Oh how we pine for a litter pick!

What a perfect way to start a Saturday! Following Fulham Palace parkrun with some speedy times, 11 other GoodGymers joined me on a fresh January morning for a plog and Christmas tree collection and recycling. A big welcome along to Simeron, Katie, Emily who came for their first GoodGym H&F group run. It was also great to welcome along GoodGym Wandsworth tourists Rebecca and Karen, and of course some of my wonderful regulars. Thank you all for coming along!

Squatshots

After a quick intro we warmed up and split into our two teams for a quick two minute game of 'squatshot'. Team One (Team Down) v Team Two (Team Up). 35 red plastic shot glasses. Some interesting tactics and battles occurred with shot glasses quickly being up then down or vice versa (and the odd multiple shot turn!). It was a highly competitive and close game with Team Up victorious, despite the late gust of wind for shot sideways! Awesome shot work all!

In the same teams we moved on to some sprint and fitness exercises. The person at the front had to sprint 20m to the tree infront of them while the rest of their team completed the following exercises: Jumping jacks, squats, lunges and frog jumps. Some excellent sprinting technique was displayed by all and it wasn't long before both groups had completed their sprints and exercises.

Ooh aah just a litter pick...

With everyone a good few degrees warmer we quickly gloved up and distributed the bin bags and long litter pickers (not to be confused for lacrosse sticks!) amongst the group and set off on our plog around the perimeter of Bishop’s Park.

A litter pick of this & a litter pick of that

At first sightings of litter were few and far between, limited to the odd cigarette butt and scrap of paper that Catriona triumphantly bagged up. However, as we reached the Craven Cottage end of the park more and more litter was slowly spotted and bagged up. The litter found included plastic bags, bottles, an L plate and the glamourous finds of an empty condom packet and tampon case, lovely!

Time for some TREE-rific collecting

Following the litter pick we found the Christmas tree recycling point outside the park with one solitary tree standing proud but alone. In order to add a couple of Christmas trees to the area we set off around the surrounding streets looking for abandoned Christmas trees. It is technically fly tipping leaving them abandoned out on the street and some pose a real hazard to others. Therefore we were helping the community in lots of ways getting them collected and recycled.

The trail of the lonesome pine

It wasn't long before we came across the first two Christmas Trees that needed collecting and carrying back to the recycling point. Andrew, Karen and Helen expertly carried them back while the rest of the group continued their hunt around the surrounding streets. On each street we came across a distinctive trail of pine needles but sadly no Christmas Trees. We even asked a friendly postman if he'd come across any on his round, but again no luck.

One plus TREE = Four!

However, as we headed home we stumbled across a HUGE Christmas tree in the road that required some efficient tag team carrying action and a final smaller tree that took the total Christmas Tree finds to 4, plus the decorative wreath.

With all the trees lined up in height order we posed for some fun post-Christmas Tree collection group photos before we headed in to the park to do our cool down and stretch.

TREE-sy does it!

Next week we will be continuing the TREE-mendous task of collecting and recycling Christmas trees in Hammersmith,great fun and a great upper-body workout! Sign up here.

Thank you all for coming along and for all your efforts, what a start to the weekend! Have a great rest of your weekend and hopefully see you on Tuesday.