Happy new year!

Despite the plummeting temperatures, ice, snow, and a touch of frost ❄️ Stefanie, Sam, and Ben wrapped up to litterpick in the city centre.

With a demonstration ongoing outside the Central Library, we met on the benches to prepare refuse sacks and divvy out litterpickers. We made our way to the Bridgewater Hall and along some of the canal, picking up discarded bottles, frozen cans, McDonald's waste, and a few ear buds too.

Following that, we headed towards the footbridge to Hulme, stumbling across a site near an unused warehouse, where lots of cans, bottles, laughing gas canisters, and a couple of umbrellas 🌂 had been discarded.

In just 70 minutes, we collected 11 full refuse sacks plus a carrier, a couple of brollies, and a flowery pillow. Good workout in the cold. All reported to Keep MCR Tidy to be collected from near a public bin nearby.

With ice and frost ❄️ all around, many local parkruns were cancelled but with the tree cover, lack of puddles, and earthy/stony ground, we went ahead for event number 278 at Fletcher Moss.

Early start to check some of the course and help set up with Mike and Ayeesha, before marshalling at Cheat's Corner. A whopping 595 runners and walkers completed the 5 km course, aided by 25 willing volunteers.

Good start to 2026! 🏃‍♂️🏃🏼‍♀️🐾👟❄️🎉