we decided to do a Caterpillar run along the path out of the University, and then carried on down the high street to Mencap.

We had just under half an hour to get on with a good spring clean and everyone got stuck in. James even found the vacuum cleaner and gave the carpets a once over. The musical instruments in the main room were too much of a temptation for most, with David having a go on the guitar and Roger dusting off the ukulele.

Once we had finished off the cleaning we decided to have a go at some press ups, planks and Catherine's favourite, the burpee. Our host returned and commented on the fresh scent of the main room, so we knew a good job had been done. Undertaking this cleaning for Mencap will prepare the spaces for decoration later in the year, making it a more inviting space for the important work they do in the community.

We went for a slightly longer run back through Moulsham and down through Central Park, before heading back along Victoria Road to the University.

We are holding the March social event at the Golden Fleece pub for some food, drinks and the quiz. We will aim to be there from 7pm, with the quiz starting at 8pm.

9 runners ran 3.7km to Chelmsford High Street to litter pick

After last week's rainy run, we were worried when Kate came into Mildmay Gym with a wet jacket and hair! However after a few minutes we ventured into the cold evening and there was only a slight drizzle.

We did some warm up drills, and jogged on to the High Street. We were greeted by David with litter pickers, bags and gloves so we got stuck straight in. We found the area quite clean, however we managed to give it a thorough sweep, including a lot of cigarette butts.

We are encouraged to work together, and of course we are all very sociable. Everyone chatted and worked together, including Leanne and Barbara sharing a rubbish bag. We weren't heckled or questioned quite as much as we thought we may be in such a prominent area, however when we did Roger intelligently quipped "Service to the Community, not Community Service'"

We left David to put the rubbish in the bin, and jogged a slightly longer route back to Anglia Ruskin University. We had a long stretching session together, where we discussed the plans for the next social events. Rachel mentioned that we will be going to the Golden Fleece Pub Quiz on Thursday 28th March, which James will be looking forward to as it's the start of half term! Catherine also suggested we treat ourselves next week to a Grand Big Mac after the run...mmm

12 RUNNERS RAN 5K TO SPRING CLEAN AT MENCAP

Our task this week was returning to one of our regular missions and giving the rooms in Mencap a thorough good cleaning. As usual we met at Anglia Ruskin University at the sports hall, as we left the building there was a netball game going on and we could see Rachel eyeing it up enviously as thats her favourite sport. The task is about 2km away so we stepped out into the cold and did some Toe Touches *and keeping on the move with *Walking Lunges, then into Walking Calf raises on toes and heels. Into a jog to the traffic lights by the police station, hit these wrong and you wait ages for them to change, so we got one Squat in before they changed much to Kate’s *delight! But all we had to do was to cross the road where a lovely bit of pavement beckoned to resume our *Squats, it kept the waiting traffic amused! Arriving at the top of the high street trying to keep up with **James! (Marathon training is paying off!) Star Jumps to start, then proceeding down the high street with High Knees, Back Pedals and also with torso twists. More lights at Parkway meant more Squats with a couple of toots on car horns in encouragement. (I think!) Arriving at Mencap we were met by Grace who already had a meeting on the go. So straight into the provided cleaning materials, splitting them up amongst everyone and we set to work. Kate, Caroline and Leanne tackled the radiators and skirting boards, Rachel and Laurie the woodwork, Roger and Barbara tackled the high to reach places (they are the tallest) David and Joel hit the corridor, meanwhile Catherine was waving some flowering plants around reminding everyone it’s Valentines day next week! Task over and we retraced our steps back to the High Street, we found some seats and Tricep Dips and Press ups ensued. I just happened to have a ball in my back pack so we had an impromptu game of ball keep, two teams trying to get the ball off each other with Rachel in her element! It was pretty competeitive! That’s enough fun for one evening and we headed back to the Uni. With Squats at those pesky lights again, once we hit the Uni we did Sprints in-between lamp posts to finish. Finally those important stretches to finish and a recap of the nights task and efforts, well done everyone. David is run leading next week on Valentines day so I think he will find it difficult running with bunches of flowers! Gerry