When bush comes to shovel!

17 GoodGym volunteers ran to Victoria Park to tidy the play area and the skatepark. We did some litter picking and raked the sand in the play areas. Lots of people and young families use this space and we were proud to help keep it safe and clean for all to use.

All hail Clean Mary!

We met at the leisure centre and crossed our fingers that the rain wouldn't come back! Firstly, we awarded Mary a custom t-shirt to celebrate her 200 runs milestone that she recently smashed. Now she has two 'Clean Mary' t-shirts to wear when she goes out running! Well done Mary! Keep up the running!!

I then shared running news from the past weekend. Several of took part in a fantastic Running Omnium that was part of the Top of the Gorge festival in Cheddar. It was great fun and we got really cool medals! Hopefully see some of you there next year.

We also got involved in a great Community Mission at the weekend where we ran to help out at the annual Sunday Funday organised by the team at St James and St Phillips' church.

The Great Get Together

I talked about The Great Get Together which is a project that GoodGym groups across the country are partnering with this week. The project was set up to remember Jo Cox who was killed three years ago. The aim of the initiative is to celebrate the things that bring us together and what we have in common and to reject divisive politics that tear our communities apart.

We all reflected that although we are from different walks of life the one thing we all have in common is a love of running and helping our community. We wore some stickers and wristbands to show our support for coming together and being part of an inclusive community.

After our warm-up we took the scenic route to the play park. We ran through Bath city centre, around The Circus and past the Royal Crescent. What beautiful city we get to run in!

The Rake Get Together

We made it to the park and surveyed the task ahead. After passing out the pickers some of the runners got on their way picking litter from all around the park. There hasn't been too much rubbish dropped lately because of the poor weather ... but there was still too much for us to bear and so we took action!

In for a penny in for a pound

Some of the more interesting things we found were a £1 coin, half of a lego person and a bike chain. We also found a plastic 'skate' on wheels in the bushes. Unsure exactly how this got there (or even what it is for!?) but we dug it out and safely removed it anyway!

Come and give us a sand with this work!

Lots of sand escapes from the play areas out onto the path which can make it slippery and dangerous to walk across. We shovelled a load of it from the path back into the sand pit and then raked it in.

At the end of the task we admired our hard work from the vantage point of one of the climbing frames. We climbed up and had a picture looking out across the sands.

Upcoming runs

• This Sunday there is a fun and FREE 10km race for all in GG South-West to celebrate GG Swindon's 1st birthday. More info here.
• Next week we are running to help out at Cleveland Pools
• Next Thursday we are taking part in our monthly pub quiz. Even if you just started to coming to GoodGym it is a great way to get to know other runners and have some fun!