I was surprised to see almost everyone at the Old Factory, ready for a round 9km trip of leafletting.

Sallyann heaved the two bags of leaflets into her car and set off to meet us at our starting point in Great Baddow (thanks for being such a good helper!!) whilst Paul led us out on our way.

Andy and Russell didn't disappoint with their levels of chatting whilst running, and Leanne and Jess came up with some rather interesting new mixed breed dog names.

We spotted Angela in her unmissable yellow shirt at B&M and carried on towards our destination.

Sallyann was raring to go, so we only wasted a small amount of time in handing leaflets out and getting going on both sides of the road.

We somehow lost one group, so I got some extra fitness in for a couple of minutes whilst I chased them and brought the two groups back together.

From what seemed like two heavy bags, we got through the leaflets surprisingly quickly, with Jenny and Russell delivering the final few whilst the rest of us meandered our way back. Excellent work by all!

I entrusted the group to make their way back safely without me, so Joe sent proof of arrival with a very artistic photo, although one shoe was missing...

See you all soon,

Laurie

10 GoodGymers enjoyed a slap up meal as a post-task reward this evening!

Back Inn Time has been in business for around 40 years, so long-time Chelmsford residents Andy, Fay and Jenny reminisced about the many times they have been over the years, whereas it was a first time visit for pretty much everyone else!

In between burgers and cocktails Joe led a discussion about whether squirrels would be edible. Laurie and David debated the acceptable times of day to eat chocolate and we put together a short list for venues for our Christmas do. Time for another poll!

We have another social this weekend with our monthly visit to the Ale House pub quiz. There's still time to sign up.

To start Fay's 6th GoodGym birthday, we welcomed Jess back for her second GoodGym run, followed by somehow posing for Rich's slightly creepy panoramic photo.

The runners set off with litter pickers towards King's Road and were caught up shortly after by Fay and Rich who walked. Russell and Andy were engaging in more chat than litter picking, and dragging Rich down with them, so it was suggested they move to the other side of the road. Ben joined to help, and I joined to supervise. I can't say that the chatting stopped, but we did fill quite a large bag of litter and stop for some ridiculous photos.

The other (much larger) group left us behind, so we got our head torches on and caught them up (still chatting the whole way). We reconvened, got a much more normal group photo, and jogged back through the park to make it a nice round 5-ish km.

Once we got back we were excited to get ready for our trip to Back Inn Time. Andy, Joe, and Paul took extra long to pamper themselves in the gym changing rooms, whilst Erin went with the no changing approach. We all enjoyed our diner experience, and managed to not be brainwashed by Richard's shiny folding phone.

We've got the pub quiz on Sunday and there's some spaces left - sign up here.

We'll also be running polls soon for volunteering at parkrun in November, and the December social. Keep an eye on whatsapp for those.

Next week Rich is leading a litter pick - sign up here.

See you soon,

Laurie

On a warm evening we met raring to go. Great to see Angela back for her second good deed! Andy is still recovering from his back injury so there were two options for length of route. As the longer group set off Ben arrived! Always keen to have new runners and he changed his shoes and off we set! Great to see our legendary Laurie back after tooth surgery too!

We arrived at the prison and had benches to paint! The plan for them is another coat next week, then multi-coloured stripes (like the fence of the play area) to help be more welcoming to the children. Ormiston Families have plans to add hop scotch and other games outside to help the children on the visits to the prison. They do fantastic work in what must be an incredibly difficult scenario. We got as much done as possible and wrapped the brushes and bags for next week. One superb bench, the others a bit more suspect.

After we jogged back, the shorter route being 100m less than the longer one, and hearing about Erin's lifestyle as a playa, we then headed to the ARU forest garden.

Fay brought Paisley along and also brought some crisps and delicious beers courtesy of Athletic Brewing! I've had over 2500 unique beers on Untappd and it is genuinely one of the best non-alcoholic beers I've ever had! We enjoyed a chat with the beers and then headed home, pockets full of extra cans.

Thanks everyone for coming, and thanks to Athletic Brewing for the treat! Goodgymers get 20% off their entire range online.