Colchester ‘mopsters’ make a clean sweep at the (food) bank!

On a wet and blustery January evening, 15 Colchester **GoodGymers** made their way to Colchester Leisure World for the start of another fun packed Wednesday task. Excited by the arrival of GoodGym regular Jade, we welcomed her with a GoodGym guard of honour and raucous applause – last in but by no means least! After a quick warm up, catch up and some general silly behaviour** Tav** led us off with Ella hot on his heels. Snaking our way along Cowdray Avenue we were forced to overcome fraught and difficult conditions – endless January rain has seen even the smallest of puddles turned to lakes and the grass to bog! Not to be deterred the GoodGymers skipped and leapt away the January blues, nattering as they went. Spirits were high and not even Michelle minded a little mud on her lovely running shoes!

First to arrive, Tav gathered the group at the door of Colchester Foodbank *and we waited with excited anticipation to hear what tasks Michael and the team had for us tonight. Michael explained Christmas had been an extremely busy time for the foodbank, seeing record numbers of people coming through their doors. Tasked with making sure they fed the community they had had very little time to focus their efforts on cleaning. As a result the warehouse was in need to a good spring clean, wth no corner to be left unturned. There was even one extra special mission, requiring the most daring and brave GoodGymers to scale the highest heights and tackle the dust and dirt of the kitchen roof. No easy feat – *Tav, Ian and Bob set to work, hauling down boxes of Christmas decorations and other miscellaneous objects and even treated us to a Freddie Mercury impression. Meanwhile, Chris, keen to reclaim his Mopster Don title set to work cleaning the warehouse floor – despite his broken bucket it’s fair to say he did a brilliant job. The rest of the team set about the warehouse shelves and dinning area, wiping, hoovering, sweeping and sorting as they went. Once we were all done, and we had finally convinced Vanessa to put her mop and bucket away, we gathered for one final photo before bidding Michael goodbye!

Wet ground meant a change in the fitness plan so we headed over to our regular hangout – the Jump Street 400! The team warmed up with a lap of the track, before a second lap which saw them focusing on their stride length and speed. Finally, the group split in to teams of four and with nothing but pride at stake each team member took their place, preparing for the first ever Colchester relay. Michelle, Katherine, jade and Nicola lined up on the start line before flying into action and blistering towards their teammates. Competition was fierce and there wasn’t much between the teams coming in to the home straight.*** Ella*** had a marginal lead but Tav was closing in fast with Ian and Bob not far behind. Driving for the line it was Tav that took win by the smallest of whiskers but my goodness what a race! Well done team!!