Avon Calling

The 1st day of March and the sun was shining as the Good Gym-mers headed out to the Bristol towpath which runs along the Avon river under the Suspension bridge. The feeling of spring was in the air as the sun was shining which shook off the cobwebs or residual hangovers from the team members! Our usual run leader Chris was out of town so he’d organised three substitute run leaders to cover him, Natalie, Chris & Olivia.

We ran down to the harbourside where Natalie took us some through some stretches so we were all warmed up and ready to go. Chris then navigated the team to our destination at the beginning of the tow path where we met Mark who briefed us on our task.

Alongside the Avon river is a grassy bank which runs parallel to the towpath, with the combination of bad weather and increasing water levels the amount of rubbish that had washed up alongside the grassy banks was overwhelming and looked terrible from the other side of the river. This was one of the simpler Good Gym tasks but it was incredibly challenging because of the sheer amount of litter which had covered such a vast expanse of land, so we got going, armed with bin liners and gloved up.

After discovering the Samurai sword last week in Easton our imaginations were getting carried away with the abandoned items on the banks: a suitcase, which we assumed was part of a crime and an abandoned wooden sign cut out, weirdly, in a coffin-like-shape - just to name a couple of things!

Mark was also actively involved within the task, and had co-ordinated with the Good Gym as a fellow fitness enthusiast with an active interest in land conservation. It was great to see an individual so passionate about the surrounding environment.

We were also lucky enough to be joined by a very talented nature photographer from the BBC who snapped us whilst we were out on the task. This was due to a chance sighting of Natalie’s tweets about the work of the Good Gym. Natalie’s busy working on a new music video all about awareness of marine pollution and the devastating effect it could have on our marine life so the photography will all support this cause.

After an amazing effort we managed to fill out about 10 heavy bags worth of rubbish, which we carried back to our meeting point for the council to collect. We then ran back to Roll for the Soul completing 6k as a round trip.

Cool down was led by Olivia who took us through some essential stretching to accommodate the run and the heavy lifting. We then grabbed some lunch at Roll for the Soul for some essential re-fuelling!