Nettle Control to Major Tom, Take the loppers and put your gloves on

13 runners run to Colchester Institute to cut back an overgrown pathway

It was the last night of August, and our runners were eager to lend a hand. 13 of us left leisure world full of joy and excitement, in hope that the Groundsman would leave tools at the ready. We had a new runner Arthur (although some say he's quite experienced), and it was good to see Emma and John again who came on our launch run, and were back to join in for nettle control. We do hope you'll come back next week.

We arrived at Colchester Institute and let the porters know our plans, he wished us well and gave us some bags. We made our way to the other end of Colchester Institute to find the garden for our work, and it really was another world.

The pathways were really overgrown with nettles and brambles - this was a really big task. We decided to work in pairs again like last week, and each pair would have a bag, and someone with a cutting tool. The loppers were far more effective than the secateurs. But we found that the cuttings that were made by the secateurs fit into the bags better.

Despite the protective gloves, 30 minutes later, I'm pretty sure every one of us had a few nettle stings as a badge of honour for a task well done.

Gotta love the nettle stings

We piled up the bags and even had an overflow pile as we'd cut back so much.

There was excitement brewing amongst the goodgymers as this would be our first social. We said goodbye to Emma, who has returned after a couple of weeks on holiday, as she wasn't able to join us at the social, but Tommy joined us for the run up the hill, even though he didn't come into the Three Wise Monkeys with us.

I'd billed it as no fitness session today as we had to get to the restaurant in good time before the kitchen closed, but the beauty of Colchester being on top of a hill means there's always a build in fitness session.

We made our way to the base of North hill, for one sprint up it.

On your marks, set, GO

We all enjoyed our one hill sprint, and it really was hard work. Luckily, there were some well positioned elephants to have a rest on whilst we waited for everyone to get to the top of the hill. Then it was a gentle jog along the high street to Three Wise Monkeys.

We got cheers on our way, and a few funny looks when we stopped to stretch in front of the restaurant.

It was a perfect place for a post-run meal, especially as I've taken to a tradition of having a Good Gin after my Good Gym runs. Nice hearty meals after all that running and gardening.

After we'd wolfed down our meals, I made a little announcement; now we've done 5 runs, there will be some runners who have done 5 good deeds, which means that they can get more involved with Goodgym, and here's how:

Task force If you become a member of the task force, you will help with the organisational side of things - managing the twitter account, promoting runs, organising the social events, and during the runs helping to welcome new people. At the tasks you would also help with taking photos, and finding someone to write the run report each week.

Run Leader We would like to train up someone to be a run leader, who would be able to cover me when I can't take a run. In fact your opportunity to cover wouldn't be limited to Colchester if you wanted to travel elsewhere.

If either of these opportunities to get more involved appeal to you, pop me a message - angela@goodgym.org And I'll get you more information or put you in touch with HQ.

Run Report written by Angela Isherwood

Next week, we're running to Leisure World (ok we'll do a lap of Leisure World) to do litter picking around their front garden and back of the building. Sign up here. And it really is getting to the stage where you'll need headtorches for the task and the run back