FIRst Run of the Year and NEEDLESs to say it was TREEmendous

Happy New Year everyone!

With the Christmas break firmly in the rear mirror, 10 of Goodgym's finest runners, met to collect abandoned Christmas trees and ran 8km in the process.

January is always a fantastic time of year for Goodgym. We welcome hundreds of new runners, keen to get fit and do good in the streets where they live. Last night we were excited to welcome Jenny, Jessica and Vicki to the Redbridge fold. Welcome ladies! With Kristian returning from a floorball injury and the usual merry bunch of Jay, Peter, Kathryn, Darmesh and Stefania on hand it was a great start to the New Year.

With welcome intros done, it was down to the squad to collect discarded Christmas trees from the local area. These unloved remnants from merrier times can be a huge strain on the council and also a trip hazard for local residents. With the area scouted by Trainer James and the recycling department contacted, all that was left was the team to hunt down trees and run with them to the local tip.

Paired together runners were quickly off to streets in Wanstead to collect the abandoned trees and with 60 minutes, six Christmas trees had been carried the 3.5km to their final resting place - Chigwell Recycling Centre. Well done to the team, some of the trees were pretty big and required big muscles as well as strong legs!

We've got plenty of exciting tasks in the area over the coming weeks, so if you fancy getting involved you can sign up using the link on the right of this report.