These dark nights have crept up yet again, and so I was grateful to see Andy and Jen with headtorches. However, Jen's was very disappointing, so we were grateful for street lights!

We chatted and jogged and met Fay and Sallyann with overflowing bags of leaflets. Very appropriately for our #liftthecurfew run, Andy was the only member of the group to identify as a man. He was looking rather fragile in his skeleton t-shirt, but nevertheless Fay thrust a bag of leaflets at him to carry.

For a change, we leafleted the streets behind KFC in Broomfield. We were challenged by our lack of headtorches and surprising door locations, but with Fay's determination to make us complete the task, we delivered all of the beautifully folded leaflets.

Thanks to Andy for the two Halloween poses!

Next week we've got painting at Sanctus.

See you all soon,

Laurie

We got on very well! From funnel time checking, to marshaling, to barcode scanning, to tail walking, to stuff I’ve missed, to…whatever it was Andy did… we did a pop up Goodgym at parkrun.

It also had a number of police officers highlighting the important issue of women’s safety on runs, with lots of survey responses collected. And even a woman getting the coveted 001 Parkrun. Incredible pace.

Remember - Goodgym does also do night safety training for men, to better help understand the issues that women have to go through. 97% of women have been harassed while out running and that is unacceptable.

All the best runs end in the pub but this time our purpose was the pub.

Richard was early and ready to go while Andy was briefly stuck in traffic. We decided to take the long(ish) route of a whopping 1 mile through town rather than taking the direct and even shorter route.

Fay and Sallyann were already at the pub with leaflets prepped and folding underway. We made short work of the folding, once Rich got going I don't think he was able to stop. Andy managed a further 1.2 miles while leaflet folding from his chair.

Cold pints are an excellent substitute for damp sponges and/or the old school finger lick for shuffling paper.

We met up and discussed the latest football results (2-1 Chelsea being second to 3-1 Ipswich). Ben became the responsible adult and said we should set off to make Fay's target time of arrival. So we did!

Speeding down the high street it was lovely to see the christmas decorations out just in the nick of time - they get turned on in mid-November. We posed with them to ensure Fay was rage filled. Martin may escape as he is still basking in the glory of leading the quiz team to glory on Sunday.

Arriving at Hearing Help, Sallyann and Fay weren't even there! They shortly arrived in matching red jackets after we asked the lovely Sarah what we were painting.

In the fading light we gave the old painters a new lease of life. Hopefully they look ok in daylight! Andy actually had a use for once, shining the headtorch while nattering and not doing any work. Who knows. And hopefully Ben didn't get too much paint on the ground...

We headed back over the new bridge to base and parted ways after confirming Parkrun volunteer date later this month! Come along!

A crack team of determined GoodGymers overcame adversity to clear two bags of litter from the streets of Chelmsford.

Richard braved a squeam-inducing injury he sustained a few days earlier, Fay shook off illness and Jen battled through traffic to join the group.

The runners met Fay by the river where we started our litter picking duties.

As the night got colder and darker, Jane and Andy made everyone jealous with plans for breaks in warmer climes, while Martin wondered if there were any GoodGym groups in Scotland. Apparently not.

After finding the south of the river surprisingly tidy, the group crossed a bridge so new that it doesn’t appear on Google Maps’ satellite view and struck litter gold around the Meadows car park, with cans and bottles carefully extracted from hedges.

Good work everyone!