Sanctus are a local charity based on Broomfield Road that provide a variety of valuable services and support to homeless and vulnerable people in Chelmsford. Hopefully, with a bit of our hard work, their allotment will grow some fresh seasonal produce to make nutritional meals which they provide for free to their service users in their café.

Our meeting point was at the car park at the end of Arun Close. Before all of us had even arrived the early birds Myself, Russell D, Laurie and Toby were tasked with helping a local dog walker to find her lost keys. We all got busy having a look around and after a few minutes Russell D found them dropped behind a car. One good deed down we waited for the other GoodGym runners to arrive before making our way down to the allotment plot.

Caroline came well prepared with her own gloves, fork and most importantly… Wellies!! I think it’s fair to say no one quite expected the overgrown jungle that awaited us and those wellies came in handy to stop the barrage of the stinging nettles. Oh how I wish I had some. There was a bit of trepidation as to where to even make a start, but forks in hand we spread out and began digging, trying to remove as many weeds as we could along the way.

Anna who joined us on her first Chelmsford task arrived a little bit later than the rest of us, but showed her horticultural knowledge which will prove more than useful over the next few months and along with Lucy, Toby and Sarah managed to dig up quite a few potatoes and a lone parsnip.

The hour flew by, sure the site still needs a lot of work but we made a great start and already have made a massive difference to the plot.

We took the scenic route out of the allotment to say hello to the local chickens before saying our goodbyes and heading off back to our respective homes. Thanks for coming along everyone, we will be back soon to continue what we started.

Now… Had I turned up on time we probably would have welcomed Toby to his first GoodGym session, Sarah back for her second, and Lucy back for her second session in Chelmsford and tenth session overall!! But as I wasn’t there at the beginning and everyone had already started with the task I’ve no idea if those things happened, I blame my neighbour for holding me up as I left home but at least I’m able to make up for that in this wonderful run report 😬

The weather forecast had suggested thunderstorms for the later part of the day, and this did come true but thankfully they had passed by the time our digging session started and we had a gorgeous evening digging up another section of the Great Baddow Community Allotment.

The Great Baddow Community Allotment is a newly established project by Great Baddow Parish Council to promote health and wellbeing for local vulnerable, elderly and disabled people in the local community. The first patch we turned over a couple of weeks ago was looking lovely and as we did such a good job, Bob, the Parish Councillor in charge of the site invited us back to do some more digging.

As we got to work I started to wonder where Rich might be, as he’s never normally late. A quick phone call and it turns out he thought the task was on Wednesday, as most of our tasks are, never mind. If anything I think the absence of Rich’s distractions helped and we raced through the patch turning it over in no time. Whilst we were busy working we looked forward the return of Parkrun and to the return of two of our fabulous Run Leaders; David and Laurie from their time in the Lake District, it feels as if they’ve been gone for ever but will be back just in time for the return of Group Runs!! All the while Sarah managed to box herself in on her own little island, maybe trying to pretend she was here instead.

After 45 minutes we had turned over pretty much the whole patch, very impressive work everyone, especially as we were a Rich down!

We will be at the Sanctus allotment next week in Springfield trying to get it tidied up so it can be used after a few years of neglect to grow food for the vulnerable and homeless in Chelmsford. You can find out a bit more and sign up here.

On what was a rather gloomy, cold, wet and windy May the 4th, six GoodGym members felt the force of a community project in need and came running, clearing the clouds on the way and bringing some gorgeous spring sunshine with them. One of those runners was Sarah, on her first GoodGym session. A very warm welcome to Sarah, hopefully see you again soon at some other Community Missions and eventually Group Runs.

The Great Baddow Community Allotment has been recently set up by the Great Baddow Parish Council to promote health and wellbeing; ultimately it will be run by volunteers to support the more vulnerable, elderly and disabled people in the community. It was our job to get the allotment plot ready by turning it over.

Bob, the Parish Councillor in charge of the site gave us our force, sorry forks, to do some digging and off to work we went. It’s safe to say the soil was a bit firmer than we were expecting and required a lot of muscle but we worked our way through, clearing the weeds as we went.

Whilst we were busy digging away Rich shared his famous recipe for noodle soup which had us all captivated and salivating, and we discussed the potential of a party for our fifth birthday in July, it almost felt like things may be finally getting back to normal.

After about 40 minutes of digging the plot was completely turned over, we handed back our forks and went on our way. Rich and Sarah disappeared up Beehive Lane whilst the rest of us ran back into town before splitting off to our respective homes.

Bob seemed delighted with our work and wanted us back in a couple of weeks time so great job everyone. I think you all deserve some cheers!!

We will be at the Mencap centre next week for some decorating and then back to the community allotment to do some more turning over the week after.