A warm Wednesday evening we met at our usual meeting place before skipping down the high street to meet Fay with a bag full of leaflets ready to be delivered to the good people of Moulsham.

While we got stuck into the task, conversation turned to food ( as per usual with me ) and any plans we might have for valentines day. Jenny won, as she told us that her husband was cooking them a steak dinner and we all agreed we would be round later to join them. And judging by the photo she married well. #Welljeal lol

Having posted all of our leaflets we posed for a photo and headed back before saying goodbye

Next week we will be litter picking along the Springfield basin

See you all next week

Run Happy

Rich

With headtorches and jackets on for a chilly evening outdoors, we wasted little time in setting off to our task. We jogged to meet Fay and Sallyann with our leaflets, found Angela, and set off around Springfield with our leaflets for CHESS, Farleigh Hospice, and Woodcroft Nursery School.

As usual, the chatting was non-stop with Andy and Rich, and Rich trying to drag Erin in at every possible opportunity. I enjoyed catching up with Martin about his parkrun-extravaganza holiday, and Jenny about her tortoise's non-hibernation. I also enjoyed having both Ken and Fay with me, encouraging the more forceful style of my run leadership in shouting at everyone to jog and leaflet more, and walk and talk less.

More and more leaflets kept appearing, so we kept going, and in the end covered just under 7km! Those who jogged back rewarded themselves by inhaling one, or two, or three cakes each, all courtesy of our generous starting location host, ARU. Thanks to Joe for his excellent photography again, this time of cake inhaling in action.

Saturday 28th October activities

Just in case you missed it, on Saturday it's Chelmsford's 500th parkrun, followed by breakfast, and later followed by our pub crawl from 2pm (see details here).

For parkrun, we'll get a group photo before the run, so please get there by around 8.45 if you can!

For the pub crawl, please sign up if you are coming. If you want to join later, send a message on whatsapp and we'll let you know where we are.

See you all on Saturday!

Laurie

I was surprised to see almost everyone at the Old Factory, ready for a round 9km trip of leafletting.

Sallyann heaved the two bags of leaflets into her car and set off to meet us at our starting point in Great Baddow (thanks for being such a good helper!!) whilst Paul led us out on our way.

Andy and Russell didn't disappoint with their levels of chatting whilst running, and Leanne and Jess came up with some rather interesting new mixed breed dog names.

We spotted Angela in her unmissable yellow shirt at B&M and carried on towards our destination.

Sallyann was raring to go, so we only wasted a small amount of time in handing leaflets out and getting going on both sides of the road.

We somehow lost one group, so I got some extra fitness in for a couple of minutes whilst I chased them and brought the two groups back together.

From what seemed like two heavy bags, we got through the leaflets surprisingly quickly, with Jenny and Russell delivering the final few whilst the rest of us meandered our way back. Excellent work by all!

I entrusted the group to make their way back safely without me, so Joe sent proof of arrival with a very artistic photo, although one shoe was missing...

See you all soon,

Laurie

On a glorious Wednesday summer evening we gathered at the HQ for another great group run and task.

Firstly, I'd like to welcome Angela to the group for her first run with us. Hope you enjoyed yourself and our chatty little group.

Tonights task was to deliver leaflets for 6 different charities that Fay had taken time during the week to fold (400 of them) together to make an easy bundle to post. As always, Thank you Fay.

Before we set off Martin produced a bag full of courgettes that he had spare and needed to find a good home for. And Leanne also had some rhubarb that she wanted to share with the group. Deciding that running with these wouldn't be wise we left them in Leanne's car and set off to meet Fay and Sallyann.

We met them just outside Springfield Baptist Church with bags full of leaflets and distributed them to all and set-off down Sandford road. Splitting into 2 groups we managed to not lose each other and even not to miss a letterbox.

Carrying on until almost all the leaflets were delivered we headed back to HQ and retrieved the rhubarb and courgettes and distributed them to those who wanted them.

As always thanks for coming guys, literally couldn't have done it without you.

Next week we will be going to the visitors center at Chelmsford prison to paint their outdoor area. ( there will also be a social after the run with some non alcoholic beer if you want to stay on)

Run Happy

Rich

Everyone arrived perfectly on time, so after a quick photo opportunity, we set off in the sunshine to Chelmer Village.

We met Fay with a large quantity of expertly folded leaflets, for five local charities and set off down our first road to leaflet. Initially, we chatted about the quite large houses and spread out down the little turnings. As the leafletting went on, we kept finding ourselves in a confusing network of cul-de-sacs, before finding a main road, and then getting lost in more side roads again.

We firstly lost Joe and Sallyann down one side road, then Rich, Joe and Joel down another, followed by me, Erin, Rich, Joe and Joel down the last and longest maze of all. Seems like Joe was the main culprit for leading people astray (slightly alarming after me and Erin discovered a mutual fear of peril), and David, Andy and Richard were the only three who managed to stick to the main path.

After finding our way out, some of us went straight home, whilst Rich led the rest of the group back.

A couple of reminders:

We've got parkrun volunteering coming up on the 1st of July for those who signed up (still spaces for anyone who wants to volunteer), followed by breakfast for everyone who wants to join.

We're heading to the Chelmsford summer beer festival on Thursday 13th July, sign up and find the link to buy your entry ticket here

See you all soon

Laurie

13 ran to Chelmsford Chess to tidy the garden in their new building

Chelmsford 'Churches homeless emergency support scheme' have a new building they use as offices and will be using for those who need rooms to stay in for a while. The building had been neglected for a while so there is a lot of work needed both inside and out to get this project up to speed so that it can be used.

Whilst they are waiting for some structural work to be completed and some permission to be granted for further improvements, we decided to begin with the garden to the front of the house. This space was wild and overgrown and the perfect job for Goodgym to get stuck into.

Rain had been threatened and duly delivered, generously maintaining a steady soaking throughout the task and accompanying run.

Once at CHESS we met Foggy a horticulturalist who helped highlight any plants that were to be kept and suggested the areas we could clear. As usual we set to the task enthusiastically, possibly in an attempt to keep warm, and in no time the front bed was looking clear and weed free. We cleared the bed to the left of the house (as you look at it) and others tackled some of the bigger shrubs and trees making good headway in removing some of the more stubborn roots.

Once we had made an impact on the garden we tidied up, paused for a photo and headed off on a loop finishing on a run through the park from meteor way. a nice 5k in total and we were home if not yet dry!

I hope everyone managed to get home and warm and dry fairly quickly. more details about next week will be up soon and details on the Saturday session helping set up for the walk for life will also be added this morning! it would be great to have a few of you along if possible.