Tonight it was fabulous to set off on our run in daylight - what a difference it makes, with the thought of lots of summer evenings on the way.

We welcomed 2 runners joining us for the first time Lizzie and Leanne - hope you enjoyed your first taste of Goodgym.

Our destination was just a short run ( via Alexandra Park, which we may use more often in the lighter evenings) to meet up with Tom from Incredible Edible a community group dedicated to improving healthy eating, local community and working together to grow vegetables in unused areas around Ipswich.

We had a double task - to help with some painting inside what will become a community vegan cafe which is located directly opposite a small plot of land used by Incredible Edible to grow vegetables.

So we split into two groups - gardeners & painters and everyone got stuck into their allocated tasks.

The gardeners made a huge difference to the plot of land - digging, clearing and weeding the various beds and Steve harvested a small crop of potatoes.

The painters had a bigger task on their hands. What seemed a fairly small two roomed area seemed to grow the more they painted. The kitchen area was almost completed, but the dining area beat us despite our best efforts within our allocated time.

Our return run ended with a short but intense set of speed intervals under the waterfront. Great work by everyone!

Next week is Bank Holiday Monday and Goodgym will still be running - see the details HERE

We had a bit of a different task set up tonight and as everyone arrived with backpacks - it looked like we were all about to runaway from home or head out on an ultra distance marathon.

There was lots of chat about the adverse weekend weather and how it had unfortunately caused the cancellation of the Stowmarket Half Marathon which a number of the group were due to run. Tonight it was dry and the weekend snow had gone but it was still bitingly cold.

We had a short warm up with a few drills before setting off to our destination for the first part of our run to Marks & Spencer in the town centre.

Our task was to help The Teapot Project The aim of which is to to take unsold edible food, saving it from going to waste in local landfill,and using it to feed the local community. Arriving at the rear of M & S we were met by Mischa from the Teapot Project, with several baskets containing a huge variety of bread and cakes.

This is where our backpacks came into play, with everyone sharing the contents of the baskets into their backpacks before the second part of our run - to the Salvation Army hostel.

Mischa's aim is for the Teapot Project to be carbon neutral - transporting food from the various supermarkets they work with on a daily basis to the partner charities like the Salvation Army or YMCA - by bike or foot ( that is where we come in!)

So with our bags filled with baked goods we were "bready" to go on the second leg of our run. We took a slightly longer route and one of the girls said that was a "half-baked" idea, but we said "ciabatta" keep running as we're on a "roll" and its "scone" to be fun.

Running through the Town centre and back along the Waterfront, a few people had French sticks protruding out of the top of their backpacks, causing a few strange looks and remarks from onlookers.

Kerry remarked that it looked like we were trialling a carbo rich nutritional strategy ahead of the upcoming marathon season

We arrived at the Salvation Army hostel and were shown into the kitchen where our bags were emptied for the staff to prepare for supper and tomorrow's breakfasts.

With our job done there was"crust" enough time for a fitness circuit session. Everyone worked hard - No "pain" - no gain (you need GCSE French for that one!)

We worked our "buns" with squats and lunges; and last but not "yeast" was the a"maize"ing co-ordination required for "high knees 1-2-3" - It was the "icing on the cake" of a "wondoughful" night - Morris Dancing - you ain't seen "muffin" like it! - Unfortunately the video file is too large to attach to this report, but "donut" worry you can find it on the Goodgym Ipswich face book page.

Sorry about the lack of photos tonight. I had a problem with my phone and my photography definitely wasn't the best thing since sliced bread this evening. All the fitness session ones came out blurred - they are crepe!

On a night when you have a 5 mile run lined up, the last thing you want is the forecast of heavy rain all evening

I was a touch pessimistic as I arrived at the waterfront. It was raining with no sign of a let up and I anticipated a low turnout.

I should have had more faith in the Goodgymmers of Ipswich with 15 of us laughing in the face of the rain gods and venturing out as it was persistently raining down.

We even had an advance party of Sally, Nicola and Ali setting off early with the intention of us catching up en route, however they were already painting by the time we arrived.

A big welcome to Amy who was joining us for the first time tonight. Kudos also to Sue, who missed us at the start due to arriving late at the Waterfront but cycled across town to catch us up on Norwich Road.

I didn't mention it prior to the run tonight because they weren't there at the start but congratulations to Ali on her run at the Haverhill Half Marathon on Sunday and to Sue who complete a personal challenge of running a solo half marathon distance on Friday.

Tonight's task was cancelled due to the snow a couple of weeks ago. We've been lucky through the winter to have had the opportunity to paint a number of rooms at Castle Hill Community Centre and we were returning to paint one of the larger rooms at the centre.

We arrived at Castle Hill dripping wet and already soaked through to base layers - did I mention it was raining quite hard? - but immediately the gang got stuck into painting a huge room with an open plan kitchen. There weren't not quite enough brushes and rollers for everyone, so we asked for some cloths to clean skirting boards, radiators, door frames and tables.

Fabulous teamwork saw the cutters in and rollers following snake like around the room. Within 30 minutes the room was complete, sparkling clean and surprisingly there was still a small amount of paint left!

There was a slight reluctance to don the wet layers for the return leg of the run , though some had managed to seek out working radiators to at least partially dry out jackets.

We splish-splashed our way along the 2.5 miles back to base in the "refreshing" enjoying the games of dodging the falling cats & dogs and wakes created by cars passing through lake-like puddles.

It was certainly a night to remember - challenging conditions to run but an epic task completed - terrific work by all.

Next week's task promises to be a good one. It's a relatively short run to a new task and bring a small back pack you can run with if possible.

See the details and sign up Here