A group of GoodGymmers enjoyed a walk along the canal and through Port Meadow before returning to the city centre via the tow path and Jericho. A warm welcome to Anli who joined us for the first time!

Our first takeover at Uni Parks parkrun in the center of Oxford Event 8!

shout out to Harvey joining us as a GG and a parkrun tourist from Ealing.

more photos to come and on the PR website.. here is their report thanks to all who came. Trev

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🌳 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝘃 👏👏👏

What a morning! A frosty start turned into brilliant sunshine just in time for event 8 today 🌞 We were lucky enough to be joined by lots of GoodGym volunteers this week 🏋️‍♂️ 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 for your support Goodgym Oxford!

A particularly big thank you and 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 to today's Run Director Trev, who organised the GoodGym takeover 👏 Trev is a Run Director at our friends Florence Park junior parkrun 🌿 If you haven't discovered junior parkrun yet, get yourself (and your little people if you have any) along at 9am on a Sunday – it's amazing 💫 Today was Trev's first time run directing at a 5k event 🌳 He came along with his usual energy and enthusiasm and did an absolutely fantastic job 🤩 We love you Trev!

Run report courtesy of visiting parkrunner Simon and another batch of no doubt beautiful photos from Rose are in the pipeline 🤠 To quench your thirst until then, here are some stats and facts from today's parkrun: 👋 Amongst the 𝟯𝟬𝟲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 who joined us, 𝟭𝟭𝟬 were new to University Parks parkrun and 𝟭𝟱 completed their 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 ever parkrun. Welcome to the parkrun family 🧡

🔔 A big well done to the following on reaching new 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀: 2️⃣5️⃣ Rachel 👏

🏆 A new 𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 was set this morning! Kate Williamson (VW 75-79) hit a new University Parks PB of 25:55 today and in doing so beat her own previous age grade record and raised the bar to 95.24% 👏 Very many congratulations Kate - you're truly inspiring!

🦺 𝟯𝟮 wonderful 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 helped make event 8 happen 🌳 Amongst them... 👋 Milton Keynes parkrunner Martyn was visiting Oxford today and opted for some parkrun voluntourism 🧡 Thanks so much for your help Martyn, and congratulations in advance for your 250th parkrun in a few weeks' time! 👩‍👩‍👧 Joy, Rose and Katie were back for another family volunteering stint, marshalling and taking photos 📷 (Album to follow!) Katie had produced yet another bespoke motivational sign to cheer you all round on the course 🎨 Thanks team - it's a real treat to have you 😊

⏱ University Parks regular Helen tried her hand at timekeeping for the first time this morning and absolutely nailed it with a faultless set of results despite some challenging finish funnel action 👏 You're a superstar Helen! If you would like to try your hand at volunteering in future weeks, either as a one-off or on a regular basis, simply drop us an email at universityparks@parkrun.com 💻

🔍 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻𝘀: Anyone got eyes on 𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝟭𝟯𝟭? We'd love to be reunited with it! Do get in touch if you know where it might have ended up 🙌 #loveparkrun

Last night we started 2022 as we mean to go on, helping the food bank and litter picking some of the city grot spots!

Heading West for the first time in a few months we planned to tackle the Osney Mead/Botley Road litter. Although we don't get out that way regularly we're still familiar with some of the favourite dumping grounds: around any park bench (even if there's a bin right next to it), car parks, and bushy hedge are surefire litter gold mines. Our 3 teams set off in different directions - forming a pincer movement from each end of the Osney Mead Industrial Estate, with the 3rd group cleaning up the known dumping ground in the small park next to the bridge. Sure enough, we were soon laden with gin bottles (some fancy artisan gin drinkers in Oxford green spaces), clothing, cans, takeaway containers, newspapers (old skool!), the ever-present masks, even a pair of steel toe-cap boots and a trolley!

An hour of litter picking in freezing temperatures yielded over 20 sacks of trash. We came away thinking that it's high time the UK stole Rwanda's system of Umuganda: "Umuganda is a national holiday in Rwanda taking place on the last Saturday of every month for a morning of mandatory nationwide community work. Participation in umuganda is required by law, and has resulted in notable improvement in the cleanliness of Rwanda."

Welcome to GoodGym Chris!

Does it get any more festive than breaking out the wrapping paper and spending and evening surrounded by Christmas presents?!

Last night we had 2 tasks to complete - constructing and wrapping the boxes needed by Shoebox Project for their Christmas gift packs, and making a start on Operation Christmas Gift for Oxford Mutual Aid. Fortunately we were able to take over the Richard Benson Hall where the food bank is based and do both tasks there - saving us from a logistical nightmare!

On arrival we got stuck into (literally in some cases) the flat-pack boxes for the Shoebox Project. They were easy enough to construct, but quite tricky to find the best way to cover them in wrapping paper! Still, a bit of puzzling and perseverance paid off and everyone seemed to find a good method in the end, getting all 20 boxes covered in Christmas paper, and a few even decorated with festive bows and ribbons too.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the hall we tackled the mountain of Christmas gift donations. First we hauled the crates out and worked out what was actually in them, categorising by recipient age. Then we started picking out the gifts for households on the Monday food parcel delivery routes; wrapping them, labelling them up and putting them into crates ready to be added to food parcels in the week leading up to Christmas. We were the trial run for the system, so there was a bit to figure out, but once we'd got the hang of where everything was we got into the swing of it very efficiently.

As people finished their Shoe boxes we redeployed them over to gift corner to unpack and categorise the pile of incoming gift donations which hadn't yet been opened or sorted.

We definitely left the task feeling festive, but I must remember to bring Christmas TUNES for next week!