19 runners deliver 100 posters for CoHoC

We gathered together for our longest run to date. Sue and Lucy had completed the Chelmsford Marathon on Sunday, and Tav the Greenwich 10k. All had had very successful races and were looking forward to a gentle run to help ease their aching muscles.

In our pre-run briefing, we learnt about Colchester Hospitals Charity, and how they are raising money for the Time Garden - a garden for End of Life Patients at Colchester Hospital. Whilst many of our tasks involve gardening, and we will no doubt be called in to help maintain the Time Garden, Wednesday's task involved delivering posters to the businesses on Whitehall Industrial Estate.

I made sure to mention the risk of paper cuts in the pre-run risk assessment, and then proceeded to demonstrate that risk by getting a paper cut whilst putting the posters in my backpack!

Genius!

The posters were to advertise the Santa Run in Castle Park, a great event, and I'm sure some of us will take part.

We made the longer run to Whitehall Industrial Estate, and regrouped to come up with a plan to cover the area. We split in half taking opposite sides of the road. Unfortunately, parts of the industrial estate were locked and we couldn't deliver posters to them. In addition, some places didn't have post boxes. But, we made sure that those that did have delivery slots were adorned with a lovely poster!

We got 100 posters delivered in 15 minutes actually it was more like 17 but still good going, it would have taken one or two people much longer than that.

After we'd finished the task, half of us ran back to Leisure World, lead by Lucy, and half of us ran to the New Inn pub for our monthly social. This was a welcome change of scene organised by Ian. I think everyone was really impressed by the good value and good quality food, as well as being able to move onto cozy sofas after we'd finished eating.

Well done every one!

Run Report by Angela Isherwood

Next week, same task, different location - we'll be running up to Severalls to deliver more posters - an even longer run than this week. Sign up here

For this week's run we returned to one of our regulars, the Salvation army in Camberwell.

After a quick warm up outside the Roastery, Helena led the way up Chadwick Road. On the way down Camberwell Grove there was plenty of chat, almost all Great British Bake Off related. Once we arrived at the Salvation Army we were greeted by Janet who told us that there had been a bumper turnout at their recent anniversary celebration, thanks in part to the flyering that we had done on our last visit. This visit was all about the kitchen, the whole place needed a good clean. A low ceiling and Matt's height advantage meant that he was tasked with trying to get rid of the grease and grime from up high while others cleaned shelves, the floor, the hob and any other surface we could reach. While we cleaned we had a serious chat about organ donation before returning to the topic of TV. Most of us had been enjoying the sheer incompetence of the Apprentice candidates but only Beth and Hanna had fallen a little bit in love with Married At First Sight.

Janet has a habit of treating us with sweets when we go to visit but this week had decided we needed something healthy so had some seeds for us to nibble on. After some gentle persuasion she did produce some sweets but she wasn't convinced they had any real sugar in them.

On the way home we Indian filed back up the hill and once back at the Roastery didn't hang about as we were all keen to get home and watch the bake off semi-final.

October, 9 runners, a grey morning, a sunny day, some talking to do and some litter to pick.

We met up for a #runandtalk session on what started as a sunny evening and soon dropped down a wet and somewhat wintery session. After a bit of a task let down, we jogged around the Rye getting nice and warmed up whilst welcoming Ellen to her first ever GoodGym experience.

Then it was into teams, gloves on, black bin bags in hand and a direction each to go in to litter pick. The idea being to clean up the area where we live as well as have a chance to chat to each other.

Shoes, balls and cans later, we rendezvoused and it was time for our regular time trial. 720 metres against ourselves. There's a regular route we use and we had already recce'd it during our warm up. Amazing first effort for some and repeat effort for others.

EVERYONE matched or bettered their time

Time to work you harder, and that we did....

5 exercises as the heavens opened. Did someone say #nationalburpeeday? Burpees, mountain climbers, complete abs, squat jumps and planks climbs... 10 of each, 9 of each, 8 of each.... I could go on but it'll seem never-ending. You get the idea and everyone kept each other going. Despite the burn, despite the sweat and the rain.

Such an amazing effort could only be rewarded with... a gentle jog home. We stretched off, we dried off and washed our hands clean of anything untoward.

Running, doing good, having a chat and getting fit check.