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

I had lots of jokes ready about England losing and Southgate not being all that, but then we won. Oops. Expect a less funny report…

Even before the session, Fay set the group chat alight with details of just how much of a bargain her old people's befriending lunch was. Andy’s no stranger to wrinkles or a joke, and proved it by turning up with a bag of Werther’s Originals for us all. Well, when you’ve got a free bus pass and a discount with your Saga membership, why not?

It’s been a while since we did a litter pick and wow, did it show. Gunning for an early finish ~~just like the Three Lions~~ we’d decided to litter pick locally rather than running across town, but Saeed and Erin didn’t even make it out of the car park before pulling nasty stuff out of the greenery. It seems every hedgehog in Chelmsford is mad for a few cans of Stella and CBD vapes. Either that, or people can’t take their own rubbish to a bin…

Still riding the sugar high of his Werther’s gag, Grandad Andy actually found a zimmer frame. Honestly. After taking some photos to prove it, and making sure that there wasn’t anyone nearby who it belonged to, we moved the frame away from the middle of the car park where it had been abandoned.

Usually, we do about 5km each session. This time though, we were barely halfway to the Bunny Walks and the bags were already getting full. Richard was on a roll and managed to pull several beer cans from where someone had necked a six-pack and was too drunk to tell the difference between a bin and a hedge.

If all this doesn’t sound very active, we did also have to constantly dodge bikes and e-scooters. The only pedestrian we saw actually stopped and said thanks for cleaning the path up. Kind stranger – if you’re reading this, thank you in return and why not come to see us at a session sometime?

Festivals were the chat topic of the day – we’re going to the Chelmsford beer one next Thursday evening, but Angela will be at a different one with fewer badly-named drinks (2023 was not a vintage year for Filthy Tramp Juice – just ask Fay and Erin). Angela is also missing women-only festival Camp VC to do some DIY at home, because #HouseEveryWeekend. What does the VC stand for? No idea, but Laurie and Joe had fun guessing.

The usual suspects will be at Parkrun this weekend and praying it’s drier than last Saturday! We’ll also bring the GoodPub spirit to the beer festival – apologies in advance for the terrible Hawaiian costumes. In the meantime, run happy! And if you’re one of the people who litters, GET IN THE BIN.

The sun was back so I donned my factor 50 before heading off for some gardening for Miss D. I was greeted by her two dogs when I arrived, one who was pleased to see me and the other who definitely wasn't! As her grandson had mowed the lawn she asked me to tackle the weeding. I cleared the path to her front door and then started on the front garden. She provided me with some 80's classics in the background to accompany my work. I managed to clear a lot of the weeds and long grass but unfortunately didn't have time to make a start on the back garden. My hands were so sweaty by the time I finished that I forgot to take any after photos!! The areas were looking a lot more tidy though.

With the Race for Business happening in the park and a few of our usual Wednesday night group helping them with some marshaling, we were a little short handed for our leafleting this evening. With only a few hours before the task was meant to start i was the only one who had signed up.. arrgghhh lol

On mentioning this to my fantastic wife, Jane, she said she could help as she was going for a run anyway but hadn't sorted dinner yet. So once we had finished could I get us some thing to eat in town? Being the superb husband that i am (wink) i agreed (meaning i would get some dinner too) and said i would meet her at an agreed point.

Shortly after this i noticed Nisar had signed up and Fay had said she was relieved from marshaling as they had too many. fantastic

As I arrived at our HQ i noticed Saeed walking towards me and ready to do some good tonight. Helping him sign up to the task just in time before it hit 6:30pm.

We walked over and met Fay and Jane along the way and started posting the bundles of leaflets in what must have been a Guinness World Record, and we were done so fast that Andy didn't have time to join in the fun. Sorry Andy, you should have run faster at the Race for Business lol

So, from being just me, it turned into 5. And was completed in record time... and only cost me a Big Mac and fries ;-P

Thanks all for coming, and hope to see you all again soon

Run Happy

Rich

Decent turnout from all sorts of businesses! The route seemed to come up slightly short but the crowds loved it.

Highlight was the penguin who finished the race at a flipping great speed, you couldn’t beak-leave it.

Good work everyone, especially Aldo who did his first good deed! Even Andy and Paul who ran it at a great pace.