Oh what a night. A night to celebrate, to sing, to read, to do good and to run. We started the evening with handshakes and hugs for members new, old and returning.

First to take the stage was Ella, reading out the Goodgym Experience beautifully. We certainly do feel like this is our town and the night would demonstrate how much we have done to help.

Goodgym always has perfect timing, or did Hannah plan her 50th good deed on this evening of celebrations? Either way what a superstar.

More congratulations to Ian on a smashing Dedham 10k and a little self love to me and bravo to Ella for our jaunt to Surrey for Reigate half marathon.

We set off with the sunlight fading to Firstsite with two missions, one to tidy the lawn and secondly to tour as many of the places we help with a photo at each one with our flag. At Firstsite we met our friend Eddie who gave out tools and instructions. The team trimmed, chopped, tidied and swept with the help of Toby and Harriet. A lovely job.

At the end we sang ourselves happy birthday and went on our photo-shoot tour of town. In chronological order we stopped for a photo at Castle Park gates, where we volunteer at parkrun and litter pick for Keep Britain Tidy. Next to Level Best Art Cafe where we clean the kitchen and restaurant, before we jogged down the High Street to pose by Colchester in Bloom flowers and the Townhall. Onwards (and via Ian's place of employment) we strode to Jumbo and although we have not helped the big water tower we have done leaflet drops and hill training in its shadow! Next it was to Beacon House, who help the homeless, where we painted a room and then down to Middlebrough and the River Colne where we plant and litter pick! PHEW!

After all that fun we ran back to base and heard two stories from the Goodgym book 'Fit Together'. Emily, who is a coach runner, read Florence's story and Susie read Andrew Robson's tale. Inspiring and relatable.

What a whirlwind and we ended by mentioning #GGSuperSaturday...more fun and perhaps a raised glass to toast 10 years of Ivo's Goodgym magic.

Please sing the report title to the tune of "Destination Unknown" by Alex Gaudino. Does it work...? Who knows!

Tonight saw the turning point of summer into Autumn as the darkness fell before we had finished our workout and run. But spirits were high and the smiles and banter flowed slightly better than the green clogged up River Colne!

The news section was full of great local events and running and events. Ian conquered Framlingham 10k with style and is already on track to do Langham 10k with, Bob and Emma on Sunday. Elsewhere Pam, from Colchester in Bloom fame, is one of the artists exhibiting her pottery at Cuckoo Farm this weekend and also part of Colchester Town centre is up for a British High Street award! Cool. Our community mission schedule is busy with Colchester Carnival and our #GGSuperSaturday for Goodgym's tenth birthday. Look out for details of the mission and party! Speaking of parties Alex has a Goodgym themed party in the offing. G themed fancy dress...I am picturing myself as a goose!

Off we ran towards the Foodbank and met Julie and Paul and Toby with his carer Kayleigh. Julie and Paul went through the evenings tasks - sorting food parcels and cleaning. I saw the usual spontaneous organisation skills and cleaning enthusiasm.

My personal highlight -on a slight tangent - was the can of Squid made to look like Octopus (see photo). So many questions but the main thing was it was still in date and edible.

I heard various conversations about the progress of Colchester Foodbank and the new satellite facility in Greenstead that opens every Tuesday. We thanked Julie and Paul and off we trotted ending up the outside gym for a quick circuit. In pairs, timed by 2 runners doing a lap of the small field, we swung, rowed and cross-trained in sometimes comical fashion. Marvelous.

Have a great end of week and weekend, great job and spread the goodgym love.

It was not just the sun that shone tonight. Twenty Goodgym heroes shone as bright as can be as they took the streets and paths to make a huge difference to Colchester Foodbank.

We started as with the news of Goodgym's expansion and new areas as well as big congratulations to the Nayland 10k runners who conquered the heat, gates and trails with some marvelous cheer-leading too.

We set off in the sunshine and warmed up on our way to the river and jogged to the Foodbank. Once their we met Mike who organised a human chain so that we could load crates into a van. Impressive teamwork!! We then swept, vacuumed and dusted our way to give the the Foodbank a sparkle and Mike a big smile.

The training was next and a little team game...well a ten minute mega game that involved sweets and unicorn cakes. The two teams had a simple but tiring task which was to run around a circle of towering trees and then do five repetitions of a chosen body weight exercise. Team one turned in the most points in a topsy turvy battle and won the unicorn cakes but nobody left without a sweet!

All in all the effort was epic at the task and training session.

See you in two weeks.

A huge amount of organisation, logistics and energy went into Toby's Wheeler Way Walk that has raised £6000 for Team Angus.

The fabulous four from Goodgym Colchester chipped in by helping set up the event and cheer on the brilliant adults and kids that put in a marathon effort as Harriet, Toby's carer, so eloquently said in her post-race speech. Cerebral Palsy makes movements very difficult and the effort we saw on show was magnificent!

All the participants, including and very speedy Angus, got a pink T-shirt and a shiny medal to remember and celebrate their achievements.

See you soon Toby and well done.

*Yet another Goodgym evening full of energy and inspiration. *

Tonight we not only helped Next Chapter but also met Toby and Harriet who are organising a 400m race for young people with disabilities on the 4th of May at the University of Essex at 2.30pm.

We started with lots of news and congratulated Emily on her successful Ibiza Marathon with lots of hills as well as Hannah for her great run at Norwich Half Marathon. I reminded people of our upcoming Parkrun takeover on the 27th April with the volunteer roles disappearing fast.

After a moving warm up along the River the group set off on the 1.5 mile run to our destination and set about the task of removing overgrown weeds and grass, trimming and chopping trees and hedges and generally improving the area and increasing the visibility for staff. We found a few hidden gems such as a children's book, a little unicorn toy and a Woody from Toy Story toy.

We were told about the amazing work that Next Chapter do and how they help people before Toby and Harriet took centre stage to tell us about Wheeler Walk Way, their fund-raising and how Goodgymers can help through promoting the event and helping to volunteer.

Both Next Chapter and Toby (and Harriet) got a huge round of applause.

After a few photos we set off for a little bit of hill work. Sophie, Jade and Beth and Hannah particularly impressing with their efforts. The group paired off and ran a section of East Hill at 1/2 pace then 3/4 before sprinting in a final flourish. We weaved our magical footwork back to Leisure World where the group helped with some wonderful stretching.

Finally a giant Goodgym welcome to Sophie, Josh, Harriet and Toby. You are always welcome back.