12 GoodGymers and one little helper braved the cold for a volunteering session at Chelmsford Central parkrun.

We did marshalling, barcode scanning, and finish tokening.

Most of us struggled to resist the Mr Kiplings pies afterwards, followed by hot drink queues, large breakfasts and pancakes at our old faithful Wetherspoons.

Well done all, and we'll be repeating this in January!

Laurie

We went from leafletting to do some leaf-getting at St John's Church and 14 very keen GoodGymers headed out on a dark and cold November night to help out!

We jogged over down the high street and admiring the Christmas lights in the high street to meet Fay, Rich (injured arse and all), and Angela beavering away.

We leapt to work despite the fact we weren't getting S-paid we were still raking it in. Joe hopped in the bin to push the leaves down and Jess was helping until she said 'you're better off alone', to which Joe whistfully replied 'that's what my ex said'. How we laughed. Doug almost on his knees in laughter. After filling four bins we posed for photos while Andy almost committed tree-son by suggesting we shake the trees to get more leaves down. Leaf it out mate. Laurie lead us on a long route on the way back, we admired the gymnastics Russell attempted and made it back to base.

See you for Parkrun volunteering this weekend! And then spoons, baby!

We were pleased to meet up on a dry evening, to see Charlie and Iris for the second time in one week, and to see Doug for the first time in a while.

Charlie and Fay set off on their walk to our leafletting destination, so Joel led us on a slightly longer route with the aim of us all arriving at a similar time. We reconvened and also met Angela, and proceeded to do a much more rushed and inferior job of folding the leaflets than we've become accustomed to.

Thankfully we didn't lose Jess down one of the long dark driveways, we got an accidental selfie fromDavid, and we completed just over 7km by the time we got back from our deviated route.

Whilst run/walking and leafletting, we discussed our disappointing effort at the quiz on Sunday, Jenny's inadvertent following of her neighbour, GoodGym's new night awareness training for all men who attend GoodGym sessions, and our upcoming events, which you can find here.

The Christmas social venue will be Taste of Italy. The breakfast venue after our volunteering at parkrun on the 25th of November is still undecided, and we'll be going to Andy's old favourite Wetherspoons if we don't choose something else.

See you all soon,

Laurie

8 goodgymers (sorry Jenny you didn't get there on time for the photo!) and 2 non-sign up scoundrels who had to pose for a separate photo met in the chill before the big wind comes later this week to pick some litter in Chelmsford by the river. Excellent to see such a strong turnout so soon after the boozy social - impressive work by Erin and Joe to hit up the Fleece even later than everyone else.

Sallyann and Fay graciously carried our sticks to the meeting point, which was not called Friendship Bridge. We soon got bustling with some ready-to-be-heavy bags.

The highlight for everyone was a riproaring fungi joke spearheaded by Andy, his radio DJ skills coming to good use. Fay found a fairly realistic toy snake and took delight waving it at Joel and Joe and watching them squirm. Not heard Joel shriek like that since...well...Saturday really.

We ploughed on back to base and had a run down of the social plans prior to Christmas. There is a hell of a lot!

Quiz at the Ale House Sunday 5th - 6:30pm Parkrun volunteer Saturday 25th - 9am Barrow Farm garden grand opening Sunday 26th - 2pm Goodgym xmas party - date tbc but like 16th December Run N Rum - Saturday 16th December - 12pm

Any ideas for the xmas party location, do let us know!

Probs won't be the longest run report. Writing while waiting for a bus replacement service...

Chelmsford's 500th parkrun and record turnout! Breakfast at Spoons! Road trip with Angela, Erin, Joe and Fay!

And then it all gets a bit hazy.

Jess not going off the rails. Leprechaun's piss. 'I love it when old men give me treats out of their sack' El capitan. 'If its on fire, don't lick it' Joel shrieking at Michael Myers.

I am sure much more too