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!

We were happy to see Jess back for her first run in a few weeks, and after a lengthy discussion about SPF along with myself and Angela, we confirmed the planned roles of Joe as photographer and Andy as backmarker, and of course posed for a cat/thriller photo.

Whilst approaching the church, Rich took sneaky photos from his window of the group approaching the church. Perhaps creepy to some, but we're used to it.

Our task was to continue digging the trench around the church perimeter, but it proved more tough and more biting-insect ridden than last time. None of us were quite as smart as Fay in putting on full length clothing to avoid the insects. Rich and Andy put themselves forward for wheelbarrow duty, and everyone kept them on their toes, particularly David by flinging shovels of debris at them rather than carefully into the wheelbarrow.

Upon leaving the church, only Joel responded to my question about route, so we took a slightly longer route back through the park to get our total distance to almost 4km.

Great work digging everyone, and all the hard work should mean we have more tasks for them in the future!

See you all soon.

Laurie

A slightly longer run than usual saw 8 Legends meet up at our HQ and begin our journey out to Broomfield and St Mary's church. Tonights task was to put woodchips down along a path between a hedge row and a fence running along the side of th church.

In no time at all we had reached the church and met Fay and Sallyann who had walked there and then we broke into 2 teams of 5.

With some shoveling into the wheelbarrows, some moving and tipping the chips and others raking the woodchips along the path, it would appear to the casual observer that this seemed to be a well oiled machine.... and that we know what we are doing.

So much so, that time flew by and we managed to get a great deal done before getting stuck into some well deserved biscuits and squash (I may have had more than one biscuit but who's counting).

With bellies full and satisfied with a job well done we set off and made our way back to base.

Next week we are back at St Johns church on Moulsham street ( if you fancy a shorter run).

Thanks all for coming

Run Happy

Rich