It is I, your fearless (run)leader. I started the session with an amazing briefing. Hopefully all the necessary points were nailed and the high council of goodgym will approve me doing more. I promise not to let the power go to my head.

We waved goodbye and good luck to Saeed moving to his new home! Find a goodgym up there yeah? New Chris didn’t make it but we hope to meet you soon.

We headed off at a leisurely pace, still warm for running. At the church Fay, David and Laurie were really digging the shovel duty. Nobody puts Sallyann in the corner, she got in there entirely voluntarily. Many hands made light work of tipping wood chips all over Joe (well done Jess and Andy). Russell worked smarter, not harder. We discovered Rich doesn’t know how wheelbarrows work.

I distributed fake news about sunflowers and would like to make a formal retraction.

Thanks to the crew at St Mary’s for the soothing bell ringing while we worked and the drinks afterwards.

Angela

July signals Chelmsford GoodGym's birthday, and this year it's been 8 years since we first started! As is tradition, we celebrated by going to the Chelmsford Beer and Cider Festival. All of us sampled the delights of different beers and ciders, other than Sallyann who stuck to her pints of wine! Andy had a puncture en route but didn't let that stop him, he had to get to the festival to compare Hawaiian shirts with Rich and Russell. Ben tried his hand (very successfully) at axe throwing, while Laurie was more excited by the chocolate churros. Fay was very taken with Caroline's doggy Bella who came along for some ear scratches and lucked out when some chips fell her way. We were really lucky with the weather and even managed to get some seats so it was a successful evening all round. We need to get our thinking caps on for our next social now, any suggestions let us know!

Maybe it was the good weather, or maybe we were all excited to hear from Ben about his trip to South America, but for whatever reason, turnout for garden clearing at Meadow View Cottage last night was huge.

We welcomed new member Daniel on his first Good Deed ever and it was a 10/10 performance from the newcomer. He’s apparently an avid pub quizzer and even brought his own gardening gloves – what a pro.

Ben was fresh from his South American hikes and Rich was fresh from a week of intense hayfever, so obviously they decided to race each other. If the Olympics are short of stunning visual backdrops, then a sprint on the downhill bit of Chelmsford’s flyover towards Aldi is what they need. By the time the rest of us arrived – via Andy-style attempts at jumps for the camera – Ben had his breath back and Rich had invented lots of excuses for why he lost.

Sometimes when you’re asked to clear a path, you have to ask where it is first. That’s the kind of weed-filled thorny jungle we faced. But with gloves, secateurs and some aggressive trowel work, you wouldn’t be-leaf how quickly we filled the waste bags. Too quickly, actually – so, proper GoodGym style, someone had to jump in and stamp it all down. While we’re talking feet – socks. By some happy accident, the sock game from Ben (odd polka dots), Dave (armadillos, apparently) and Rich (mate, why are they so long?!) was INCREDIBLE. They’ve probably got a secret group chat to coordinate this kind of thing.

By the time weed packed up (see what I did there?) there were three bags of cuttings to move. After the run there and the squats to pull up weeds, it was upper body workout time as we lifted or dragged them into the front garden for disposal.

In case that makes us sound like we do fitness – tonight is the beer festival and with Daniel on our side, maybe we can return to the top spot in August’s pub quiz… Until then, run happy!

Joe